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Scientific Romance
Scientific romance is an archaic, mainly British term for the genre of fiction now commonly known as science fiction. The term originated in the 1850s to describe both fiction and elements of scientific writing, but it has since come to refer to the science fiction of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, primarily that of Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and Arthur Conan Doyle. In recent years the term has come to be applied to science fiction written in a deliberately Anachronism, anachronistic style as a homage to or pastiche of the original scientific romances. History Early usages The earliest use of the term "scientific romance" is thought to have been in 1845, when critics applied it to Robert Chambers's ''Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation'', a speculative natural history published in 1844. It was used again in 1851 by the ''Edinburgh Ecclesiastical Journal and Literary Review'' in reference to Thoman Hunt's ''Panthea, or the Spirit of Nature''. In 1859 the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aerial House3
Aerial may refer to: Music *Aerial (album), ''Aerial'' (album), by Kate Bush, and that album's title track *Aerials (song), "Aerials" (song), from the album ''Toxicity'' by System of a Down Bands *Aerial (Canadian band) *Aerial (Scottish band) *Aerial (Swedish band) Recreation and sport *Aerial (dance move) *Aerial (skateboarding) *Front aerial, gymnastics move performed in acro dance * Aerial cartwheel * Aerial silk, a form of acrobatics * Aerial skiing Technology *Aerial (radio), a radio ''antenna'' or transducer that transmits or receives electromagnetic waves **Aerial (television), an over-the-air television reception antenna *Aerial photography Other uses *Aerial, Georgia, a community in the United States *Aerial (magazine), ''Aerial'' (magazine), a poetry magazine *Aerials (film), ''Aerials'' (film), a 2016 Emirati science-fiction film *''Aerial'', a BBC Two '1991–2001' idents, TV ident for BBC Two from 1997 to 2001 See also * Arial * Ariel (disambiguat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Georges Méliès
Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès ( , ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French magic (illusion), magician, toymaker, actor, and filmmaker. He led many technical and narrative developments in the early days of film, cinema, primarily in the Fantasy film, fantasy and Science fiction film, science fiction genres. Méliès rose to prominence creating "trick films" and became well known for his innovative use of special effects, popularizing such techniques as substitution splices, multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, Dissolve (film), dissolves, and Color motion picture film#Tinting and hand coloring, hand-painted colour. He was also one of the first filmmakers to use storyboards in his work. His most important films include ''A Trip to the Moon'' (1902) and ''The Impossible Voyage'' (1904). Early life and education Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès was born 8 December 1861 in Paris, son of Jean-Louis Méliès and his Netherlands, Dutch wife Johannah-Catherine Schuering. His ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Space Trilogy
''The Space Trilogy'' (also known as ''The Cosmic Trilogy'' or ''The Ransom Trilogy'') is a series of science fiction novels by British writer C. S. Lewis. The trilogy consists of '' Out of the Silent Planet'' (1938), '' Perelandra'' (1943), and '' That Hideous Strength'' (1945). A philologist named Elwin Ransom is the protagonist of the first two novels and an important character in the third. Contents Summary The books in the trilogy are: *'' Out of the Silent Planet'' (1938), set mostly on Mars (Malacandra). In this book, Dr. Elwin Ransom is kidnapped and transported to Mars. While there, he meets the planet's various inhabitants and discovers that Earth is exiled from the rest of the Solar System. *'' Perelandra'' (1943). Also known as ''Voyage to Venus''. Here, Dr. Ransom journeys to an unspoiled Venus (Perelandra), where he participates in a good vs. evil battle. *'' That Hideous Strength'' (1945), set on Earth. A scientific think tank called the N.I.C.E. (The National ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Hampdenshire Wonder
''The Hampdenshire Wonder'' is a science fiction novel by J. D. Beresford, first published 1911. It is one of the first novels to involve a wunderkind (child prodigy). The child, Victor Stott, is the son of a famous cricket player. This origin is perhaps a reference to H. G. Wells's father Joseph Wells, a cricketer. The novel concerns his progress from infant to almost preternaturally clever child. Victor Stott is deformed subtly to allow for his powerful brain. A prominent, and unpleasant, character is the local minister. As Beresford's father was a minister, and Beresford was himself partially disabled, some see autobiographical aspects to the story. However this is unproven. What is more definite is that the story of Christian Heinrich Heineken (1721–1725) was an inspiration for the story. Whether the biography of that child prodigy was accurate or not, "the Lubeck prodigy" is mentioned in the work. In the original version, the progressionist ideas of Henri Bergson con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olaf Stapledon
William Olaf Stapledon (10 May 1886 – 6 September 1950) was an English philosopher and author of science fiction.Andy Sawyer, " illiamOlaf Stapledon (1886-1950)", in Bould, Mark, et al, eds. ''Fifty Key Figures in Science Fiction''. New York: Routledge, 2010. (pp. 205–210) .John Kinnaird, "Stapledon,(William) Olaf" in Curtis C. Smith, '' Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers''. Chicago, St. James, 1986. (pp. 693–6). In 2014, he was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. Life Stapledon was born in Seacombe, Wallasey, on the Wirral Peninsula in Cheshire, the only son of William Clibbett Stapledon and Emmeline Miller. The first six years of his life were spent with his parents at Port Said, Egypt. He was educated at Abbotsholme School in Derbyshire and Balliol College, Oxford, where he acquired a BA degree in Modern History (Second Class) in 1909, promoted to an MA degree in 1913. After a brief stint as a teacher at Manchester Grammar Schoo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Star Maker
''Star Maker'' is a science fiction novel by British writer Olaf Stapledon, published in 1937. Continuing the theme of the author's previous book, ''Last and First Men'' (1930)—which narrated a history of the human species over two billion years—it describes a history of life in the universe, dwarfing the scale of the earlier work. ''Star Maker'' tackles philosophical themes such as the essence of life, of birth, decay and death, and the relationship between creation and creator. A pervading theme is that of progressive unity within and between different civilisations. Some of the elements and themes briefly discussed prefigure later fiction concerning genetic engineering and alien life forms. Arthur C. Clarke considered ''Star Maker'' to be "probably the most powerful work of imagination ever written", and Brian W. Aldiss called it "the one great grey holy book of science fiction". Plot A human narrator from England is transported out of his body via unexplained means ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Time Machine
''The Time Machine'' is an 1895 dystopian post-apocalyptic science fiction novella by H. G. Wells about a Victorian scientist known as the Time Traveller who travels to the year 802,701. The work is generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel by using a vehicle or device to travel purposely and selectively forward or backward through time. The term "time machine", coined by Wells, is now almost universally used to refer to such a vehicle or device. Utilizing a frame story set in then-present Victorian era, Victorian England, Wells's text focuses on a recount of the otherwise anonymous Time Traveller's journey into the far future. A work of future history and speculative evolution, ''The Time Machine'' is interpreted in modern times as a commentary on the increasing Distribution of wealth, inequality and Social class, class divisions of Wells's era, which he projects as giving rise to two separate human species: the fair, childlike Eloi, and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The War Of The Worlds
''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells. It was written between 1895 and 1897, and serialised in '' Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and ''Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US in 1897. The full novel was first published in hardcover in 1898 by William Heinemann. ''The War of the Worlds'' is one of the earliest stories to detail a conflict between humankind and an extraterrestrial race. The novel is the first-person narrative of an unnamed protagonist in Surrey and his younger brother who escapes to Tillingham in Essex as London and Southern England are invaded by Martians. It is one of the most commented-on works in the science fiction canon. The plot is similar to other works of invasion literature from the same period and has been variously interpreted as a commentary on the theory of evolution, imperialism, and Victorian era fears, superstitions and prejudices. Wells later noted that inspiration for the plot was the catastrophic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brian Stableford
Brian Michael Stableford (25 July 1948 – 24 February 2024) was a British academic, critic and science fiction writer who published a hundred novels and over a hundred volumes of translations. His earlier books were published under the name Brian M. Stableford, but later ones dropped the middle initial and appeared under the name Brian Stableford. He also used the pseudonym Brian Craig for some of his very early and late works. The pseudonym derives from the first names of himself and of a school friend from the 1960s, Craig A. Mackintosh, with whom he jointly published some very early work. Biography Born in Shipley, Yorkshire, Stableford graduated with a degree in biology from the University of York in 1969 before going on to do postgraduate research in biology and later in sociology. In 1979 he received a PhD with a doctoral thesis on ''The Sociology of Science Fiction''. Until 1988, he worked as a lecturer in sociology at the University of Reading. He was later a full-ti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dennis Overbye
Dennis Overbye (born June 2, 1944, in Seattle, Washington) is a science writer specializing in physics and cosmology and was the cosmic affairs correspondent for ''The New York Times''. Biography He has written two books: ''Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos'', about scientists and their quest to understand the universe, and ''Einstein in Love'', dealing with Albert Einstein's youth and the controversy surrounding the degree to which Einstein's first wife, Mileva Marić, contributed to the theory of relativity. He joined the staff of ''The New York Times'' in 1998 as deputy science editor, then switched to full-time writing. In 2014 he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting. Overbye retired from his position as cosmic affairs correspondent for the ''New York Times'' in December, 2024. Books * ''Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos: The Scientific Quest for the Secret of the Universe,'' Harper-Collins (1991), & (finalist, Nation Book Critics Circle Award for no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forgotten Futures
''Forgotten Futures'' is a role-playing game created by Marcus Rowland to allow people to play in settings inspired by Victorian and Edwardian science fiction and fantasy (i.e., steampunk). Most of its releases begin with these stories then add background material to explain the settings (often as alternate worlds, whose history diverges from our own), adventures, and other game material. Game system The base system uses three characteristics (Body, Mind, and Soul) and a range of skills; points are used to purchase characteristics and skills based on one or more of the characteristics. Skills and characteristics are used by opposing them to a target (such as a difficulty number, an opponent's skill or characteristics, etc.) using a 2D6 dice roll. Subsequent revisions to the rules add options including a Magic characteristic, melodramatic character traits, and other complications, but the core system remains unchanged. Rowland is believed to have pioneered the concept of share ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ronald Wright
Ronald Wright (born 1948, London, England) is a Canadian author who has written books of travel, history and fiction. His nonfiction includes the bestseller '' Stolen Continents'', winner of the Gordon Montador Award and chosen as a book of the year by ''The Independent'' and the ''Sunday Times''. His first novel, ''A Scientific Romance'', won the 1997 David Higham Prize for Fiction and was chosen a book of the year by the '' Globe and Mail'', the ''Sunday Times'', and ''The New York Times''. Early life and education He studied archaeology at Cambridge University and later at the University of Calgary, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1996. Career Wright has a background in archaeology, history, linguistics, anthropology and comparative culture. He has written both fiction and non-fiction books dealing with anthropology and civilizations. Wright was selected to give the 2004 Massey Lectures. His contribution, '' A Short History of Progress'', looks at the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
