Science Fiction and the Two Cultures

Essays in this volume demonstrate how science fiction can serve as a bridge between the sciences and the humanities. The essays show how early writers like Dante and Mary Shelley revealed a gradual shift toward a genuine understanding of science; how H.G. Wells first showed the possibilities of combining scientific and humanistic perspectives; how writers influenced by Gernsback’s ideas, like Isaac Asimov, illustrated the ways that literature could interact with science and assist in its progress; and how more recent writers offer critiques of science and its practitioners.

Gary Westfahl, a professor emeritus at the University of La Verne, California, has authored, edited, or co-edited 31 books about science fiction and fantasy, and hundreds of articles and reviews. In 2003, he received the Science Fiction Research Association’s Pilgrim Award for his lifetime contributions to science fiction and fantasy scholarship.

George Slusser is a professor emeritus of comparative literature at the University of California, Riverside. The longtime curator of the famed Eaton Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, he also earned the Pilgrim Award for his numerous scholarly books.

Edited by Gary Westfahl and George Slusser. Series Editors Donald E. Palumbo and C.W. Sullivan III
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 290
Bibliographic Info: tables, notes, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2009
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4297-3
Imprint: McFarland
Series: Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy

Introduction: Science Fiction at the Crossroads of Two Cultures
GARY WESTFAHL      1

I. OVERVIEWS: SCIENCE FICTION IN THE CONTEXT OF TWO CULTURES
1. Science Fiction and the Two Cultures: Reflections after the Snow-Leavis Controversy
CARL FREEDMAN      11
2. Science Fiction, Mediating Agent between C.P. Snow’s Two Cultures: A Historical Interpretation
BRADFORD LYAU      22
3. Fighting Out of Context: Culture Wars Within and Without Science Fiction, from Snow to Sokal
HOWARD V. HENDRIX      37
4. A Tale of Two Cultures: Science Studies and Science Fiction
STEPHEN POTTS      49
5. The Rich and the Poor: Science Fiction and the Other Two Cultures
GARY WESTFAHL      67
6. The Science of Fiction and the Fiction of Science: A Storytelling Animal in an Inhospitable World
FRANK MCCONNELL      86
7. Dimorphs and Doubles: J. D. Bernal’s “Two Cultures” and the Transhuman Promise
GEORGE SLUSSER      96

II. CASE STUDIES: SCIENCE FICTION AS AN EXPRESSION OF TWO CULTURES
8. Discontinuity: Spaceships at the Abyss
CAROL MACKAY and KIRK HAMPTON      131
9. Gregory Benford’s Against Infinity and the Literary, Historical and Geometric Formation of the Encyclopedic Circle of Knowledge
PEKKA KUUSISTO      140
10. Utopia and Utopianism in the Life, Work, and Thought of H. G. Wells
JOHN S. PARTINGTON      160
11. The Alien Eye: Imperialism and Otherness in H. G. Wells’s The First Men in the Moon
GARETH DAVIES-MORRIS      170
12. Killer Robots, Laws of Robotics, and Pernicious Humans
GEORGE ATKINS      185
13. Philip K. Dick’s Conversion Narrative
NOAH MASS      196
14. The Terror of Nature Not Understood: Science, Mysticism, and the Unknowable in Don DeLillo’s Ratner’s Star
JAKE JAKAITIS      209
15. When the Caesura Ceases: Two Romanian Authors Gauge the Place of Writers in the Age of Computers
SHARON D. KING      219
16. A Creature of Double Vision
GREGORY BENFORD      228
Afterword: Science Fiction and the Playing Fields of Eaton
GARY WESTFAHL      237
Bibliography of Works Related to Science Fiction and the Two Cultures Debate      247
Bibliography of Other Works Cited in the Text      258
About the Contributors      271
Index      275

• “Recommended”—Choice.