A History of Science Fiction:
Prehistory
Prehistory: from the beginnings of literature to the
development of the scientific method c. 1600
* Utopias
Prehistory
Progenitors of science fiction can be found in fiction
written before the pervasiveness of the scientific method
developed by Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Homer
Homer mentioned mechanical servants akin to robots in The
Iliad
Lucian of Samosata
Lucian (born c. 125 A.D) wrote a number of satirical
dialogues based on fantastic ideas
He was the first writer of interplanetary fiction
Icaromenippos or Journey Through the Air describes a journey
to the moon with the aid of strapped-on wings.
One of his more titillating passages describes the custom
in which Lunar inhabitants choose to wear artificial private
parts
Thus Lucian is also the first writer to describe prosthetic
limbs and cyborgs!
Cyrano de Bergerac
Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-55), wrote Voyage to the Moon
(1657), in which a traveler fastens a quantity of small bottles
filled with dew to his body. The sun sucks him up with the dew
and he lands on the moon.
Utopias
Utopias are descriptions of ideal societies. Great utopias
are generally moral or political in intention and thus are not
really science fiction.
Plato
Plato (c. 427-c. 348 B.C.) wrote The Republic, the first
utopia
Thomas More
Thomas More, minister to King Henry VIII of England, later
martyred for his refusal to acknowledge Henry as the head of
the Church in England, coined the term "utopia" from the Greek
meaning "not a place," or "nowhere"
More's Utopia was published first in Latin (1516) and later
in English (1551)
Jonathan Swift
Swift (1667-1745) wrote Gulliver's Travels in 1726. In this
work Lemuel Gulliver embarks on four voyages:
* To Lilliput, where inhabitants are six inches tall
* To Brobdingnag, a land of giants
* To the flying island of Laputa
* To the Land of the Houyhnhnms, rational horses, and the
irrational humanoid Yahoos who serve them
While Gulliver's Travels certainly contains elements of the
fantastic, the work is satiric rather than speculative in
intent.
It also doubles as a spoof on travel literature
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