Science Fiction and Mr. Brown

Jun. 6th, 2025 05:54 pm
jamesenge: (eye)
the cover of F&SF for Oct 1963; image is an astronomical painting by Bonestell of a lifeless cratered planet or planetoid in orbit around a binary star

Much of the short paragraph below by Fredric Brown is outdated and/or not meant to be taken seriously. But I like his conclusion about sf, which I would broaden to include fantasy (as sf often did in those now-distant days: note the dragon wrapped around the spaceship in the image).

“It is a nightmare and a dream. And isn’t that what we’re living in and for today? A nightmare and a dream?”

image: a dragon wrapped around a spaceshiptext:Guest Editorial: Fredric Brown: Toward a Definition of Science FictionScience fiction is the frontier of the mind and the imagination of the human race. Science fiction is horse opera set in space, written to please unwashed adolescents who wear propellers on their beanies. It is the shape of things to come. It is the expression of mankind’s yearning to break out of his tiny corner of a galaxy and his determination to find his inheritance out among the stars. It’s trashy pulp magazines with garish covers showing nearly naked women being chased by bug-eyed monsters. It’s imaginative prophecy based on logical extrapolation. It’s Jules Verne writing his ridiculous nonsense, TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, about an imaginary invention less practical than a spaceship is now. It’s a science fiction writer being investigated by the FBI a year before Hiroshima because a story he’d just published indicated that he _must_ (but didn’t) have inside information on something darkly secret. It’s the wildest form of escape reading. It’s mankind with his face toward the stars, readying himself to take over the universe and wind it up again as entropy starts to run it down. Science fiction is all these things, but they can be boiled down; they can be stated more simply. It is a nightmare and a dream. And isn’t that what we’re living in and for today? A nightmare and a dream?

Mirrored from Ambrose & Elsewhere.

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James Enge
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