The article's facts are not revealing that there were authors with these names (which most people know, even if they're NOT into Sci Fi), the article simply lists facts ABOUT these authors, which some people may not have known.

What was your problem with this article? That you didn't get YOURs published by Discover or something?

PMarlowe

yrag

doctor_cos

AmishJohn

Darkweave

Darkweave

Inkymonkey

The good Dr. did in fact fly. Toward the end of his army service he had arranged to be shipped from CA back to the east coast by train and an impatient sergeant took one look at his orders and ordered him to board the plane the rest of his unit was on.

This story is told I believe in 'Asimov Laughs Again'

[www.amazon.com]

James Tiberius Quirk

zenpoet

You know what? I change my mind. I hate swimming fish and everything that they stand... um... swim for. Little bastards.

zenpoet

Spiral

Chryss

Frederich March 1933 Oscar Best Actor Jekyll & Hyde
Don Ameche 1986 Oscar Best Supporting Actor Cocoon

gothfae

oldandintheway

This is almost always true, regardless of the actual thing said. Don't get me wrong, Harlan Ellison's cool - he's kind of the science fiction equivalent of Hunter S. Thompson, though.

As for Discover - yeah, the list's idiotic. Who the heck ever reads Discover though, much less expects it to make sense? It's like the USA Today of quasi-geekdom.
-Kle.

Klebert L. Hall

Sell-out! I don't want to go to your party anyway!

*sticks out tongue*

92BuickLeSabre

You are officially un-invited to my Super Cup World Finals of Bolivian Backwards Pinpong party, you turncoat!

zenpoet

Please don't refer to it again by that other name.

92BuickLeSabre

I agree with many that this argument is much akin to the Trekkers/Trekkie debate. The main point is this, "you shouldn't care." Demanding something be used by one nomenclature over another in an attempt to gain credibility only further thwarts your purpose. If you love something, be it science fiction, Star Trek, or Bolivian backwards pingpong, then just love it, and leave it alone.

If something is great, then it creates its own respectability. To force an aire upon something just makes it more comical.

zenpoet

Gabriel_Mckee

Fact 13: Asimov is the greatest Jimmy Jam Jam writer alive or dead.

Fact F: Numbered lists are the easiest way to fill a blank space when the writer is up against a deadline, and has no idea what they are going to do by 5pm today.

Fact 3.14159265: I am only saying that because I care - there's a lot of decaffeinated brands on the market that are just as tasty as the real thing.

Fact Carrot: 42.

zenpoet

Fact 2: I hate the epithet 'scifi' and prefer 'ess ef'. I do have a beard, but its not giant and I HAVE been reading loads of SF since 1960. Not only have I been reading since 1960, I've even read books that were written after 1960

Fact 3: Heinlein didn't invent waterbeds. He ideated waterbeds. Get your facts straight.

Fact 4: There are multiple origins of SF and you can only drag Shelley in if you're going to include literature written before the invention of the genre. You should have gone all the way back to Lucian of Samothrace if you're going to do that.

Fact 5: Gernsback is properly credited with creating the original name for the genre - scientification - and the first magazine devoted to it - Amazing Stories. No, despite the beard and the affinity for pre 1960's SF, I wasn't around when that happened. More's the pity.

Fact 6: Logically, we can come to some fairly credible conclusions regarding the practice of wasting time on the idiotic ramblings of mundane so-called science writers...

rimworlder

Whatever.

There is really only two literature categories:
1. What I read
2. Everything else

steven522

1: Flamewars don't actually involve any fire! No need to bring along the extinguishers.
2: Congress need not give approval for participating in a flame war.
3: There are millions of flame wars being fought across the Internet RIGHT NOW!
4: Speaking of which, flame wars occur on the Internet!
5: Nazis! They always end a flame war, according to Godwin's Law.
BONUS ROUND
6: Godwin's Law was formulated by Mike Godwin.

urukhaifive

aosagi

El_Bandito

Keep an eye out for Stobor.

Counterglow

Annalee Newitz

Annalee Newitz

Annalee Newitz

Yatta!

Inkymonkey

cde

cde

11 Irony alert: Ray Bradbury, one of the world's most influential SF writers, studiously avoids computers and ATMs and claims he has never driven a car.

You wouldn't find that ironic if you've read his work.

josh42042

I like to say SpecFic myself and leave 'em wondering if I'm daring to include fantasy in a "serious discussion." (Yes. Yes, I am.)

JennaW

It is actually not ridiculous to try to pinpoint the first person to commit genre in written form. Frankenstein is the best candidate for first SF since most if not all other candidates for the title which predate Shelley include fantastical elements such as gods which prevent them from being what we would consider true SF. There is also the matter of influence. If something predates an influential work that is thought to be the first example of a genre but no one has heard of the predating work, then it is unlikely to have had any impact on the ensuing genre.

Another example of pinpointing: Edgar Allan Poe's short stories about C. Auguste Dupin ("Murders in the Rue Morgue, etc.) are generally considered the first detective stories.

JennaW

She is, however, atticking point #1 unjustly. They did not write "most" but "much". while most is a relative amount, much is just quantitative, and I, as someone who only started to read SF about 3 years ago (and I'm still happy when books are recommended to me), look at my shelf and say that yes, "much", I'd say, is indeed accurate.

ghost

Because that's not bloody likely.

jwisser

doctor_cos

Because they were all worn out from the fight over "Trekkie" vs. "Trekker" and had to find a new issue.

Lord. The things fandom gets worked up about...

JennaW

But whatever we call the genre, what's your take on publishers and producers who go out of their way to avoid calling something SF? For instance, Comcast Cable's on demand channels don't have an SF section, but they do have an "Alternate Reality" section. Or what about all these actors and actresses who do whatever they can to avoid their movie being called SF. Even when it's a big honking piece of crap like The Core (in which case, I'll thank Hillary Swank and others for denying it's SF).

I agree with some of the other commenters that the list was not implying Gernsback created science fiction, just that he published the first magazine devoted to it. For that reason, Gernsback is often thought of as the "Father" of science fiction. However, it would have been nice if the list had acknowledged Mary Shelly as the "Mother" of science fiction (or maybe "Grandmother" since she clearly came before the "Father").

BTW, the researcher you're sneering at is actually an SF writer (a past Hugo & Nebula Award nominee).

johnjosephadams

Tommmcatt

Darkweave

JennaW

dlomax

tetracycloide

Annalee Newitz

Mister Adequate

I just like it better...it seems more inclusive.

Chryss

BEGIN Shameless Plug

Hadrosaur Productions is our imprint. Our current magazine is Tales of the Talisman.

END Shameless Plug.

NefariousNewt

oldandintheway

goldfarb

No, there isn't. There's plenty about relationships (social and intimate), but they're quite light on the hanky-panky stuff.

Lars

Annalee Newitz

Annalee Newitz

Little do we suspect this is all a plan to start a flame war with Discover, thus increasing page views all around. BRILLIANT!

Lampbane

ManchuCandidate

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.

NefariousNewt

Frozen-Tex

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.

Strangeite

Liz Henry

zerofritz

Jack

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.

ManchuCandidate

Hell, I was just imagining my own grocery list; turns out even that was better.

92BuickLeSabre

Annalee Newitz

Lampbane

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.

giant_turtle

BadUncle

Both, however, are Floopity Jimmy Jam Jam!

92BuickLeSabre

I do love the fact that Heinlein invented the first water bed. That is so like him!

@zeppelined: I'm growing one right now!

braak

Ed Grabianowski

Katana_Mind

Many atheists would argue that the bible was the first work of science fiction....

diverguy

Annalee Newitz

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.

Annalee Newitz

extracrispy

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.

Chris Wren

NefariousNewt

Seth L

Annalee Newitz

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.

NefariousNewt

Annalee Newitz

grenacia

NefariousNewt

LeNoceur

(oh shit: is "brave new world" scifi/SF?)

zerofritz

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.

NefariousNewt