Science Fiction Themes

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame:

Volume One, 1929-1964

Robert Silverberg, editor

"a roster of outstanding stories" - Robert Silverberg

Having just concluded my traversal of The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One, 1929-1964 I find myself reflecting on some of the themes.  I have previously commented on the intersection of the SF and Horror genres but there are other themes that we noted in our discussion of the stories.  These were all selected by the editor, Robert Silverberg, based on voting by the  Science Fiction Writers of America.  One theme is that of extreme situations exemplified in "The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin where a shuttle space ship (Emergency Dispatch Ship) is unprepared for even and ounce of excess weight when a stowaway is found on board with disastrous consequences.  Not unexpectedly many of the stories emphasize the theme of the "other", whether aliens from outer space -- Mars is a popular choice from this era -- or aliens from the future, or aliens among us who, but for the vagaries of biology or psychology, would otherwise be human.
In the famous story by Daniel Keyes, "Flowers for Algernon", Charlie Gordon experiences the feeling of being the "other" both due to his low intelligence and subsequent extreme high intelligence level that he reaches before returning to his original mental state.  Through it all his emotional state develops so that there is some hope for whatever future he may have after the story ends.
The theme of monsters who are beyond human control is also prominent.  Both "It's a GOOD Life' by Jerome Bixby and "The Country of the Kind" by Damon Knight present monsters that are unsettling in their ability to change the world around them and the humans who survive are challenged beyond what one would expect they could manage.
I found paradoxical the hubris of the scientists in "The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke when they attempted to create a computing machine for Tibetan Monks that would catalog all of the names of god.  They did not believe they could succeed and the result when they did was astonishing.  I challenge the reader of this story to consider the possibility of an infinite number of universes in god's creation (if that is what this is).
The beauty of the prose style of the writers was never more evident than in Roger Zelazny's award-winning story "A Rose for Ecclesiastes".  In it a scientist on Mars falls in love with a dying civilization and one representative of it whose response is not what he expects.  There is even a hint of Eve's Apple haunting this story.
The result of all the stories in this engaging medley is a reader's delight that does justice to the "Golden  Age" of Science Fiction.

What If?

SF and Horror

"It did no good to wonder about it.  Nothing at all did any good --- except to live as they must live.  Must always, always live, if Anthony would let them."

- Jerome Bixby, "It's a Good Life"

I am three-quarters of the way through the anthology The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One and I have been surprised that there are several stories which straddle the boundary of horror and science fiction.  The presence of one in particular, "It's a Good Life" by Jerome Bixby, is surprising because I have read the story before in an anthology of horror stories.  I also have viewed both the television version (adapted by Rod Serling for The Twilight Zone and included by Time Magazine in its top ten episodes of that show) and the film version (adapted by Richard Matheson and directed by Joe Dante for Twilight Zone: The Movie).  Now I find that it is among the best Science Fiction stories as selected by the Science Fiction Writers of America.  


This is just one example of the intersection between science fiction and horror as literary genres.  Peter Nicholls, writing in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, claims that:
"Much sf is anti-science, for reasons historic and perhaps partly intrinsic."
He continues on commenting that "when rationality is in abeyance, terrible things happen."  That is, there is an inborn link between science and monstrosities.  This can be found as early as the era of "Gothic" stories such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Monster, E. T. A. Hoffmann's Dr. Coppelius, Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and others.  


In Silverberg's anthology, in addition to the Bixby story, there are stories by Richard Matheson ("Born of Man and Woman"), Fritz Lieber ("Coming Attraction"), and Judith Merril ("That Only a Mother").  Each of these is horrifying in it's own way.  I found the Matheson story the most horrific, in part because it is told from the point of view of the "monster".  Both the Merril and Lieber stories reference atomic radiation and the fears of that generation seem to permeate these and other stories of the era.  All of these stories are very good if not great short stories no matter what the genre, but they also demonstrate the breadth of imagination found in Science Fiction. 

What if?

Reading Science Fiction

I recently read the first five stories collected in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One.  While I enjoyed "A Martian Odyssey" by Stanley Weinbaum the most, all of the stories were excellent and many of them demonstrated interesting features.  In our class discussion the connections with classical literature was noted for several of the stories starting with the Weinbaum story, for as the title suggests it has aspects that appear to be variations on Homer's Odyssey.  The main character, Jarvis, goes on a journey outward bound and when he attempts to return his journey is derailed or lengthened by encounters with an amazing variety of aliens, each of whom are unique.  
The third story, "Helen O'Loy" by Lester del Rey, presents a robot that appears to be comparable to Helen of Troy as the story opens with this description of the titular robot:
"I am an old man now, but I can still see Helen as Dave unpacked her, and still hear him gasp as he looked her over.
"Man, isn't she a beauty?"
She was beautiful, a dream spun in plastics and metals, something Keats might have seen dimly when he wrote his sonnet.  If Helen of Troy had looked like that the Greeks must have been pikers when they launched only a thousand ships;  at least that's what I told Dave." (p 42)
In spite of this opening the reasoning behind the name they give the robot is an allusive resemblance to "alloy".  This only adds to the levels of meaning and interest presented by this fascinating story.  As with the other stories the human relationships (in this case the apparent human-like characteristics of a machine) become as important as the scientific aspects of the narrative.
And in Robert Heinlein's "The Roads Must Roll" the militaristic depiction of the Road support organization reminded me of the concept of the "Guardians" in Plato's Republic.  The dedicated class of cadets who man the roads seemed similar to Plato's idea for his ideal society.  Who would have expected allusions like these in tales of the future?  The most important thing about these stories was the questions they raised and the ideas they presented.  What will happen to man in the distant future when machines have taken over control of the earth?  What happens when one man can create and manipulate human-like life for his own ends in a way that mimics the god of the Old Testament?  These and other questions made each of these stories exciting reading for anyone who wonders:  "What if?"


The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One, 1929-1964, ed. by Robert Silverberg. Orb Books, New York. 1998 (1971).