| Prehistory |
Progenitors
of science fiction can be found in fiction written before the pervasiveness
of the scientific method developed by Francis Bacon (1561-1626). |
|
| Homer |
Homer mentioned mechanical servants akin to robots in The
Iliad. |
|
| Lucian
of Samosata |
Lucian (born c. 125
A.D) wrote a number of satirical dialogues based on fantastic ideas.
He was the first writer
of interplanetary fiction.
Icaromenippos
or Journey Through the Air
describes a journey to the moon with the aid of strapped-on wings.
One of his more titillating
passages describes the custom in which Lunar inhabitants choose to wear
artificial private parts.
Thus Lucian is also
the first writer to describe prosthetic limbs and cyborgs!
|
|
| Cyrano
de Bergerac |
Cyrano
de Bergerac (1619-55), wrote Voyage to the Moon
(1657), in which a traveler fastens a quantity of small bottles filled with
dew to his body. The sun sucks him up with the dew and he lands on the moon. |
|
| Utopias |
|
|
Utopias
are descriptions of ideal societies. Great utopias are generally moral or
political in intention and thus are not really science fiction. |
|
| Plato |
Plato (c. 427-c. 348
B.C.) wrote The Republic, the
first utopia.
|
|
| Thomas
More |
Thomas More, minister
to King Henry VIII of England, later martyred for his refusal to acknowledge
Henry as the head of the Church in England, coined the term "utopia"
from the Greek meaning "not a place," or "nowhere."
More's Utopia
was published first in Latin (1516) and later in English (1551).
|
|
| Jonathan
Swift |
Swift (1667-1745)
wrote Gulliver's Travels in
1726. In this work Lemuel Gulliver embarks on four voyages:
- To Lilliput, where
inhabitants are six inches tall
- To Brobdingnag,
a land of giants
- To the flying island
of Laputa
- To the Land of
the Houyhnhnms, rational horses, and the irrational humanoid Yahoos
who serve them
While Gulliver's Travels
certainly contains elements of the fantastic, the work is satiric rather
than speculative in intent.
It also doubles as
a spoof on travel literature.
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