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Science fiction, unlike so many other genres of literature, has a unique culture. And so, it is not difficult to find opinion pieces and essays about the state of the genre. Once recent example is “The future of futurism” by Amy Biancolli of the Houston Chronicle. Read more »

In The Road to Science Fiction: From Gilgamesh to Wells, James Gunn put forth the idea that the Industrial Revolution sparked the change that needed to happen before science fiction could become a true genre. He wrote that people

“had to adopt an open mind about the nature of the universe — its beginning and its end — and the fate of man …. People also had to discover the future. As long as the future was merely the place where today’s activities went on in some eternal cycle, perhaps even spiraling downward from some earlier golden age, a fiction about the future was meaningless.” (pg. 3)

Read more »

In my research for this project, I’ve found a lot of different — even conflicting — definitions of science fiction. In fact, one author wrote, “A definition of science fiction can be attempted in twenty words and remain unachieved in two thousand.”

Frederick Pohl claimed that, “Science fiction is the a way of thinking about things.” Read more »

John Joseph Adams of Sci Fi Weekly recently reported that Paizo Publishing has launched a new imprint, Planet Stories, to bring classic fantasy and science fiction adventure stories to a new generation of readers.

“Essays on the history of the genre are filled with references to people like Leigh Brackett, C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner,” Erik Mona of Paizo Publishing told Adams, “but finding their work in print is virtually impossible, and it’s got nothing to do with the quality of the stories themselves.” Read more »

I once had a dream — a science fiction fan community run convntion for Sonoma County, where I grew up and was once living. Then I moved. But, while I still had that dream I wrote this “Keynote Address” for the first Sonomacon as one of my Toastmaster Speeches. Enyoy!

Introduction

C.S. Pothitt will be giving a speech from the advanced manual “The Professional Speaker.” The first speech in this manual is the Keynote Address, which she has prepared for us today.

She will be transporting us into the future.

The year: 1999.

The event: The first ever Sonoma County/North Bay Science Fiction Convention. Read more »