Description
Book SynopsisThe Mechanics of Wonder will arouse debate and force the questioning of presuppositions. No other book so closely examines the origins and development of the idea of science fiction, and it will stand among a small number of crucial texts with which every science fiction scholar or prospective science fiction scholar will have to read.
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- The True History of Science Fiction: Introduction
- ‘An Idea of Tremendous Import’: Hugo Gernsback’s Theory of Science Fiction
- ‘The Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, and Edgar Allan Poe Type of Story’: Hugo Gernsback’s History of Science Fiction
- ‘This Unique Document’: Hugo Gernsback’s Ralph 124C 41+
- ‘A Lot of Rays and Bloodshed’: Hugo Gernsback’s Career as a Science Fiction Editor
- ‘Carefully Projected Scientific Thought’: Critical Voices between Hugo Gernsback and John W. Campbell, Jr.
- ‘A Convenient Symptom of This Stage of Evolution’: John W. Campbell, Jr’s Theory of Science Fiction
- ‘A Characteristic Symptom of This Stage of Evolution’: John W. Campbell, Jr. History of Science Fiction
- ‘A Full-View Picture of the World That Would Result’: Robert A. Heinlein’s Beyond This Horizon
- ‘Can Openers, Clichés and Case Studies’: John W. Campbell, Jr’s Career as a Science Fiction Editor
- ‘Slow Sculpture’: Conclusion
- Works Cited
- Index
