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[ vii PreFaCe Vintage Visions brings together some of the finest essays ever published on early science fiction (sf). These sixteen articles first appeared in the scholarly journal Science Fiction Studies from 1976 to 2010, and their collective focus spans nearly three centuries of sf, from Cyrano de Bergerac in 1657 to Olaf Stapledon in 1937. They have been selected not only for the quality of their analytical content (some have received the prestigious SFRA “Pioneer Award” for the best critical essay of the year) but also for how they represent the breadth of the genre itself as it has morphed through time. Although its origins and evolution continue to be the subject of lively debate among scholars, science fiction emerged as a genre in the imaginary voyages, utopias, and futuristic fiction of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. During the nineteenth century, it popularized its narrative recipe and ideological worldview in the gothic fiction of Mary Shelley, the extraordinary voyages of Jules Verne, and the scientific romances of H. G. Wells. And it eventually adopted its generic name and social identity in the American pulp-fiction magazines of the 1920s and 1930s. Vintage Visions includes in-depth discussions of important sf writers and themes from each of these seminal historical periods. In its appendix, it identifies 150 key works of early science fiction, listed in chronological order. And it features an extensive bibliography of criticism about early sf—the largest of its kind ever published and a valuable reference tool for all those who wish to do research in the field. It is important to understand that the critical essays in this book are not intended to serve as a general introduction to the world of early science fiction . Nor is their goal to offer “definitive” readings of specific sf authors and works. By virtue of their thematic breadth and the depth of their analytical insight, however, they do constitute an excellent snapshot of the current state of academic scholarship in this field. Let me give a brief explanation about the terminology used in this book. Vintage Visions is being published in Wesleyan University Press’s “Early Classics of Science Fiction” series. For definitional clarity, Wesleyan classifies as “early” those works of science fiction published before 1940—before World War II but, of more importance for sf scholars, prior to sf’s “Golden Age,” which began when John W. Campbell took over the reins of Astound- viii ] PreFaCe ing magazine in the late 1930s. Some sf scholars prefer to use the epithet “proto” for sf published before 1940. But I find the term “proto-sf” intrinsically biased and dismissive; it implies that true science fiction came into being only at some later date. The term “early sf,” though admittedly more vague, does offer the advantage of not defining its subject exclusively and retroactively in terms of a subsequent narrative form. It allows these premodern fictional texts to stand on their own and be considered within their specific historical contexts, rather than being viewed as an unfinished “pre”version of something else. From this more inclusive point of view, works of science fiction existed long before the term “science fiction” became the preferred label for this brand of speculative writing in the late 1930s. Also, as regards the standard abbreviations used in this book, most writers and aficionados of the genre eschew the label “sci-fi” (too reminiscent of grade-B Hollywood movies) and prefer instead “SF” or “sf.” In the original versions of the essays that follow, both upper- and lowercase versions of this abbreviation can be found. The reason for this is quite simple: the in-house style of Science Fiction Studies changed from “SF” to “sf” in the mid-1990s. For purposes of this collection, the lowercase abbreviation “sf” will be used throughout. Each essay in this volume is also followed by a short afterword written by its author (or, in a few cases, by another scholar) that has been added expressly for Vintage Visions. In asking for these afterwords, I left the door open for the contributors to decide for themselves how they wished to supplement their original article. As a result, the afterwords vary considerably in scope, content, and tone. For example, some discuss how their essay was conceived and written and how it sought to enhance the existing sf criticism of the time; others explain how it dovetailed with their professional careers and how their lives were changed by it; and still others offer a...

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