| Often,
a writer attempts to create in his writing what he imagines
may one day become reality. Space travel is an example
that was for years deemed impossible by many people, as,
earlier, the idea of heavier than air flying machines
had been derided. As late as 1946, Arthur C Clarke's vision
of a network of satellites circling the globe was dismissed
by many as being very far-fetched.
In some cultures, farsighted visionaries have even been
persecuted for their daring imaginings - Gallileo's
work was considered the wildest fiction by his opponents
at the time. Today, as we learn more and more of the
real world, fact and fiction become ever more closely
intertwined. The work of Stephen
Hawking has all the interest and excitement of the
best science fiction.
The
work of H G Wells and Jules
Verne continues to be enormously popular. In the
early part of this century, their names were synonymous
with science fiction. Wells had a parallel career as
a novelist, and considered his "alternate" output a
means of financing his other work. The depth and insight
extent in almost all his novels is not found in his
science fiction: the strength of the latter is in his
vision, rather than any philosophical, or psychological
unravelling. Even with the sophistication and advanced
knowledge of the 1990s, The Time Machine, The
War of the Worlds, and The Invisible Man
are never out of print.
Recent
advances in the field of medicine have brought us closer
to the world of Robert Louis Stevenson's Jekyll
and Hyde, which has exercised continuing fascination
throughout the world since its publication. Stevenson's
themes have been a source of inspiration to generations
of writers in this field.
The later half of this century has seen the development
of some towering talents in the realm of S.F. As well
as the very popular Clarke, Blish and Heinemann, Isaac
Asimov and Philip
K Dick have opened up new areas. Asimov took up
Karel Kopec's idea of a robot and created a magnificently
realised universe of androids, now built upon by many
followers. Closely associated with this is the field
of A.I.
- artificial intelligence. The computing genious
Alan Turing
wrote that, had the same resources been devoted to A.I.
as had been devoted to numerical-based programming,
we might be as far advanced in the one field as the
other.
The present decade has seen an apparently exponential
availability of science fiction. Both in the UK and
abroad, backers have recognised it as a money spinner,
and consequently are prepared to put funds into film,
TV and books. This may be traced back to the sixties
and seventies, when in a sequence of events which (if
not well-documented) would be considered improbable
fiction - the fans refused to accept the loss of Star
Trek. A decade later, the enormous success of Star
Wars, combining elements of many other genres, gave
further impetus to the popularity of science fiction.
After having been for years separated from the mainstream
of literature, science fiction now comes from surprising
sources. The late, great, Dennis
Potter used the form for his final work. I held
my breath waiting to see his last two series, written
whilst he knew he was dying from cancer, but they both
matched up to the astonishing standard he had set in
the sixties, and (with few exceptions) maintained since
then. Cold Lazarus, and his penultimate work,
Karaoke, were the first works ever to be shown
on both BBC and commercial television within a few weeks,
carrying out Potter's expressed wish that this should
be so. They were also shown at the National Film Theatre
prior to transmission. |
