Science Fiction: A Guide for the Perplexed

Guides for the Perplexed

by Sherryl Vint

From its beginnings in the works of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne to the virtual worlds of William Gibson's Neuromancer and The Matrix , Science A Guide to the Perplexed helps students navigate the often perplexing worlds of a perennially popular genre. Drawing on literature as well as example from film and television, the book explores the different answers that criticism has offered to the vexed question, 'what is science fiction?'

Each chapter of the book includes case studies of key texts, annotated guides to further reading and suggestions for class discussion to help students master the full range of contemporary critical approaches to the field, including the scientific, technological and political contexts in which the genre has flourished. Ranging from an understanding of the genre through the stereotypes of 1930s pulps through more recent claims that we are living in a science fictional moment, this volume will provide a comprehensive overview of this diverse and fascinating genre.

Genres: Nonfiction, Criticism, Literary Criticism

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Sherryl Vint is Professor of Media and Cultural Studies and of English at the University of California, Riverside. She is the author of Bodies of Tomorrow, Animal Alterity, and Science Fiction: A Guide for the Perplexed, coauthor of the Routledge Concise History of Science Fiction, and coeditor of The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction.

Reviews

[Paul Bryant]

BEST SF STORIES (PART ONE) : MY CHOICE

Just a little list for all the SF fans out there. This is the first 100 and just goes up to 1968, I’ll do the next 100 later. If you have your own list or if you see some blatant omissions please let me know.
A very useful place to check where these stories can be found is here:

http://www.philsp.com/homeville/ISFAC...


**********

1845
The Facts in the Case of M Valdemar : Edgar Allen Poe

1939
The Gnarly Man : L Sprague de Camp
Note : compare "Whatever Happened to Corporal Cuckoo?" by Gerald Kersh – exactly the same idea

1941
Prescience : Nelson
Nightfall : Isaac Asimov
The Portable Phonograph : Walter van Tillburg Clark

1943
Mimsy were the Borogoves : Henry Kuttner & C L Moore

1948
Brooklyn Project : William Tenn

1949
Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius : Jorge Luis Borges
The Lottery in Babylon : Jorge Luis Borges
The Library of Babel : Jorge Luis Borges
Funes the Memorious : Jorge Luis Borges

Note : did Borges write science fiction? Not all the time, but I would say these four stories are SF

The Sound Machine : Roald Dahl
The Forgotten Enemy : Arthur C Clarke

1950
Build Up Logically : Howard Schoenfeld
Skirmish : Clifford D Simak
The Mindworm : C M Kornbluth
Coming Attraction : Fritz Leiber

1951
The Earth Men : Ray Bradbury
The Third Expedition (also known as Mars is Heaven) : Ray Bradbury
There will Come Soft Rains : Ray Bradbury
The Monkey Wrench : Gordon R Dickson
Protected Species : HB Fyfe
The Fun they Had : Isaac Asimov

1952
Zero Hour : Ray Bradbury
The Long Rain : Ray Bradbury
What's it Like Out There? : Edmund Hamilton
Command Performance : Walter M Miller
Dumb Waiter : Walter M Miller
The Snowball Effect : Katherine Maclean
Note : this story allegedly invented pyramid selling

1953
Lot : Ward Moore
The Liberation of Earth : William Tenn
Sky Lift : Robert Heinlein
It's a GOOD Life : Jerome Bixby

1954
I Made You : Walter M Miller
Whatever Happened to Corporal Cuckoo? : Gerald Kersh
Note : cf The Gnarly Man above
Foster, You're Dead : Philip K Dick
Pyramid : Robert Abernathy

1955
The [Widget], the [Wadget] and Boff : Theodore Sturgeon
The Game of Rat and Dragon : Cordwainer Smith
Pottage : Zenna Henderson
The Star : Arthur C Clarke*
Grandpa : Howard Schmidt

1956
The Traveller : Ray Bradbury
The Man Upstairs : Ray Bradbury
Born of Man and Woman : Richard Matheson
Jokester : Isaac Asimov
The Country of the Kind : Damon Knight

1957
Our Feathered Friends : Philip Macdonald
Our Kind of Knowledge : Brian Aldiss
The Failed Men : Brian W Aldiss
The Other Celia : Theodore Sturgeon

1958
To Marry Medusa : Theodore Sturgeon
But who can replace a man? : Brian W Aldiss
When you're Smiling : Theodore Sturgeon
The Nine Billion Names of God : Arthur C Clarke
The Cold Equations : Tom Godwin
Space-Time for Springers : Fritz Leiber
The Advent on Channel 12 : C M Kornbluth
Or all the Seas with Oysters : Avram Davidson
Unhuman Sacrifice : Katherine Maclean

1959
A Planet named Shayol : Cordwainer Smith
Flowers for Algernon : Daniel Keyes*

note : probably the most beloved story in all of SF

The Big Front Yard : Clifford Simak*
For Love : Algis Budrys
The Store of the Worlds : Robert Sheckley
"All you Zombies…" : Robert Heinlein

1960
The Handler : Damon Knight
Old Hundredth : Brian W Aldiss
The Martyr : Poul Anderson
The First Men : Howard Fast
Common Time : James Blish
The Certificate : Avram Davidson
Build-Up : J G Ballard
The Voices of Time : J G Ballard
The Sound Sweep : J G Ballard

1961
Harrison Bergeron : Kurt Vonnegut
The First Days of May : Claude Veillot
The Short Life : Francis Donovan
Hobbyist : Eric Frank Russell
Mr F is Mr F : J G Ballard

1962
Christmas Treason : James White
Seven Day Terror : R A Lafferty
An Alien Agony (aka The Streets of Ashkelon) : Harry Harrison
The Garden of Time : J G Ballard

1963
Drunkboat : Cordwainer Smith
The Small World of Lewis Stillman : William F Nolan
1964
Descending : Thomas Disch
The Dead Lady of Clown Town : Cordwainer Smith
The Illuminated Man : J G Ballard
Billenium : J G Ballard

1965
Man Skin : M S Waddell
Slow Tuesday Night : R A Lafferty

Note : Notable 1965 omission : “Repent, Harlequin” Said the Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison – I think most of HE’s stuff has aged very badly and this one especially. Other notable omissions for the same reason : I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream and The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World (Oh those titles)

1966
A Two Timer : David Masson
The Squirrel Cage : Thomas M Disch
Day Million : Frederick Pohl

1967
The Great Clock : Langdon Jones
Light of Other Days : Bob Shaw
The Jigsaw Man : Larry Niven

1968
Legends of Smith's Burst : Brian W Aldiss
Kyrie : Poul Anderson


*Hugo winner

[Maggie Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

My free reading time has been eaten by podcasts and trying to get through a truly terrifyingly large stack of books of an academic project (yea for signing up to learn two entirely new areas of theory that I have never touched on before!). I don't usually review my academic books, but this was such a great overview of science fiction literary theory and history that I felt it needed more boosting on Goodreads.

Vint has popped up a few times in my research lately, and she's an expert on this particular field of interest. In this Guide, she walks readers through some of the basic theoretical foundations of science fiction, discussing the debates over its definition, the clashes over what topics it should include, and reviewing the work of several major academics on the subject. It's fairly accessible for an academic book, and manages to balance the brevity needed for an introductory text with information that is significantly in depth enough that readers can actually get something out of it. Despite being a long time reader of science fiction, I learned a lot from this short volume that will help shape my understanding of sf in the future. So if you're a fan of the genre, I highly recommend this informative jaunt through the field!

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short book is a survey course oriented to college (and perhaps senior high school) students to introduce them to the major topics of science fiction. It does not document lengthy lists of books, but rather discusses the broad themes that SF is taking up. As the author puts it, she is not so much interested in what SF has been, as in what it can do: the focus it puts on contemporary issues and speculation as to how we can work to improve things.

The book's chapters feature seven main topics that SF has persistently dealt with: utopianism, futurology, colonialism, robots & AI, genomics, environmental change, and economics. That last topic may be a surprise, but a number of SF books have looked at how economies operate and how monetary systems are managed.

This topic-based focus provides a good overview of the changing nature of SF through the decades, and includes examples of fiction that are quite contemporary. (The most recent reference dates from 2019.)

The book's academic focus is made plain by the author's use of unusual words that she often does not define, but which need explanation to a student reader. For instance, do you know what 'constitutive' means? It's not defined but must be understood within the context of the text. Also, the list of further reading is weighted heavily towards academic analysis of science fiction and technological and sociological topics. For the names of SF fiction titles, a reader must peruse the text for examples related to the author's discussion of a theme. An improvement would have been a short list at the end of each chapter that cites fiction titles to illustrate the chapter's theme.

[Sabrina]

"Sf: the genre's name implies some special relationship science, but when one looks closely at most of what passes as sf, much of it has only a tentative relationship to scientific fact. Instead, sf is a cultural mode that struggles with the implications of discoveries in science and technology for human social lives and philosophical conceptions.

The genre is interested in real science, to be sure, but it is equally concerned with mythologies of science, as Alkon notes, with the dialectic between "our perceptions of science" and the way its innovations have been changing material and social worlds since the Enlightenment and the industrial revolution.'"

[Jorun Bork · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting literary guide to the science fiction genre.

[Zachary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rated so high because there were a lot of great recommendations in the text for prominent sci fi works. I also liked the analysis and may come back in the future for insight into my own writing.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent text for students new to the sf genre(s). Vint covers major topics, authors, and terminology with an accessible, but not simplistic, style. Students already familiar with sf topics and themes can still benefit from her text's organization, though some may wish to seek additional sources to elaborate further.

[Christopher Hellstrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great academic overview of SF, the "literature of ideas." More accessible than Vint's Bodies of Tomorrow (which is also worth checking out)