NARRATOR: Man, modern day
to day life sure is dull. Here I am sitting, in
traffic during my commute. And I'm like, where's
my flying car. I was promised flying cars and
food that comes in pill forms and robot servants. And all I got was Twitter. Where's my robot? But with the question
of where's my robot, there also comes
follow up questions, like what if my robot
develops consciousness. Will the robots have
feelings about Twitter? What if the robot starts
tweeting their feelings? Such hopes and anxieties inspire
the wide and wonderful world of science fiction, a genre
that is just as much worried about the future as it is
easier for the hurry up already. We need to colonize Mars, stat. In the words of sci-fi
writer Isaac Asimov, "science fiction writers
foresee the inevitable. And although problems and
catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not." [MUSIC PLAYING] Stories, tales, and myths from
all around the world posing speculative questions
about technologies have existed long before Ray
Bradbury and Frank Herbert. From the time-traveling Japanese
fairytale "Urashima Taro" to some of the speculative
elements of "1001 Arabian Nights." But there are a
few eras that began to shape what we've come to
know as science fiction today. First, the Age of
Enlightenment, an 18th century philosophical
movement that elevated reason and empirical
observation as the nexus for human knowledge
rather than, say, religious doctrine or monarchy. Then there was the
Industrial Revolution, a period of innovation
that brought so many watershed technological
changes to the world, like steam engines and smog. Throw in a dash of the
hot new romantic subgenre of Gothic fiction,
add in a few still popular philosophical ideas
like the concept of utopia and mankind's great
fall, and you've got the scene for the
birth of a new modern genre with what is widely considered
its first prominent work, Mary Shelley's 1818 novel
"Frankenstein." Shelley was partially
inspired to write this from the Prometheus myth
in which a Greek deity steals the forbidden knowledge
of fire from the gods and gives it to mankind. And while a Victorian
novel might not be the first thing that
springs to mind when we think of science fiction, we see
a lot of somatic hallmarks of sci-fi within the text, such
as science being limited only by humankind's imagination, i.e. Victor Frankenstein
wish to end mortality, the moral and ethical
considerations in the advent of
new technologies, and the rubric for
science fiction as an exploration
of our anxieties of the present and the future. By the mid to late
19th century, we see the emergence of
two of science-fiction's seminal authors, HG
Wells and Jules Verne. Jules Verne pioneered the
adventure-driven romantic sci-fi opera. His most famous works
are dashing adventures that send us beyond the
reach of the known world before actual science
had yet to catch up. Meanwhile, HG Wells'
novels are over here taking a much more moralizing tone. In "The Time Machine,"
humankind has devolved into either
childlike, naive beings or complete monsters. And eventually, Earth ends up
as a dried out seasonless husk. Thanks for the vote
of confidence, HG. By the mid-1920s, pulp magazines
and novels are en vogue. And it's here where
science fiction really begins to go mainstream,
for better or worse. Authors are paid by
the word and rewarded for quantity over quality, so
science fiction is pretty much grouped with other
so-called low art, like comic books and
serialized romances. But then World War
II comes along, and the United States falls
into a decades-long conflict with the USSR. And the atomic bomb
comes with all sorts of horrifying
existential implications. Oh, and also we flew
to the moon, NBD. All of this coincides with the
so-called golden age of science fiction and its prominent
authors, Robert Heinlein, author of "Starship
Troopers" and "Stranger in a Strange Land,"
Ray Bradbury, author of "Fahrenheit 451" and
the "Martian Chronicles" and a genuine cool
dude, Isaac Asimov, who focuses on
artificial intelligence and the ethical questions
that come with that, and George Orwell, whose
"1984" is very worried about the future,
particularly the idea of big brother using technology
to keep us all in line. From these inspirations follows
the next generation of writers, with Philip K Dick popularizing
the nascent subgenre of cyberpunk in which
technology continues to advance, but societal inequities continue
to exist or even get worse. Ursula K LeGuin pens one
of the first mainstream sci-fi books to explore
a genderless society. And frank Herbert gave us
"Dune" and memes, so many memes. The rise of personal
computers, video games, and the very beginnings
of the internet inspires Orson Scott Card, who's
"Ender's Game" series, which is one of my favorites,
even though the author of those books isn't, predicted
all sorts of fun things like how the
internet would shape the discourse and the
gamification of warfare. Then there's Michael Crichton,
a commercial sci-fi writer who often reads like a modern
day Mary Shelley, in that it warns of the dangers of
irresponsible science, except swap that creature
out for dinosaurs. And then there's
Octavia E Butler, the grande dame of this genre. Her works like "Parable of
the Sower," "Lilith's Brood," and the Patternist
series all featured women of color as protagonists,
hitherto grossly under-represented in the genre. But Butler was seminal to the
development of the Afrofuturism subgenre. Afrofuturism is, well,
exactly what it sounds like. Think the concept albums of
Janelle Monae or Ryan Coogler's "Black Panther." Women and people of
color have always been writing science
fiction, ahem. But now they're getting more
and more mainstream attention. And more diverse worldviews just
makes for a more interesting, more dynamic fiction scape. Science fiction
may have its roots in reactionary
motifs and worries about the myriad ways
civilization might fall. But there exists also a
more nuanced exploration of the human condition and its
relationship to technology. Technologies in fiction
can just as often be a tool to effect
social change as it is a scary thing
destined to destroy traditional societies
as we know them. Here's looking at you, HG Wells. So what is your
favorite sci-fi book? What themes do you
wish were more explored in science fiction? Be sure to leave us a comment. The Great American
Read is a new series on PBS about why we
love to read leading up to a nationwide vote on
America's favorite novel. Who decides America's
favorite novel, you ask? Well, that would be you. So head to
PBS.org/GreatAmericanRead to vote on your favorite book. Check the link in the
description for more details. [MUSIC PLAYING]
I'm a huge fan of hers and all the stuff she does. That said, here again, as other stuff designed for the Internet, I wish people would start pointing out that this is strictly US/NorthAm-centric commentary (with the occasional nod to the UK). No quibble with US creators working for an US audience but not pointing this out basically erases all the stuff happening in the rest of the world.
I know she only had limited time but why is Louis McMaster Bojould always left off these lists? Only Heinlein has won as many sci-fi awards as her and no one even knows who she is.
That was MUCH better produced than I was expecting, though I'd have a wider range of authors mentioned were I writing it. And putting orwell on the same level as Bradbury and Asimov seemed weird.
She dislikes Card but doesn't call out Heinlein?
And poor Niven and Ellison. I like you guys.
Google: who is Lindsay Ellis
No C, Clarke Mention. Absolut trash.
https://rnbiddle.wordpress.com/portfolio/flash-cards/
https://youtu.be/T4j5tGNms14?t=184 , lower left
Planet of the Knob Heads by Stanton A. Coblentz. It's not only real, it's available on Amazon.
No mention of the New Wave and the attempt to bring more of dat littrachure into SF, but a lot on Afrofuturism?
So happy to see she is still pumping out great content after the fall of Channel Awesome. Pbs on its on has a lot of great stuff so this was a great combo!