Is SciFi a genre that reflects societal health? I have the feeling that SciFi is a phenomenon that appears and disappears in waves depending on how well a society is function.
There was SciFi coming out of the communist block (Lem, Strugatsky brothers, Zamyatin) which was a comment on the system, there was SciFi from England in early 1900s (Wells) - comment on industrial revolution - and later Orwell - post war, societal controls - and Adams - the world should be more worried about external forces. In the US the genre appears to be a constant starting with Poe[1] followed by Huxley, Dick, Clarke, Asimov, Gibson, Bradbury, Heinlein commenting on all sorts of societal issues. And recently China with The Three Body Problem by Liu. France had Jules Verne but that was more for profit than comment on societal issues.
Coming back to the question, is the popularity of SciFi an indicator for potential fears within society? I know that my favourite bookstore recently had a run on PKD, the bookstore happens to be in mainland Europe.
And what is the relationship between SciFi and philosophy? Philosophy being one of those sciences whose purpose is to question societal forms, constructs and norms.
There was SciFi coming out of the communist block (Lem, Strugatsky brothers, Zamyatin) which was a comment on the system, there was SciFi from England in early 1900s (Wells) - comment on industrial revolution - and later Orwell - post war, societal controls - and Adams - the world should be more worried about external forces. In the US the genre appears to be a constant starting with Poe[1] followed by Huxley, Dick, Clarke, Asimov, Gibson, Bradbury, Heinlein commenting on all sorts of societal issues. And recently China with The Three Body Problem by Liu. France had Jules Verne but that was more for profit than comment on societal issues.
Coming back to the question, is the popularity of SciFi an indicator for potential fears within society? I know that my favourite bookstore recently had a run on PKD, the bookstore happens to be in mainland Europe.
And what is the relationship between SciFi and philosophy? Philosophy being one of those sciences whose purpose is to question societal forms, constructs and norms.
[1]=https://psyche.co/ideas/are-successful-authors-creative-geni...