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Science Fiction Day
January 2, 2022
Science Fiction Day is celebrated on January 2nd each year.
Why?
It coincides with Issac Asimov’s birthday – a well-known author of famous science fiction books like “I, Robot” and “The Bicentennial Man”.
from Lone Star College Research Guides:
Science fiction is is a type of speculative fiction which explores “life as it would be were some scientific premise actually true,” whether that’s the reanimation of corpses, faster-than-light travel between star systems, or overly-smart AIs (Kroon). Mary Shelley is widely considered to have started the genre with her book Frankenstein, the classic mad scientist tale published in 1818. Edgar Allan Poe continued the movement, which solidified with Jules Verne in the very late Victorian period (“Science fiction (sci-fi)”). Sci-fi very quickly switched from literary works to movies once that technology was introduced, like the 1902 French film A Trip to the Moon. However, the genre at this point was still very limited and easy to keep up with. The actual term “science fiction” wasn’t even coined until 1929 (Harris-Faine)! It wouldn’t be until the 1950s that content exploded (Gunn and McKitterick).
But what’s really sci-fi?
What’s “real” sci-fi? Some fans and authors argue that hard sci-fi — or sci-fi that focuses on technological innovation, engineering, and science — is the only way to go. For example Weir’s The Martian is very rooted in near-future or actual technology getting his character to (and surviving on) Mars. “Hard” sci-fi is arguably more plausible. Soft sci-fi explores society and relationships more — sure, we meet aliens on another planet who we can talk to, but what happens next?
For more information, check out the website.
Other websites (for ideas) include: