Science fabrication is the lit of our metre , the fuel of our imaginations and the source of our preferent imaginary worlds . But what do we mean when we tattle about “ skill fable ? ” Here are some of the many definition .
“ skill fiction is what we point to when we say it . ” — Damon Knight .
“ Science fiction is the branch of lit that deals with the effects of change on people in the real world as it can be projected into the past , the future , or to distant places . It often concerns itself with scientific or technical alteration , and it ordinarily call for matters whose importance is greater than the individual or the community ; often civilisation or the race itself is in danger . ” — James E. Gunn , “ Towards A Definition Of Science Fiction ” in Speculations On Speculation . ( The whole essay , grappling with the inadequacy of that definition , is worth reading , and most of it ishere . )
“ scientific discipline fable is the search for a definition of humans and his position in the universe of discourse which will digest in our advanced but confused country of knowledge ( science ) , and is characteristically cast in the Gothic or post mediaeval mode . ” — Brian W. Aldiss ( with David Wingrove ) , The Trillion Year Spree .
“ My brief ever definition of scientific discipline fiction is ‘ Hubris drub by Nemesis . ' ” — Brian W. Aldiss , Science Fiction Art , quote in Science Fiction Quotations : From The Inner nous To The Outer Limits , delete by Gary Westfahl .
“ Science Fiction is an controversy with the population . ” – Farah Mendelsohn , in Foundation : The International Review of Science Fiction , matter 88 , quote in Science Fiction Quotations : From The Inner judgement To The Outer Limits , edited by Gary Westfahl .
“ Science fiction in worldwide — through its long story in unlike context — can be define as ‘ a literary musical genre whose necessary and sufficient conditions are the presence and interaction of estrangement and cognition , and whose principal courtly equipment is an imagnative theoretical account choice to the author ’s empirical environment . ' ” — Darko Suvin .
“ Science fable is not a unitary musical genre or form , hence can not be encompassed in a single defintion . It is an accumulation of genres and subgenres that are not intrinsically tight relate , but are generally accept as an area of issue by a market place . Science fabrication is thus only a commercial terminal figure . ” — Everett K. Bleiler , Science - Fiction : The Early Years .
“ skill - fiction … can be defined as : inventive extrapolation of true natural phenomena , exist now , or potential to exist in the hereafter . ” — Hugo Gernsback .
“ Many people have tried to set skill fabrication . I like to call it the lit of exploration and alteration . While other genres haunt upon so - called eternal the true , SF deals with the possibleness that our children may have different problem . They may , indeed , be unlike than we have been . ” — David Brin , Through Stranger Eyes : Reviews , Introductions , Tributes & Iconoclastic Essays .
“ I define science fiction as the artistry of the potential . Fantasy is the prowess of the impossible . Science fiction , again , is the history of thought , and they ’re always theme that work themselves out and become real and happen in the world . And fantasy comes along and order , ‘ We ’re move to offend all the laws of physic . ’ … Most people do n’t see it , but the series of films which have made more money than any other serial of film in the history of the universe is the James Bond series . They ’re all scientific discipline fiction , too — romantic , adventurous , frivolous , fantastic science fiction ! ” — Ray Bradbury , cite inConversations With Ray Bradburyby Ray Bradbury and Steven L. Aggelis .
“ [ Science fable is ] a specialised type of illusion , in which the prize assumption normally is a fresh scientific discovery or conception . ” Jack Williamson , “ The Logic Of Fantasy ”
“ The brightest minds in our field have been try out to observe a definition of science fiction for these retiring seventy years . The little answer is , science fiction story are give as possible , not necessarily here and now , but somewhere , sometime . ” — Larry Niven , Scatterbrain .
“ [ A ] science fable tale is one which suppose a engineering , or an effect of engineering , or a flutter in the innate order , such as human race , up to the time of piece of writing , has not in actual fact , experient . ” — Edmund Crispin , debut to Best Science Fiction Stories , 1955 .
“ When hoi polloi ask me to define science fiction and phantasy I say they are the literatures that research the fact that we are toolmaker and users , and are always changing our environment . ” — Nalo Hopkinson , quoted in What ’s a Black Critic To Do ? : Interviews , Profiles and Reviews of Black Writers by Donna Bailey Nurse .
“ Science fiction is a prose narration which describes or depicts some aspect or development which does not exist at the metre of writing ; one meaning subgroup of skill fiction additionally include language which either describes scientific fact or explains or reflects the cognitive process of scientific thought . ” — Gary Westfahl , The Mechanics of Wonder : The Creation of the Idea of Science Fiction .
“ There is only one definition of science fable that seems to make sensation : ‘ skill fabrication is anything published as science fiction . ' ” — Norman Spinrad
“ [ Science fable is ] a modality of romance with a firm inherent tendency to myth . ” — Northrop Frye .
“ [ Social ] science fable is that branch of lit which is bear on with the shock of scientific advance on human beings . ” — Isaac Asimov , Science Fiction Writers of America Bulletin , 1951
“ I define science fiction as fable in which things happen that are not potential today — that depend , for instance , on modern outer space travel , fourth dimension travel , the discovery of dark-green monsters on other planet or galaxy , or that contain various technologies we have not yet develop . ” — Margaret Atwood , Writing With design : Essays , Reviews , Personal Prose : 1983 - 2005 .
“ A science fiction narrative is a story ramp up around human being , with a human problem and a human solution , which would not have happened at all without its scientific substance . ” — Theodore Sturgeon , quoted in A Saucer Of Loneliness : The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon .
“ Asked to set science fabrication , she said , ‘ It does n’t really mean anything at all , except that if you use skill , you should use it correctly , and if you utilize your imaging to offer it beyond what we already eff , you should do that intelligently . ’ Butler think that SF writers could not be put in one box . ‘ Some attend for technical resolution and others belittle technical solution , ’ she articulate . ‘ Some write about the job that I write about , and others write about other problem . Some call back the world will go to hell and others remember it will turn into chicken feed emollient . You have the same wide sort in science fiction that you have any billet . ” — Octavia Butler , quoted in Popular Contemporary Writers , edit by Michael D. Sharp .
“ scientific discipline fiction films are not about science . They are about calamity , which is one of the onetime subjects of artistic creation . ” — Susan Sontag .
“ SF is a controlled way to remember and dream about the future . An consolidation of the mood and attitude of skill ( the objective universe ) with the fears and hop that give from the unconscious . Anything that change state you and your societal linguistic context , the societal you , inside out . Nightmares and visions , always outlined by the just potential . ” — Gregory Benford , quoted atAbout.com .
“ [ scientific discipline fabrication is ] that class of prose narrative treating of a billet that could not arise in the cosmos we know , but which is hypothesised on the basis of some innovation in science or engineering science , or pseudo - science or pseudo - technology , whether human or extra - tellurian in blood line . ” — Kingsley Amis .
“ [ Science fiction is ] the endeavor to deal rationally with alternate possibleness in a personal manner which will be entertaining . ” — Lester Del Rey , The World Of Science Fiction 1929 - 1976 : The History Of A Subculture .
“ Science fable , as I mentioned before , writes about what is neither impossible nor potential ; the fact is that , when the question of possibleness comes up in science fiction , the author can only reply that nobody knows . We have n’t been there yet . We have n’t discovered that yet . Science fiction has n’t happened . ” — Joanna Russ , To publish Like a Woman : Essays in Feminism and Science Fiction .
“ Frederik Pohl ’s crop definition of skill fabrication when he was editor program of Galaxy , he has said , was a story he could release in the magazine without having too many readers cancel their subscriptions . ” — James E. Gunn , The Road To Science Fiction : From Wells to Heinlein .
“ As its good , SF is the metier in which our measly foregone conclusion that tomorrow will be dissimilar from today in ways we ca nt foreshadow , can be transubstantiate to a gumption of upheaval and anticipation , once in a while germinate into awe . poise between intransigent agnosticism and uncritical credulity , it is par excellency the lit of the open brain . ” — John Brunner , cite atAbout.com .
“ Science fabrication is essentially a variety of fable in which masses learn more about how to live in the literal humanity , call in fanciful worlds unlike our own , for investigate by way of life of enjoyable cerebration - experiment how things might be done differently . ” — Brian Stableford , Guest of Honor lecture at ConFuse 1991 , quoted atAbout.com .
“ I would define science fiction as a form of lit which cross the frontier of knoweldge using imagery , intuition or logical system to manoeuvre it . At times right scientific or technological item is demanded by an take readership ; where the story goes beyond known facts , the deductions must be feasible or at least not in obvious conflict with accepted theory . ” — Ian S. Menzies , “ Trends In Science Fiction , ” New Scientist , 29 March 2025 .
“ Attempting to define science fiction is an undertaking almost as unmanageable , though not so popular , as endeavor to limit smut … In both pornography and SF , the trouble lies in know exactly where to draw the ancestry . ” — Arthur C. Clarke , Greetings , Carbon - base Bipeds ! : Collected Essays , 1934 - 1998 .
Top image : Untitled Future Mutation byLuke Jerram , photo by Luke Jerram , from Jerram’sGlass Microbiologysculpture projection .
BooksJames GunnLarry NivenOctavia Butler
Daily Newsletter
Get the best technical school , science , and culture news in your inbox daily .
News from the future , delivered to your present tense .
You May Also Like
