4/16/2023 0 Comments Words of wonder 123![]() ![]() SF is a uniquely modern incarnation of an ancient tradition: the tale of wonder. To say that science fiction is in essence a religious literature is an overstatement, but one that contains truth. He continues:Īny child who has looked up at the stars at night and thought about how far away they are, how there is no end or outer edge to this place, this universe-any child who has felt the thrill of fear and excitement at such thoughts stands a very good chance of becoming a science fiction reader. However, the editor and critic David Hartwell sees SF's 'sense of wonder' in more general terms, as "being at the root of the excitement of science fiction". The magic of the realms of fantasy had been superseded by the fascination of speculation rooted in reality. It is this insistence on fundamental realism that has caused Verne's novels to be retrospectively seen as of key importance in the development of SF.-people in droves came to the books looking for adventure and got it, but with an edge of scientific inquiry that left them with a new, very different sense of wonder. George Mann suggests that this 'sense of wonder' is associated only with science fiction as distinct from science fantasy, stating: Numinous can be defined as that which arouses "spiritual or religious emotion" or is "mysterious or awe-inspiring".Īs a concept especially connected with science fiction They feel the loss of a "sense of wonder" because what was once truly confined to "wonder" has now become prosaic and mundane. Deep within, whether they admit it or not, is a feeling of disappointment and even outrage that the outer world has invaded their private domain. ![]() One of the major writers of the Golden Age, Isaac Asimov, agreed with this association: in 1967 commenting on the changes occurring in SF he wrote,Īnd because today's real life so resembles day-before-yesterday's fantasy, the old-time fans are restless. George Mann defines the term as "the sense of inspired awe that is aroused in a reader when the full implications of an event or action become realized, or when the immensity of a plot or idea first becomes known " : 508 and he associates the term with the Golden Age of SF and the pulp magazines prevalent at the time. It can be found in short scenes (e.g., in Star Wars (1977), it can be found, in a small dose, inside the line "That's no moon it's a space station.") and it can require entire novels to set up (as in the final line to Iain Banks's Feersum Endjinn.) In many cases, it is achieved through the recasting of previous narrative experiences in a larger context. John Clute and Peter Nicholls associate the experience with that of the "conceptual breakthrough" or " paradigm shift" (Clute & Nicholls 1993). The titles of the most popular sf magazines of that period- Astounding, Amazing, Wonder Stories, Thrilling, Startling, etc.-clearly indicate that the putative cognitive value of sf stories is more than counter-balanced by an affective power, to which, in fact, the scientific content is expected to submit. The so-called sense of wonder has been considered one of the primary attributes of sf at least since the pulp era. In the introductory section of his essay 'On the Grotesque in Science Fiction', Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr., Professor of English, DePauw University, states: Jon Radoff has characterised a sense of wonder as an emotional reaction to the reader suddenly confronting, understanding, or seeing a concept anew in the context of new information. a feeling of awakening or awe triggered by an expansion of one's awareness of what is possible or by confrontation with the vastness of space and time, as brought on by reading science fiction. In Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction the term sense of wonder is defined as follows: ![]() The following relates to the use of "sense of wonder" within the context of science fiction. This entry focuses on one specific use of the phrase "sense of wonder." This phrase is widely used in contexts that have nothing to do with science fiction. For other uses, see Sense of Wonder (disambiguation).Ī sense of wonder (sometimes jokingly written sensawunda) is an intellectual and emotional state frequently invoked in discussions of science and biology, higher consciousness, science fiction, and philosophy. ![]() For the 1985 Van Morrison album, see A Sense of Wonder. ![]()
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