Talk:Social science fiction

Actually, i disagree with the point that the interest to the social aspects of imaginary worlds appeared first in 1940s. I think we should say it began from H.G. Wells. Remember his The Time Machine which claims the division of the humankind into two different races(Elois and Morlocks) as the completion of class inequality; his "When the Sleeper Wakes" despite lots of descriptions of engineering concernes the future society, its retreat from the democracy, etc.. (And his works are not out-of-dated.. Now it became a common idea, that any utopia has it's hidden "Morlocks".)

Probably one should mention Sheckley, especially his The Status Civilization. What do you thing about mentioning John_Wyndham? ellol 13:57, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

• I also disagree. The social aspect of Science Fiction was present from the very beginning. In fact, Utopia and similar social speculations form the tradition from which the genre arose. Nor do I agree that social science fiction has fallen out of favour. The term may no longer be in use, but the novels of Kim Stanley Robinson, David Brin's Earth, and other authors continue the tradition. Burschik 13:48, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

Ok. I would like also add the thread, concerning some of russian social sf, how it evolved. (Although, i'm not an expert in this field and probably miss something.)

Efremov's works, especially Andromeda_Nebula (1957), revealing future world of won communism.

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, their Noon Universe -- Boris Strugatsky briefly describes it as "the world where they would want to live in", it's marked with high standarts of upbringing, and common style of life, "permeated" with spirit of exploration and joy of creative work. (It had also a serious influence on soviet society; as it was recently discussed in Computerra magazine many of currently working scientists or IT specialists were once inspired by their works.) {Although the questions discussed in Noon Universe novels cover a different range of problems.} Not an utopia, in fact. Some of their later works also discuss social things, but are much more pessimistic. E.g., Final circle of paradise reveals the world of consumption, in which forgetting "spiritual" things turned out to be a catastrophe for the society (e.g., leaded to spreading of electronical/psyonical narcotics), yet inhabitants of it don't see the catastrophe.

{commented out some stuff, july, 13} ellol 21:37, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

I agree that the current article is just little more then the stub - you should incorporate all the examples from your discussion there. I gave it a copyedit and some more ilinks for existing content.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus ^Talk 03:53, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

Ok... I think, the article still needs much of expanding. However, i think now East Bloc section 1) gained "historical" structure, and 2) doesn't describe only "totalitarian" science fiction. ellol 15:35, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

Could you write about major themes of Heinlein and Asimov? ellol 16:13, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

It's almost a shame that no works of Stanislav Lem are described here. ellol 16:33, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

On the bright side, most of them have their separate articles, feel free to use them for whatever info you feel is needed here.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus ^Talk 03:48, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Surely, Return from the Stars, Observation on the Spot. May be Peace on Earth (novel)... Lem is a world writer, I hesitate to put him in any section. By the way, imho, with so amount of stuff we (you) may start a separate section about Polish social science fiction. ellol 14:58, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Also, I must apologize for I must have missed some(many) books due to my moderate knowledge of science fiction. Feel free to add/change. ellol 15:03, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Well, I wonder if Lem is much more global then Strugaccy. Even if so, most of his books were written in People's Republic of Poland and show many characteristics of ssf genre in the East, so I think we can safely put him here.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus ^Talk 18:35, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Attempted Anglicization

The section "Genre in the Eastern Bloc" was apparently translated from Russian. I went through it and attempted to put it into more standard English. But I'm not familiar enough with the subject material to do a thorough job. ChrisWinter 15:33, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Thank you. Feel free to change the text. It's not a translation (except quotes), just my poor English (except the passage about Polish sci-fi). ellol 09:01, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

Which are my poor English :D -- _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus | talk}  10:29, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

science

science is science —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.1.53.54 (talk) 09:58, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

The Illustrated Man

As I scoured this article (I even used the "Find in this page" button...), I was horrified to see that The Illustrated Man is not given any mention in this article. If it doesn't fall into this category, I don't know what it would fall into. Does anyone else think that The Illustrated Man deserves mention in this article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.150.196.215 (talk) 05:07, 3 August 2008 (UTC)

The first part of the second paragraph sounds like opinion rather than fact:

"Exploration of fictional societies is one of the most interesting aspects of science fiction, allowing it to perform predictive (H.G. Wells, The Final Circle of Paradise) and precautionary (Fahrenheit 451) functions, to criticize the contemporary world (Antarctica-online) and to present solutions (Walden Two), to portray alternative societies (World of the Noon) and to examine the implications of ethical principles (the works of Sergey Lukyanenko)."

Social science fiction being "interesting" is not neutral.

Neutrality

The first part of the second paragraph sounds like opinion rather than fact:

"Exploration of fictional societies is one of the most interesting aspects of science fiction, allowing it to perform predictive (H.G. Wells, The Final Circle of Paradise) and precautionary (Fahrenheit 451) functions, to criticize the contemporary world (Antarctica-online) and to present solutions (Walden Two), to portray alternative societies (World of the Noon) and to examine the implications of ethical principles (the works of Sergey Lukyanenko)."

Social science fiction being "interesting" is not neutral. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.32.84.204 (talk) 03:07, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

The genre in the Eastern Bloc

This fragment: 'All science fiction of the Soviet era had to subscribe to communist ideology, or else the author could face serious consequences — from a ban against being published to death under Stalin, imprisonment or psychiatric treatment under Brezhnev.' does not need any citation. It's based on common knowledge. If you have a need to attest it, then start again documenting all the history pages on Wikipedia. Be reasonable. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.167.59.66 (talk) 04:57, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

The Absence of Frank Herbert

why though? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.58.21.155 (talk) 20:30, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

Ursula K. Le Guin

Most of her novels are straight up Social SF and outstanding examples. The Dispossessed and Left Hand of Darkness are standouts. Now that she's gone, she really should be listed here, in my opinion. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Darrell.wade.burgan (talk • contribs) 05:21, 17 February 2018 (UTC)

Agreed. Please also consider C.J. Cherryh, Sherri Tepper, and Margaret Atwood. The article currently reads as if this is a game for male authors, with women serving the young adult market. Hburgiel (talk) 16:35, 22 June 2021 (UTC)