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Genial is the word for Isaac Asimov's writing. His characters are not all-conquering supermen [with the wisdom of Solon, the nobility of Sir Galahad and the instincts and manners of a bumptious brat] but simple human beings. |
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However, by having future men revert to feudalism, Asimov makes them even more naive than they are today. As a result, his characters, tho warm, are shallow. |
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Fritz Leiber, "Science-Fiction Novels of Spies in Far Future," Chicago Sunday Tribune Magazine of Books, 10 June 1951, p. 2 |
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Science fiction is an undefined term in the sense that there is no generally agreed-upon definition of it. To be sure, there are probably hundreds of individual definitions but that is as bad as none at all. Worse, perhaps, since one's own definition gets in the way of an understanding of the next man's viewpoint. In this book, for instance, we have eleven different essayists on the subject, no two of whom, probably, would agree exactly on what it was they were discussing. |
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Under the circumstances, I think it best to make a personal definition here. As I am writing this without having read the other contributions, there is the chance of possible duplication. I'll risk that. |
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I should stress that my own definition is not necessarily better than the next man's or more valid or more inclusive or more precise. It simply expresses my way of thinking and will serve to lend a framework to this chapter. |
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About a year ago, I wrote an article for The Writer which I called "Other Worlds to Conquer." In it, I defined science fiction as follows: Science fiction is that branch of literature which is concerned with the impact of scientific advance upon human beings. |
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I intend to stick to that definition here, with a single slight modification which I will come to in a moment. I find intellectual satisfaction in the definition because it places the emphasis not upon science but upon human beings. After all, science (and everything else as well) is important to us only as it affects human beings. |
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The modification I wish to make in the definition is made necessary by the fact that it narrows the boundaries of science fiction to a greater extent than most people are willing to see it narrowed. For that reason, I would like to say that my definition applies not to "science fiction" but to a |
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