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The Resource Astounding wonder : imagining science and science fiction in interwar America, John Cheng

Astounding wonder : imagining science and science fiction in interwar America, John Cheng

Creator
Summary
  • Pulps invited readers not only to read science fiction but also to participate in it, joining writers and editors in celebrating a collective wonder for and investment in the potential of science. But in conjuring fantastic machines, travel across time and space, unexplored worlds, and alien foes, science fiction offered more than rousing adventure and romance. It also assuaged contemporary concerns about nation, gender, race, authority, ability, and progress--about the place of ordinary individuals within modern science and society - in the process freeing readers to debate scientific theories and implications separate from such concerns
  • Readers similarly sought to establish their worth and place outside the pulps. Organizing clubs and conventions and producing their own magazines, some expanded science fiction's community and created a fan subculture separate from the professional pulp industry. Others formed societies to launch and experiment with rockets. From debating relativity and the use of slang in the future to printing purple fanzines and calculating the speed of spaceships, fans' enthusiastic industry revealed the tensions between popular science and modern science. Even as it inspired readers' imagination and activities, science fiction's participatory ethos sparked debates about amateurs and professionals that divided the worlds of science fiction in the 1930s and after."--Pub. desc
  • "When physicist Robert Goddard, whose career was inspired by H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds, published "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes," the response was electric. Newspaper headlines across the country announced, "Modern Jules Verne Invents Rocket to Reach Moon," while people from around the world, including two World War I pilots, volunteered as pioneers in space exploration. Though premature (Goddard's rocket, alas, was only imagined), the episode demonstrated not only science's general popularity but also its intersection with interwar popular and commercial culture. In that intersection, the stories that inspired Goddard and others became a recognizable genre: science fiction. Astounding Wonder explores science fiction's emergence in the era's "pulps," colorful magazines that shouted from the newsstands, attracting an extraordinarily loyal and active audience
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
392 pages
Contents
  • "Magazines for morons": pulp magazines and the emergence of science fiction
  • Conversations from the "backyard": reading and imaging community
  • Discovering the freedom of facts: fact, fiction, and authority of science
  • Involving adventure, reassuring romance: engendering science fiction's domestic tranquility
  • Human martians and Asian aliens: the racial nature of wondrous worlds
  • The progress of time: Einstein, history, and the dimensions of time travel
  • "Fandom is just a goddam hobby": the industry of fans and professionals
  • "We want to play with spaceships": popular rocket science in action
Isbn
9780812243833
Instance
Label
Astounding wonder : imagining science and science fiction in interwar America
Title
Astounding wonder
Title remainder
imagining science and science fiction in interwar America
Statement of responsibility
John Cheng
Creator
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
  • Pulps invited readers not only to read science fiction but also to participate in it, joining writers and editors in celebrating a collective wonder for and investment in the potential of science. But in conjuring fantastic machines, travel across time and space, unexplored worlds, and alien foes, science fiction offered more than rousing adventure and romance. It also assuaged contemporary concerns about nation, gender, race, authority, ability, and progress--about the place of ordinary individuals within modern science and society - in the process freeing readers to debate scientific theories and implications separate from such concerns
  • Readers similarly sought to establish their worth and place outside the pulps. Organizing clubs and conventions and producing their own magazines, some expanded science fiction's community and created a fan subculture separate from the professional pulp industry. Others formed societies to launch and experiment with rockets. From debating relativity and the use of slang in the future to printing purple fanzines and calculating the speed of spaceships, fans' enthusiastic industry revealed the tensions between popular science and modern science. Even as it inspired readers' imagination and activities, science fiction's participatory ethos sparked debates about amateurs and professionals that divided the worlds of science fiction in the 1930s and after."--Pub. desc
  • "When physicist Robert Goddard, whose career was inspired by H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds, published "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes," the response was electric. Newspaper headlines across the country announced, "Modern Jules Verne Invents Rocket to Reach Moon," while people from around the world, including two World War I pilots, volunteered as pioneers in space exploration. Though premature (Goddard's rocket, alas, was only imagined), the episode demonstrated not only science's general popularity but also its intersection with interwar popular and commercial culture. In that intersection, the stories that inspired Goddard and others became a recognizable genre: science fiction. Astounding Wonder explores science fiction's emergence in the era's "pulps," colorful magazines that shouted from the newsstands, attracting an extraordinarily loyal and active audience
Cataloging source
PU/DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Cheng, John
Dewey number
813/.0876209
Government publication
government publication of a state province territory dependency etc
Illustrations
illustrations
Index
index present
LC call number
PS374.S35
LC item number
C484 2012
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Science fiction, American
  • Science fiction
  • Literature and science
  • Science in popular culture
Label
Astounding wonder : imagining science and science fiction in interwar America, John Cheng
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages [317]-374) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
"Magazines for morons": pulp magazines and the emergence of science fiction -- Conversations from the "backyard": reading and imaging community -- Discovering the freedom of facts: fact, fiction, and authority of science -- Involving adventure, reassuring romance: engendering science fiction's domestic tranquility -- Human martians and Asian aliens: the racial nature of wondrous worlds -- The progress of time: Einstein, history, and the dimensions of time travel -- "Fandom is just a goddam hobby": the industry of fans and professionals -- "We want to play with spaceships": popular rocket science in action
Control code
761383885
Dimensions
24 cm
Extent
392 pages
Isbn
9780812243833
Isbn Type
(hardcover : alk. paper)
Lccn
2011046739
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations
System control number
(OCoLC)761383885
Label
Astounding wonder : imagining science and science fiction in interwar America, John Cheng
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages [317]-374) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
"Magazines for morons": pulp magazines and the emergence of science fiction -- Conversations from the "backyard": reading and imaging community -- Discovering the freedom of facts: fact, fiction, and authority of science -- Involving adventure, reassuring romance: engendering science fiction's domestic tranquility -- Human martians and Asian aliens: the racial nature of wondrous worlds -- The progress of time: Einstein, history, and the dimensions of time travel -- "Fandom is just a goddam hobby": the industry of fans and professionals -- "We want to play with spaceships": popular rocket science in action
Control code
761383885
Dimensions
24 cm
Extent
392 pages
Isbn
9780812243833
Isbn Type
(hardcover : alk. paper)
Lccn
2011046739
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations
System control number
(OCoLC)761383885

Subject

Genre

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