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It took THREE people at Discover magazine (two writers and one "researcher") to come up with a list of "20 Things You Didn't Know About Science Fiction." The whole package is full of facts YOU probably didn't know. For example, there are science fiction writers named Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Heinlein (Facts #5, #11-12, #15 and #18-30). Seven of the 20 facts tell us that? Yeah, I'm irrationally pissed about this and I'm just getting started.
Who the hell are these people that Discover magazine thinks need to know these allegedly unknown facts? People who've never read science fiction? In which case, they'll be left in ignorance with the (incorrect) Fact #2 that Hugo Gernsback invented "true" science fiction with his pulp magazine — actually, kids, it was Mary Shelley who created the first science fiction with her mad scientist in Frankenstein about 100 years before our pal Hugo. If they're aiming at non-SF readers, riddle me this: what non-science fiction reader would care about the fact Heinlein invented the waterbed (Fact #14)?
But let's say charitably that they're aiming at people like me, regular readers of SF who want a little trivia: Should I be startled at the amazing fact that there is a lot of sex in Heinlein books (Fact #15)? Also, will we be enlightened by the apparently unknown fact that women can write science fiction (but only if they are named James Tiptree — Fact #9)? Also, gay people can write SF too (Fact #10)! Whoa, no way! And all this time I thought Ursula Le Guin was a man, and Samuel Delany and Joanna Russ were raving heterosexuals.
And what kind of "fact" is it that most science fiction is based on mythology (Fact #1)? There's plenty of hard SF that's based purely on scientific speculation. Also the THREE writers got so lazy that they actually use the entirety of Fact #17 to point out that PanAm doesn't fly to the moon like it did in 2001 because — wait for it — PanAm shut down 17 years ago! Now THERE is a fact about science fiction you probably didn't know.
Here's another one of the amazing "facts" you'll get from Discover: apparently TRUE science fiction fans don't like the epithet "scifi" and prefer the abbreviation "SF" (Fact #6). Um, yeah. There are like ten guys with giant beards who have never read anything written past 1960 who care about that distinction. The rest of us just like good writing, and we don't care if it's labeled scifi or SF or science fiction or speculative whoozit or floop or Jimmy Jam Jam. Seriously, people, we're not an oppressed group; we don't need a special, PC label for our textual preferences, OK?
But I don't want to be too uncharitable. There was actually one useful fact on the list. Apparently Gene Wolfe helped invent the machine that cooks Pringles. I didn't know that! Good going, Gene.
Comments
To be fair, # 2 says:
Birth of the (un)cool: In 1926 writer Hugo Gernsback founded Amazing Stories, the first true science-fiction magazine.
Yes, Mary Shelley created what is arguably the first science fiction book in Frankenstein, but it was Gernsback that brought science fiction to the masses through his pulp magazine.
fact: I think you need some Soma.
(oh shit: is "brave new world" scifi/SF?)
Fact #21: Discover magazine is not the same as the Discover card! Also, Discover magazine has never actually discovered anything.
They missed the mark on Number 7, because Johannes Kepler wrote a science fiction story, Somnium (The Dream) in 1634 about a voyage to the Moon. So he beat von Braun by a good clip.
Fact #2, which you claim is incorrect, says, "In 1926 writer Hugo Gernsback founded Amazing Stories, the first true science-fiction magazine." I don't think that implies he invented science fiction, just that he started the first magazine that specialized in it.
@NefariousNewt: Frankenstein was one of the most popular novels throughout the nineteenth century, spawning countless stage plays and some of the first movies. Yes, there were at least two movies based on Frankenstein BEFORE Gernsback "brought scifi to the masses" with his magazine.
Number 12 is also wrong:
12 Not to be outdone, sci-fi legend Isaac Asimov wrote about interstellar spaceflight but refused to board an airplane.
Asimov would not fly on an airplane. He did in fact board one once, for an episode of Nova called "About Time" which featured theories of time and space. He talked about how motion causes clocks to slow down ala Einstein, and did so sitting in an airliner.
@grenacia: I think it basically implies he invented science fiction, or at least "true" science fiction.
Ow.
@annalee: Yes, but they clearly stated "magazine". Yes, Shelley's work was massively popular, but I don't think it resonated quite the way science fiction did during the Golden Age. Shelley wrote about things that at the time, were just becoming known to science, whereas by the 1920's, science was everywhere and it didn't take much imagination to see aliens and robots around every corner.
I consider myself a hardcore SF nerd, and I've never even heard of there being a "thing" between the use of SF and scifi. In fact if I'm writing about science fiction, I'll use both in a post just for variety's sake.
In any case, my advice to anyone writing a magazine article about scifi trivia would be to not cross trivia swords with SF fans. We'll cut you to pieces every time.
I love a good rant. Also, Jimmy Jam Jam... that's good reading.
@NefariousNewt: Are you kidding? Frankenstein made Shelley a living legend in the nineteenth century, which as you'll recall was actually the decade FOLLOWING the "century of science," the 18th Century. The ninteeenth century was all abuzz with science and technology.
Plus: major smackdown. In the so-called general population today, who has heard of Frankenstein? Who has heard of Hugo Gernsback? I rest my case.
@extracrispy: I love a good Jimmy Jam Jam book. All full of alien planets and spaceships!
@NefariousNewt:
Many atheists would argue that the bible was the first work of science fiction....
@annalee:
I like it when you're angry.
I wish I could grow a huge beard.
@diverguy: Only poor ones. Where's the science?
I do love the fact that Heinlein invented the first water bed. That is so like him!
@zeppelined: I'm growing one right now!
@diverguy: Fantasy is not the same as Sci Fi!
Both, however, are Floopity Jimmy Jam Jam!
Well before Amazing Stories' debut, Jules Vernes' books were serialized (for the masses) in Magazine d'Éducation et de Récréation, in the 1870s.
3 Gernsback loved greenbacks. He tried to trademark the term science fiction, and he paid writers so little that H. P. Lovecraft later nicknamed him "Hugo the Rat."
If they'd done a just a little more digging, they probably would have realized HPL loved dropping that antisemitic flava whenever he got the chance.
That list wasn't worse than some of the lists that appear on this site.
@Lampbane: Actually I've measured our lists scientifically against that list, and I can say categorically and factually that the Discover list was actually 75% worse than any list that's appeared on this site, and 60% worse than any list we've imagined writing for this site.
@Lampbane and annalee: I'd go so far and say it's worse than any list that you've imagined not writing for this site as well.
Hell, I was just imagining my own grocery list; turns out even that was better.
@ChrisWren:
Don't say that to Harlan Ellison. He goes all batshit insane.
SF is to SciFi as Trekker is to Trekkie.
SciFi apparently denotes a level of unseriousness and goofiness like say weapons that go zap and tailfins on helmets.
@annalee: Nods, number 2 alone isn't that bad, but numbers 2, 3, and 4 taken in conjunction do tend to support your thesis that they think of Hugo as the genesis of SF/SciFi/Sci-Fi/iscay-ifay/etc.
@ManchuCandidate: i don't think ellison actually has to *go* anywhere to get to batshit insane.
@manchucandidate: You imply that there is some Harlan Ellison state of being that *isn't* all batshit insane?
I try to use the term SF despite being only 30 and growing up in a world where sci-fi was common place, as a tribute to Sir Arthur C. Clarke. In his book "Greetings Carbon Based Bi-Peds", he states that he prefers SF because it is the term he grew up with.
I know that may seem like a stupid reason to try and use a term that doesn't come naturally to me, but it is my small tribute to such a great man.
@extracrispy: Yeah, I'm a HUGE Jimmy Jam Jam fan, too!
@annalee: Well that may be because Frankestein is held to be a work of literature, while the science fiction in general is looked upon with disdain. Believe me, I have had the argument a great many times, especially in high school with my English teachers, who did not believe that science fiction could be compared to literature and were scandalized at the thought that Mary Shelley would be labeled as the first science fiction writer.
Hey look, I'm not trying to start a fire here. Shelley did her bit, Gernsback did his, and today aspiring science fiction writers have to look to the web or small publishers (like the one I'm part of) just to get their work seen. Science fiction writing is of course hampered by the sci-fi that Hollywood cranks out, and you'll note that even for the greatest science fiction movies, no actor ever won an Oscar.
@lizhenry:
@Strangeite:
I've been told by friends of friends that Harlan does have an odd moment of unbatshit insane-ness. (My english teacher just cried after I typed that line out.)
@annalee:
Little do we suspect this is all a plan to start a flame war with Discover, thus increasing page views all around. BRILLIANT!
@Lampbane: Maybe Discover can "discover" flame wars?
@NefariousNewt: What small press are you part of? Yay for the independent press!
> there is a lot of sex in Heinlein books
No, there isn't. There's plenty about relationships (social and intimate), but they're quite light on the hanky-panky stuff.
there was a trip to the Moon in 'Orlando Furioso' (1516)
MY basic question is this... where do you all find the
the time to read allthis stuff?? Gernsbach, Shelly..etc
Andf whats more why do allof you sound like literature critics????
@annalee:
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Hadrosaur Productions is our imprint. Our current magazine is Tales of the Talisman.
END Shameless Plug.
I don't have a beard, and I use "SF" exclusively because this way it also encompasses "speculative fiction," not just "science fiction."
I just like it better...it seems more inclusive.
Floop is a disgusting genre and I refuse to pander to it.
@Chryss: OK I will concede that is the only good reason I have ever heard for using SF instead of scifi.
you're sure this list was in discover magazine and not a special on NPR?
@diverguy: Unless those were shaped force fields holding back the Red Sea, I think it would qualify more as fantasy.
Are we sure this wasn't Discover for Kids? Or Discover for People Who Were Just Cloned This Morning?
Are they reading the same Heinlein books I have? When did he become a smut writer? One Of my favorites he wrote was TUNNEL IN THE SKY. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress is good as well, on second thought, just read all his works :)
Yeah, totally. Congrats on the Pringles thing, Gene. That's HUGE.