Top-5 Tuesday- Most Influential Sci-Fi Novels of the 19th Century

[This is my sci-fi shelf. And yes, it is in chronological order]

I’ve talked about them all before, but these are the game-changers, the classics, the turning points- the top five science fiction novels from the 19th century you definitely need to read.

5. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (1895)-

Do you love Doctor Who? Geek out over Back to the Future? Enjoy a good time travel episode of Star Trek or Stargate? Then you should read The Time Machine. While it’s not the first piece of time travel fiction, it defines the sub-genre in a way nothing else before it had. Have you ever referred to time as the fourth dimension? Just another contribution from H.G. Wells to society.

4. From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne (1865)-

There is no doubt that Jules Verne was a master of imaginative science fiction. His space adventure, De la terre à la lune, was not only uncannily close to actual moon landing events 100 years later, but it also inspired generations of writers, scientists, and visionaries to shoot for the moon. You’ll even find reference to this novel in the newly released Disney movie, Tomorrowland.

3. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)-

The one that started it all. This hybrid horror story was allegedly born on a dark and stormy night in the mind of an eighteen-year-old girl. It united mythology with science, and philosophy with electricity in a new and revolutionary way that has forever impacted literature and culture.

2. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)-

If any science fiction story can be called modern mythology, this one can. It has inspired countless copies, spinoffs, spoofs, and remakes, as well as retaining its distinction as an individual work of classic literature. Whether or not you enjoyed reading it in your literature class, you have probably enjoyed something that was inspired by it, such as the Star Trek episode, “The Enemy Within”.

1. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (1898)-

Yes, he’s back again. The War of the Worlds has fascinated and frightened audiences from the beginning. Not only was it popular as a serial story, then as a complete novel, but it also made radio history when presented in Orson Welles’ legendary broadcast, and spawned several silver screen adaptations. If I say it is the quintessential alien invasion story one more time, will you guys be mad?

What are your favorite 19th century sci-fi stories? Which ones are you planning to pick up this summer? How have you enjoyed our trek through sci-fi history so far? I’d love to hear from you in the comments. Don’t forget to come back next Wednesday as we dive into a new century of science fiction!

Keep on glowing in the dark,

Elora

Visions of the Future: The 1890s- Not Quite Utopia

The Gilded Age. The Victorian Era.The Second Industrial Revolution. The decade of the 1890s was a period of great wealth and prosperity for some, but a period of poverty and upheaval for others. The science fiction of the era was revolutionary, and set a precedent for what was to come in the succeeding centuries.

History:

The great struggle for the American continent continued with the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890 between the Lakota tribe and the United States Cavalry. This was only one of the many continuing revolutions and internal conflicts that marked the decade.

The Panic of 1893 occurred in the United States after the railroad-based, overbuilt economy crashed. Yet, America still got involved in the war for independence in Cuba, leading to the Spanish-American war in 1898.

Some other notable events of the decade include the Klondike Gold Rush, and the commencement of the modern Olympic games.

Science:

[Still from Blacksmith Scene]

Inventors in the 1890s had a fixation with flight and travel. A notable milestone in flight history was the Derwitz Glider, a manned craft created and flown by Otto Lilienthal in 1891. The first commercial automobiles were produced by French company Panhard et Levassor in the same year.

Thomas Edison created the first motion picture device, the Kinetoscope, during 1893 and 1894. The first film, Blacksmith Scene, was shown at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences on May 9, 1893.

Several discoveries were made in the fields of chemistry and physics during the 1890s. Within one decade, the elements argon,neon, krypton, and xenon were discovered, as well as the X-ray.

Stories:

In 1890, William Morris wrote News From Nowhere, a romanticist, Marxist utopia story he used to defend socialism.

Author of the highly intellectual Lumen, Camille Flammarion published Omega: The Last Days of the World in 1894. It was about a comet made of Carbonic-oxide, which collided with earth in a fictional 25th century.  The story was very philosophical, as was its predecessor, and contemplated the consequences of an apocalyptic catastrophe.

And then there was H.G. Wells. Considered by many to be the Father of Modern Science Fiction, Wells revolutionized the science fiction landscape by intelligently and skillfully exploring the concepts that would become staples of the genre in the century to come.

In 1895, Wells published The Time Machine, the story of one traveller’s magnificent voyage through the fourth dimension to the far future, and the dystopian posthuman society he finds there. 1896 saw the publication of Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau, in which a mad scientist attempts to create intelligent animals through bizarre and unethical experiments. Finally, in 1898, H.G. Wells wrote the quintessential alien invasion story, The War of the Worlds, a frightening disaster tale of survival in the midst of strange and unbeatable odds.

What better place to transition into the science fiction of the twentieth century than with the classic works of H.G. Wells. As the century turned, science fiction reached a turning point as a genre.

Keep on glowing in the dark,

Elora

Top-5 Tuesday- Most Influential Early Utopias

The concept of Utopia has been around since long before Thomas More coined the word. From as early as the construction of the Tower of Babel, mankind has been looking to regain the world of perfect harmony it lost at the fall. Since sci-fi offers speculative commentary on the human condition, it makes sense that the subgenres of utopia and dystopia are prominent within the genre. Utopian fiction was, in fact one of the best represented subgenres of sci-fi in the first century of science fiction.

So, here are some of the most thought-provoking and influential perfect-world stories, which shaped fiction and society in the years following their release.

5. A Crystal Age by W.H. Hudson (1887)-

A strange and fantastic tale of a simple, peaceful, post-apocalyptic world, and the modern man who struggles to adapt. A Crystal Age is notable for defining the pastoral utopia- a perfect world free from technology and industrialization- and for predicting the ecological spiritualism which is prevalent in our century.

4. The Crater by James Fenimore Cooper (1847)-

Written by all-American Romanticist James Fenimore Cooper, this lost-island utopian story comments on the struggle between colonialism and native peoples.

3. Erewhon by Samuel Butler (1872)-

Erewhon, an anagram of ‘nowhere’, is not a utopia in the traditional sense of the word. The world of Erewhon is not perfect, though it is also not bad enough to be classified as a dystopia. Samuel Butler used his story to poke fun at Victorian society.

2. Utopia by Thomas More (1516)-

Long before science fiction was an established genre, Thomas More gave later writers something to think about when he coined a new word for an old idea. Utopia, meaning both ‘good place’, and ‘no place’, was the title of his fictional depiction of his idea of the perfect society.

1. Looking Backward: 2000-1887 by Edward Bellamy (1888)-

Bellamy’s novel depicted a future American utopia governed by the principles of socialism. Not only was it one of the best-sellers of its time, but it also inspired a movement to implement the ideas contained within. Readers were attracted to the harmony and order found in the book, and some even started experimental communities in an attempt to build utopia from the ground up.

The study of utopian fiction is a fascinating, though sad one. People have striven for millennia to find peace with themselves and their fellow men. Utopian literature gives us a well-preserved peek at some of the tried-and-failed ideas of past visionaries. We see questions without answers- questions that cannot be answered apart from reconciliation between humanity and its creator.

Keep on glowing in the dark,

Elora

Visions of the Future: The 1880s- The New World

Automobiles, aircraft, Coca Cola, the 1880s saw the beginnings of many cultural and scientific phenomena that are commonplace in today’s world. After this decade, the status quo of society would be forever changed.

History:

War seems to be a constant in human history. When one uprising is quelled somewhere, another skirmish begins somewhere else. The American Indian Wars which had been raging since colonists first came to the American continent, continued into the 1880s, bringing with them the same bitterness and cruelty they had always carried. A milestone in the struggle occurred in 1881, when Chief Sitting Bull of the Lakota people was forced to surrender to the American army with 186 of his men.

1881-82 were marked by four assassinations, and one failed assassination attempts. In 1888, the world was baffled and appalled by the slew of unsolved murders committed by the mysterious “Jack the Ripper”.

However, in spite of all the bloodshed, many interesting advances were made in various areas of study. In 1884, a conference was held to decide where the Prime Meridian was on the globe.

Also, I will have you know that in 1886, the Moody Bible Institute was founded. It is a fine institute which I am currently attending.

Science:

The 1880s saw an explosion in science and technology that revolutionized the world and changed the status quo. Society began to look more and more like what we see today. Steel frame skyscrapers began to rise, changing the landscape of cities around the world, and the first attempt at the Panama Canal was made.

An army airship called the La France was first launched in 1884. The same year, the Nipkow disc, an early image scanning disc that gave way to inventions such as television was invented. The next year, 1885, Benz patented the motorwagen, which was the first automobile. In 1886, the first commercial automobiles were released. Another interesting cultural development began when Coca Cola was first distributed in 1887.

Stories:

In 1884, E.A. Abbott produced Flatland. Though more of a mathematical adventure than a scientific one, it still carries many of the traits of the sci-fi of this era. It described a two-dimensional world inhabited by shapes, points, and lines with personalities, and their view of the world. Of course, it was meant to provide Abbott’s commentary on his own society.

In 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote the ground-breaking classic The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which explored the nature of mankind, and the relationship between good and evil. These concepts and the characters that embody them have since been expounded on and parodied to no end.

This same year, Jules Verne wrote another airborne adventure, Robur the Conqueror. It told the tale of a crazed man named Robur, who took over the world using airplanes.

1888 saw another milestone novel in the history of the utopian genre. Edward Bellamy wrote Looking Backward: 2000-1887, which told of a man who fell asleep in 1887, and awoke in the socialist utopia that would be America in 2000, according to Bellamy’s reasoning.

Also in that year, Albert Robida wrote a realistic future war story called The Twentieth Century War, which would go on to inspire Arthur C. Clarke; and W.H. Hudson wrote of a postapocalyptic society in A Crystal Age.

In 1889, Mark Twain, (yes, Mark Twain of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn), made advances in the subgenre of time travel with A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. It is a comedic tale in which the titular Connecticut Yankee ends up in the titular King Arthur’s Court and attempts to civilize Camelot according to his 19th century sensibilities.

Worldview:

German philosopher Friedrich Nietzche rose to prominence around the 1880s. He is both famous and infamous for declaring the death of God, and for questioning nature of truth and reality. His thoughts are especially influential in the modern day as they pertain to the worldview of Postmodernism.

The 1880s saw a shift in the world from the way things had always been. Technology and philosophy were shaping the society in ways they never had before, and especially through the medium of science fiction.

Keep on glowing in the dark,

Elora