tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071936218849577375.post41438356232603197..comments2024-03-19T23:20:47.782-07:00Comments on Unintentional Irony: Why Science Fiction is ImportantJames Killushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08265296146264452333noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071936218849577375.post-69422086297634625382007-04-13T10:30:00.000-07:002007-04-13T10:30:00.000-07:00One of the things that science fiction did was to ...One of the things that science fiction did was to extend the old pulp tradition of the late 19th century after the "dark and savage" regions had been explored. In the 19th century generally, exotic locales and unknown civilizations could be located in Darkest Africa, or the Thuggee Cult could be conjured up for India. Of course this didn't really get going until the process for producing paper from wood pulp enabled large print runs on cheap paper. The tabloid press and "Yellow journalism" also came from that enabling technology.<BR/><BR/>Speaking of which, RSS feed, right. That's one of the reasons for doing this, to learn all the fiddly bits. I will do that.James Killushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08265296146264452333noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071936218849577375.post-84691579475507529982007-04-13T08:47:00.000-07:002007-04-13T08:47:00.000-07:00It's always a little odd to me to remember how lit...It's always a little odd to me to remember how little F/SF there was before the late nineteenth century. It's like, didn't it occur to anyone before that you could just MAKE UP whole new worlds? Sure, there's Gulliver's Travels, but apart from that you have to wait for Wells and Verne and Lovecraft and the like. My theory has always been that people who wanted to imagine other worlds usually had plenty to play around with trying to imagine Heaven and Hell. <I>Paradise Lost</I> as F/SF, in other words. Also, they had more trouble than we do finding out about worlds that were "other" historically and geographically. Now, we can easily find out a good bit about 14th-century China if we want to, which of course makes most of us not want to. How ho-hum.<BR/><BR/>James, can you please put an RSS feed on your blog so I can subscribe to it?Amanda Frenchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14778713368075849443noreply@blogger.com