Science Fiction Midterm Study Guide

RaceFail09

Racefail09 is the name given to an argument that lasted several months that was started in January of 2009 on the website LiveJournal. The original cause of the argument is not universally agreed upon, but one suggestion stands out, an essay written by Elizabeth Bear on how to write the Other, which included aliens and most prominently, people of color. The argument blew up, reaching several websites and forums, and included thousands of people and a rather large number of essays.

Speculative Fiction

Speculative Fiction is a broad term that covers the "what if" questions asked by other the genres of fiction. It is an imaginative area that proposes scenarios that are beyond the normal laws of reality and expands ideas well past aspects of what we denote real. In other words, the overall foundation of speculative fiction envelops the disorderly aspects that you would not usually experience in reality.

Fandom

Fandom is a collection of all the fans of something, can be anything from a person, sports team, fictional series, game, and so on. Can also be defined as a collection of fans that create a community or subculture. Some synonyms included: fan domain, fan community, fan group, fan base, and fanship.

Fantasy

Fantasy, in terms of Science Fiction, is a genre much more rooted in the supernatural. While Science Fiction takes a normal idea and makes it more far-fetched and otherworldly through cognitive estrangement, Fantasy focuses less on real world possibilities and more on nonsensical possibilities. Despite this the two genres are heavily intertwined and as the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction states, "all sf is fantasy, but not all fantasy is sf."

Gothic Horror

Gothic literature, or Gothic Horror, can be described as a genre combining horror, death, romance, and the supernatural. The main character is typically alone in the story, physical or mentally. The setting is normally decaying, like an abandoned castle or a rundown mansion. Emotions run high in these texts and that leads to ominous feelings or romantic feelings. The supernatural, or an unexplained manifestation, occurs in the story as a means to push the plot forward or act as the central character.

Hard Science Fiction

Hard science fiction is a classification given to science fiction which aims to be scientifically accurate. It is useful to consider "hard" as a gradable rather than a binary label, as SF stories express a broad spectrum of attention to scientific realism.

New Wave SF

New Wave is a movement within the science fiction genre that took place in the early 1960s. This movement consisted of a radical shift from simple, adventure-based pulp stories, which were often considered juvenile by New Wave authors, to experimental science fiction (Moorcock 123-27). The "experimentation" of new wave science fiction spanned the literary sense, placing significance on literary prowess over hard scientific fact, as well as the content itself, featuring more taboo topics such as sex, drugs, and media, corresponding with the counterculture movement of the 60s.

Cyborg

A cyborg, also known as a cybernetic organism, is a hybrid that blends man with machine. Cyborgs can fall under two categories: functional and adaptive. Functional cyborgs are people who are modified to perform a specific job. Adaptive cyborgs are those who are genetically and technologically redesigned to be able to survive in alien environments.

Feminist Science Fiction

A group of literature that estranges gender and sexism in order to bring light to current social issues. Feminist Science fiction began to appear during the first women's rights movement in the late 1800's, and many early examples focused on creating an idealized world free of gender-related discrimination and social issues.

Posthumanism

As it relates to Science Fiction, posthumanism is the idea or notion that humanity can be changed, transformed, or eliminated altogether by means of technological advancement or evolution. An entity that literally exists in a state beyond human is considered posthuman.

The Ship Who Sang

Author: Anne McCaffrey Main Character: Helva The parents of babies with severe physical disabilities — but fully developed and exceptionally talented brains — may allow them to become "shell people" rather than be euthanized. Taking that option, physical growth is stunted, the body is encapsulated in a titanium life-support shell with capacity for computer connections, and the person is raised for "one of a number of curious professions. As such, their offspring would suffer no pain, live a comfortable existence in a metal shell for several centuries, and perform unusual service for Central Worlds."

Bicentennial Man

Author: Isaac Asimov Main Character: Andrew Martin Andrew was one of Earth's first house robot domestic servants—smoothly designed and functional. But when Andrew started to develop special talents which exceeded the confines of his allotted positronic pathways, he abandoned his domestic duties in favour of more intellectual pursuits. As time passed, Andrew acquired knowledge, feelings and ambitions way beyond anything ever experienced by any other mechanical men. And he found himself launched on to a career which would bring him fame fortune—and danger.

Bitch Planet

Author: Kelly Sue DeConnik (art by Valentine de Landro). Main Character: The series focuses on women who have been imprisoned for being "non-compliant" in an off-planet prison called the Auxiliary Compliance Outpost. The narrative arc moves through time, presenting how the women were arrested in the first place as well as their various experiences within the prison.

Harrison Bergeron

Author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Main Character: Harrison Bergeron George recognizes his son for a moment, before having the thought eliminated by his radio. Harrison himself then storms the television studio in an attempt to overthrow the government. He calls himself the Emperor and rips off all of his handicaps, along with the handicaps of a ballerina, whom he proclaims his "Empress". He orders the musicians to play, promising them nobility if they do their best. Unhappy with their initial attempt, Harrison takes control for a short while, and the music improves. After listening and being moved by the music, Harrison and his Empress dance while flying to the ceiling, then pause in mid-air to kiss. Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, enters the studio and kills Harrison and the Empress with a ten-gauge double-barreled shotgun. She forces the musicians to put on their handicaps, and the television goes dark. George, unaware of the televised incident, returns from the kitchen and asks Hazel why she was crying, to which she replies that something sad happened on television that she cannot remember. He comforts her and they return to their average lives.

Bloodchild

Author: Octavia Butler Main Character: Gan (young boy, his turn to carry the eggs of T'Gatoi. After witnessing the horrendous "Cesarean" Lomas has to go through, Gan has second thoughts about being a host and even threatens to kill himself rather than be impregnated. Gan then questions T'Gatoi as to what kind of relationship humans and aliens truly have with each other. T'Gatoi, who must begin laying her eggs that night, asks Gan if she should impregnate Gan's willing sister instead. Out of love for his sister and for T'Gatoi, Gan chooses to become impregnated but requires that T'Gatoi allow his family to keep their illegal gun. As T'Gatoi impregnates Gan, she lovingly promises him that she will take care of him and will never leave him behind like Lomas had been left by his Tlic.

Amnesty

Author: Octavia Butler Main Character: Noah Noah, the main character, meets with prospective human employees for the Communities, an alien species that has taken over Earth's desert areas. Noah, who was abducted by the Communities when she was a child, attempts to convince the humans to overcome their fear of the aliens so they can prosper alongside them. During her pitch, Noah compares her experiences with both the Communities and the humans. Despite being treated as a lab experiment by the aliens, Noah stated that she never once faced as much cruelty as she did once her own government captured her after being released by the Communities. As a result of her experiences with both aliens and humans, Noah has become one of thirty "translators" to participate in the enfolding process which allows communication with the Communities and also enforces a bond between humans and aliens.

The Menace from Earth

Author: Robert Heinlein Main Character: Holly Jones The story is set in the near future, when the Moon is colonized with people living in underground cities. The "menace" of the title is a glamorous woman tourist who visits the Moon colony. She is assigned a young guide named Holly, a 15-year-old girl and aspiring starship designer who is the first-person narrator. Holly's best friend Jeff develops a crush on the "groundhog" visitor, Ariel. As Jeff spends more time with Ariel, Holly becomes jealous and begins to doubt his friendship.

The One's Who Walk Away from Omelas

Author: Ursula Leguin Main Character: Everything about Omelas is so abundantly pleasing that the narrator decides the reader is not yet truly convinced of its existence and so elaborates upon one final element of the city: its one atrocity. The city's constant state of serenity and splendor requires that a single unfortunate child be kept in perpetual filth, darkness, and misery. Once citizens are old enough to know the truth, most, though initially shocked and disgusted, ultimately acquiesce to this one injustice that secures the happiness of the rest of the city. However, a few citizens, young and old, silently walk away from the city, and no one knows where they go. The writing ends with "The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas."

Golden Age of SF

The Golden Age of science fiction was the period of time when the works of the classic science fiction writers came to prominence. Convention states that the Golden Age lasted from 1938-1946, although this has been widely disputed (some say that the Golden Age lasted through the 1950s). It was a period when most of the motifs and themes utilized in today's works of science fiction (e.g. artificial intelligence) were established. This was also a time period when pulp magazines were popular, which contained most of the science fiction that was written during that time period.

Afrofuturism

The intersection of two ideas: the celebration of African culture, and influences from science-fiction, afrocentrism, and fantasy. It is unique from other forms of science-fiction in that it is told from the lens of African American culture and the African diaspora. It frequently includes references to ancient African culture and serves to celebrate the success, history, and individuality of people of color. It allows fans of speculative fiction to enjoy characters who are more alike to themselves and be proud of their heritage. It also acts as a cultural pressure to improve the standing of people of color in SF culture.

Pulp Magazine

The pulp magazine or "pulp" was a form of magazine that began to be published in the late 19th century and gained steam in the early 1900s. The name is a reference to the cheaper, pulpier, paper the magazines were printed on. With reference to SF, it was a medium that allowed authors, both big name (Asimov, Dick, Clarke, etc...) and smaller, to publish short stories or excerpts from longer works. These pulps were published by publishing companies and tended to get wider circulation than SF Fanzines would.

Golden Age of Comics

The timeline for American comic books is divided into four distinct ages: the Golden Age, from around 1938 to 1950; the Silver Age, from around 1956 to 1970; the Bronze Age, from around 1970 to 1985; and the Modern Age, from around 1985 to the present time (these are the accepted relative dates for each age). Although disputed, the Golden Age of Comics was kicked off by the creation of Superman in 1938, at which point the modern comic book as we know it took form as a piece of literature and became increasingly popular in the United States.