Close Encounters?: Science and Science FictionCurrently, science fiction in all its forms is enjoying enormous popular interest. There can be no doubt that science fiction books and films have great influence on the public view of science and scientists. Close Encounters? examines the historical development of science fiction as a genre in books and films, tracing its roots, examining its most common ideas, exploring its relationship to "real" science, and attempting to assess its cultural impact. Discussion focuses on major themes such as time travel, politics, religion, ecology, and disasters. The authors consider the science in science fiction, the images of scientists that science fiction conveys, and some of the political, religious, and social motifs prominent in science fiction. They also discuss pseudo-science and its growing influence on the public perception of science. This fascinating, thought-provoking study should be read by all those interested in how the nature of science and its role in our society is portrayed in science fiction. |
Contents
The science in science fiction | 34 |
The time factor | 56 |
Domesticating science | 71 |
The scientist as regular guy | 95 |
The real worlds of science fiction | 113 |
True gods false idols | 130 |
Green nightmares | 149 |
Common terms and phrases
alien American Arthur C Clarke Astounding astronomical atomic audience authors become black hole bomb brain century chapter cinema Close Encounters concerned creatures Day the Earth Destination Moon device Don Siegel Earth Stood ecological effect Einstein's environment example explore fantasy fifties science fiction flying force Frankenstein future galaxy Gas torus genre Gernsback hard science fiction Heinlein hero Hollywood horror human idea imaginary science invention Isaac Asimov John kind Klaatu laboratory Larry Niven machine magazines Mars military monster moral nature neutron star novel nuclear orbit Outer Space physics planet popular presented produced pulp Quatermass Quatermass Xperiment readers relativity religion religious substitute Ringworld Robert robot role science fiction films science fiction stories science fiction writers scientific scientist screen sense social society Steven Spielberg suggested tachyons technical television theme theory thing Triffids universe Val Guest Verne