Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
That's a definition that I don't think I can agree with. Would you equally postulate that Heinlein's "Space Cadet" is "Science Fantasy" rather than SF, because it portrays a Venus that doesn't exist (tropical jungles, etc)?
|
Now? Yes, because we've learned better. Space probes have peered under the clouds and we know the surface of Venus is certainly
not a tropical jungle. Similar comments apply to Henry Kuttner's "Clash by Night" (published under the pseudonym Lawrence K. O'Donnell), and the novel _Fury)_ in the same setting: a Venus where man lived in domed underwater cities, because unconstrained solar radiation made the surface an area where every living thing was at all times attempting to kill and eat anything around it. The postulated biology was nonsense, even back when it was written, but for all we knew back then, there
could be oceans under the clouds. I'm extravagantly fond of Kuttner's work, and especially those stories, but I don't have a problem calling them science fantasy now.
I certainly don't blame Heinlein for not being prescient and foreseeing the Venus we now know exists. Back when he wrote _Space Cadet_, a tropical jungle under the clouds of Venus wasn't that far fetched a speculation. But time and knowledge have caught up with the book. Like I said, we now know better.
Would
you call Edgar Rice Burrough's Mars, Venus, or Moon series
SF? I wouldn't. The same for the Pellucidar books. Back when it was written, we already had a pretty good idea the Earth wasn't hollow, even though some folks still tried to claim it was. But back when Burroughs was writing those books, the idea that "You had to get what we
did know right" was not yet generally accepted as a standard. I suspect, though I can't document it, that the notion was a by-product of John W. Campbell's tenure at Astounding/Analog, and his insistence on a certain level of rigor in stories he published, based on an assumption that the primary audience for Astounding/Analog
were scientific/technical folks.
______
Dennis