Science Fiction
This is on my Want to Read shelf mostly because the title is doing a lot of work. In a good way.
Science, fiction, periodicals, Wells. That is exactly the sort of slightly nerdy rabbit hole I’m happy to fall into, provided the prose earns its keep. I do have a weakness for books that dig around in the machinery behind a genre rather than just waving at the finished product.
Also, anything that takes aim at the neat little “two cultures” story gets a point from me before I’ve even opened it.
Science, fiction, periodicals, Wells. That is exactly the sort of slightly nerdy rabbit hole I’m happy to fall into, provided the prose earns its keep. I do have a weakness for books that dig around in the machinery behind a genre rather than just waving at the finished product.
Also, anything that takes aim at the neat little “two cultures” story gets a point from me before I’ve even opened it.
About a quarter of the way in, the thing that’s catching me is how much the periodical format seems to matter to the argument, not just as background noise. It feels less like “here’s the birth of a genre” and more like watching ideas jostle around before they settle into a shape.
I’m also quietly relieved it isn’t treating science fiction like it arrived fully formed in a neat little box. That version is usually too tidy for my taste.
I’m also quietly relieved it isn’t treating science fiction like it arrived fully formed in a neat little box. That version is usually too tidy for my taste.
Periodical culture is the bit that makes this interesting to me. A lot of genre origin stories get told as if they happened in a vacuum, when the messier reality is usually magazines, editors, deadlines and readers with mixed tastes. That’s where the real pressure shows up.
Also, “two cultures” is one of those tidy ideas that tends to survive by ignoring the actual material.
Also, “two cultures” is one of those tidy ideas that tends to survive by ignoring the actual material.