Scientific Scientific romance
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Scientific romance Scientific romance is an archaic term for the genre of fiction
now commonly known as science fiction. The term originated in the 1850s to describe both fiction and elements of scientific writing, but has since come to refer to the science fiction of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, primarily that of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells and Arthur Conan Doyle. In recent years, the term has come to be applied to science fiction written in a deliberately anachronistic style, as a homage or pastiche of the original scientific scientific romances.
History Early usages The earliest usage of the term 'scientific romance' is thought to be in 1845, by critics describing Robert Hunt's Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, a speculative natural history
published in 1844, and was used again in 1851 by the Edinburgh Ecclesiastical Journal and Literary Review in
reference to Thoman Hunt's Panthea, or the Spirit of Nature.
[1]
In 1859 the Southern Literary Messenger referred
to Balzac's Ursule Mirouet as "a scientific romance of [2]
mesmerism."
In addition, the term was sometimes used to
"Maison tournante aérienne" (aerial rotating house). This
dismiss a scientific principle considered by the writer to be
drawing, by French science fiction writer Albert Robida for
fanciful, such as in 1855's The Principles of Metaphysical and
his book Le Le Vingtième Siècle, Siècle, a nineteenth century conception of life in the twentieth century, depicts a
Ethical Science, which stated that "Milton's conception of
dwelling that can rotate on a post, with an airship in the
inorganic matter left to itself, without an indwelling soul, is
distance. Ink over graphite underdrawing, c. 1883, digitally
not merely more poetical, but more philosophical and just,
restored.
than the scientific romance, now generally repudiated by all rational inquirers, which represents it as necessarily imbued with the seminal principles of organization and life, and waking up by its own force from eternal quietude to eternal motion."
[3]
Then, in 1884, Charles Howard Hinton
published a series of scientific and philosophical essays under the title Scientific Romances.
[4]
Twentieth Century 'Scientific romance' is most commonly used to refer to science fict ion of the late nineteenth nineteen th and early twentieth century, as seen in the anthologies Under the Moons of Mars: A History and Anthology Anthology of "The Scientific Scientific Romance" [5]
in the Munsey Magazines, 1912-1920
and Scientific Romance in Britain: 1890-1950.
[6]
One of the earliest writers writers
to be described in this way was French astronomer and writer Camille Flammarion, whose Recits de l'infini and La fin du monde have both been described as scientific romances.
such as in the 1857 volume of the American Cyclopædia , refer to his work as 'scientific romances' today.
[9]
acknowledged master of the scientific scientific romance,"
The term is most widely applied to Jules Verne,
and H.G. Wells, whose historical society continues to
Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars (1912) is also
sometimes seen as a major work of scientific romance, [11]
[8]
[7]
[10]
and Sam Moskowitz referred to him in 1958 as "the
though the scholar E. F. Bleiler views Burroughs as part of the
Scientific romance
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"new development" of pulp science fiction that arose in the early 20th century. [13]
Doyle published The Lost World ,
[12]
The same year Sir Arthur Conan
which is also commonly referred to as a scientific romance.
[14]
1902 saw the cinematic release of Georges Méliès's film Le Voyage dans la Lune ( A Trip to the Moon); the time period and the fact that it is based partially on a story by Wells has led to it being labelled as a scientific romance as [15]
well.
Modern revival In recent years, the term scientific romance has seen a revival, being self-applied by modern works of science fiction which deliberately ape previous styles. Examples of this include Christopher Priest's The Space Machine: A Scientific Romance,
[16]
published in 1976, Ronald Wright's Wells pastiche A Scientific Romance: A Novel, published
in 1998, and the roleplaying game Forgotten Futures. [18]
in Love: A Scientific Romance
[17]
Though it uses the term, Dennis Overbye's novel Einstein
does not imitate science fiction of the past in the manner of the other novels
mentioned.
Definitions Brian Stableford, in Scientific Romance in Britain: 1890-1950
[19]
argued that early British science-fiction writers
who used this term differed in several significant ways from American science fiction writers of the time. Most notably, the British writers tended to minimize the role of individual "heroes", took an "evolutionary perspective", held a bleak view of the future, and had little interest in space as a new frontier. Regarding "heroes", several novels by H. G. Wells have the protagonist as nameless, and often powerless, in the face of natural forces. The evolutionary perspective can be seen in tales involving long time periods —two examples being The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine by Wells and Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon. Even in scientific romances that did not involve vast
stretches of time, the issue of whether mankind was just another species subject to evolutionary pressures often arose, as can be seen in parts of The Hampdenshire Wonder by J. D. Beresford and several works by S. Fowler Wright. Regarding space, C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy took the position that "as long as humanity remains flawed and sinful, our exploration of other planets will tend to do them more harm than good"; and most scientific romance authors had not even that much interest in the topic. As for bleakness, it can be seen in many of the works by all the already cited authors: humanity was deemed by them flawed —either by original sin or, much more often, by biological factors inherited from our ape ancestors. Nonetheless, not all British science fiction from that period comports with Stableford's thesis. Some, for example, reveled in adventures in space and held an optimistic view of the future. By the 1930s, there were British authors (such as Eric Frank Russell) who were intentionally writing "science fiction" for American publication. At that point, British writers who used the term "scientific romance" did so either because they were unaware of science fiction or because they chose not to be associated with it. After World War II, the influence of American science fiction caused the term "scientific romance" to lose favor, a process accelerated by the fact that few writers of scientific romance considered themselves "scientific romance" writers, instead viewing themselves as "just writers" who occasionally happened to write a scientific romance. Even so, the influence of the scientific romance era persisted in British science fiction, and indeed had some impact on the American variety.
Scientific romance
References [1] Before Science Fiction: Romances of Science and Scientific Romances (http:/ / io9.com/ 5870883/ science-fiction-before-science-fiction-romances-of-science-and-scientific-romances), io9, accessed March 22, 2012 [2] Southern Literary Messenger: A Magazine Devoted to Literature, Science and Art , "Balzac", H.T. Tuckerman (http:/ / quod.lib.umich.edu/ m/ moajrnl/ acf2679. 0028.002/ 85:20?rgn=full+ text;view=image;q1=scientific+romance), Making of America, accessed March 22, 2012 [3] Bowen, Francis (1855), The Principles of Metaphysical and Ethical Science: Applied to the Evidences of Religion, Brewer and Tileston, p.150 (http:/ / books.google.com.au/ books?id=qkjXZsxevPMC&pg=PA1&dq=he+principles+of+metaphysical+and+ethical+science:+ applied+to+the+evidences+...&hl=en&sa=X&ei=WRhsT4-bIeSRiQfMu5T_BQ&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=he principles of metaphysical and ethical science: applied to the evidences ...&f=false), Google Books, accessed March 23, 2012 [4] Hinton, Charles (1884), Scientific Romances, W. Swan Sonnenschein & Co. (http:/ / archive.org/ stream/ scientificroman01hintgoog#page/ n6/ mode/ 2up) OpenLibrary.org, accessed March 24, 2012 [5] Moskowitz, Sam (1970) Under the Moons of Mars: A History and Anthology of "The Scientific Romance" in the Munsey Magazines, 1912-1920, Holt Rinehart Winston, 978-0030818585 [6] Stableford, Brian (1985), Scientific Romance in Britain, 1890-1950 Palgrave Macmillan, 978-0312703059 [7] The Encyclopedia of Science, Flammarion, (Nicolas) Camille (1842 –1925) (http:/ / www.daviddarling.info/ encyclopedia/ F/ Flammarion. html), accessed March 24, 2012 [8] Bowen, Francis (1857), American Cyclopædia, Volume 7 , D. Appleton and Company, p. 407 (http:/ / archive.org/ stream/ americancyclopae07ripluoft#page/ n7/ mode/ 2up), OpenLibrary.org, accessed March 23, 2012 [9] The H.G. Wells Society (http:/ / hgwellsusa.50megs.com/ ), accessed March 23, 2012. [10] Voyages Extraordinaire, "1912: Zenith of the Scientific Romances" (http:/ / voyagesextraordinaires.blogspot.com.au/ 2012/ 02/ 1912-zenith-of-scientific-romances.html), accessed March 22, 2012 [11] EdgarRiceBurroughs.ca, "Tributes to Edgar Rice Burroughs" (http:/ / www.edgarriceburroughs. ca/ bio/ tributes.html), accessed March 22, 2012. [12] E. F. Bleiler, Science Fiction: The Early Years (1990). The Kent State University Press: Kent, Ohio. Pg. xxii. [13] Doyle, Arthur Conan, (1912), The Lost World , Hodder & Stoughton [14] The Lost World 100th Anniversary (http:/ / silentmoviemonsters.tripod.com/ TheLostWorld/ LWSCIROMANCE.html), accessed March 24, 2012 [15] Spectacular Attractions - A Trip to the Moon / Le Voyage dans la Lune (http:/ / drnorth.wordpress.com/ 2010/ 06/ 10/ a-trip-to-the-moon-le-voyage-dans-la-lune/ ), accessed March 24, 2012. [16] Priest, Christopher (1976), The Space Machine: A Scientific Romance, Harper & Row [17] Forgotten Futures: The Scientific Romance Roleplaying Game (http:/ / www.forgottenfutures.com/ ), accessed March 24, 2012 [18] Overbye, Dennis (2000), Einstein in Love: A Scientific Romance, Viking Adult [19] Stableford, Brian (1985), Scientific Romance in Britain, 1890-1950 Palgrave Macmillan, 978-0312703059
Bibliography • Flatland by Edwin Abbott Abbott (more of a fantasy, but see its subtitle) • The Hampdenshire Wonder by J. D. Beresford • The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle • The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson • The Purple Cloud by M. P. Shiel • Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon • Last Men in London by Olaf Stapledon • Odd John by Olaf Stapledon • Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon • Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne • From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne • Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne • The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne • The Time Machine by H. G. Wells • The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells • The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells • The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells • Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
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Scientific romance
External links • "The Victorian Bookshelf: The First Century of the Scientific Romance and other Related Works" (http:/ / www. parsec-sff.org/ con00/ books.html) • Voyages Extraordinaires: Scientific Romances in a Bygone Age (http:/ / voyagesextraordinaires.blogspot.com)
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Article Sources and Contributors
Article Sources and Contributors Scientific romance Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=485687047 Contributors: 83d40m, Ab.er.rant, Adam keller, Andrew97739, Avt tor, Burschik, Camboxer, Delirium, Durova, Ed Poor, Euchrid, Everyking, Inventm, Ja 62, Jafeluv, Kuralyov, Lquilter, MakeRocketGoNow, Malkinann, Mandel, Marcok, Mrmannyman2, OlEnglish, Owlcroft, PC78, Paul A, Pegship, Piledhigheranddeeper, Ragesoss, RandomCritic, SimonP, T. Anthony, Vroman, WelshMatt, Wereon, Yamara, Zoicon5, 25 anonymous edits
Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors File:Aerial house3.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Aerial_house3.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Robida, Albert, 1848-1926, artist.
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