Who is the father of science-fiction?

[Deleted]

Did everyone lose their god damn minds?

Its Isaac Asimov, 100% hands down.


(or the person who created religion )

Asimov: Born in 1920
Jules Verne: Born in 1828

It's quite obvious who wrote crazy shit first.

[Louisa Bannon]

I consider Mary Shelley to be the mother of sci-fi, like I stated in the OP.

Wow, I have to admit I totally missed that. I think I was being pressured to leave my desk and go out for dinner.

But...!

The answer is then Percy Bysshe Shelley because he significantly co-authored the same work, Frankenstein.

More here:
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...n-1017483.html

Mary's hand manuscript now online here:
http://shelleygodwinarchive.org/contents/frankenstein/

I think I am in the camp that claims Mary Shelley authorship with the very heavy hand of her wildly influential editor Percy or PBS.


Mar 11, 1818

[Elim Garak]

Well, it should be one of these:
1. Percy Bysshe Shelley
2. Lord Byron
3. John William Polidori

[schwarzkopf]

If Mary Shelley is considered to have written Science Fiction (which I disagree with), then one would have to say the father of science fiction is a Sumerian and the author of "Epic of Gilgamesh" from around 2000 BCE.

Then we move on to Ramayana including submarines and space ships (500 BCE).

Then the Greek Aristophanes with The Clouds and The Birds etc (400 BCE)

Then we head to the middle east with Arabian Nights (around 800-1000 CE).

There are countless robots, space ships and who knows what going back over a thousand years in fictional works.

[Louisa Bannon]

If Mary Shelley is considered to have written Science Fiction (which I disagree with), then one would have to say the father of science fiction is a Sumerian and the author of "Epic of Gilgamesh" from around 2000 BCE.

Shaka, when the wall fell.

So, cranky...

[schwarzkopf]

Shaka, when the wall fell.

I separate Science Fiction out from Science Fantasy.

To me Asimov is the father of real Science Fiction ... but that's just a significant bias

- - - Updated - - -

Asimov came long after the genre was a thing.

Asimov made the Science Fiction genre ... if you consider Science Fiction as distinct from Science Fantasy as I do

[Fonduset]

Whoever wrote the bible

[Lynarii]

When I think the "Father of Science Fiction" I think about the first big names in what would properly be considered modern science fiction. So while I can understand an argument to be made that Gilgamesh was a SF story, not only do we not really have a specific author for it, but most people would not expect to see it in the Science Fiction section of their local bookstore.

As such, and since the OP already established Mary Shelley's contribution to the genre, I would also have to look at names like Verne and Wells. And between the two, I look at Verne's own words that his novels were never intended to be scientific in nature, he invented nothing, and that his association with science fiction was a result of the copious amounts of research that went into his adventure novels. Bluntly, I feel it takes more than the presence of speculative science to make a science fiction. Wells, however, fully intended to use science as the platform for his works of fiction. Therefore I'd end up giving the distinction to H. G. Wells.

[Crillam]

Mythology is science fiction?

More like fantasy.

[Lynarii]

I separate Science Fiction out from Science Fantasy.

To me Asimov is the father of real Science Fiction ... but that's just a significant bias

- - - Updated - - -



Asimov made the Science Fiction genre ... if you consider Science Fiction as distinct from Science Fantasy as I do

Just between H. G. Wells and Asimov, can you explain exactly what defines one of them as 'science fantasy' and the other as 'science fiction'?

[klogaroth]

Surely the great prophet L. Ron Hubbard.

[schwarzkopf]

Just between H. G. Wells and Asimov, can you explain exactly what defines one of them as 'science fantasy' and the other as 'science fiction'?

H.G. Wells placed no restrictions on his story - he let his mind fly free which is why is stories are so good.
Asimov allowed one conceptual change to reality as he knew it, then constrained his story with those limits. - that is where hard core science fiction came into being (and when science fiction started inspiring real science etc).

[Lynarii]

H.G. Wells placed no restrictions on his story - he let his mind fly free which is why is stories are so good.
Asimov allowed one conceptual change to reality as he knew it, then constrained his story with those limits. - that is where hard core science fiction came into being (and when science fiction started inspiring real science etc).

Umm... you realize that what you are talking about is sometimes referred to as "Wells's Law" right? He was the person who is credited with that framework, where you should strive to only have a single fantastical element in good science fiction, and the rest should be as grounded in reality as you can make it.

[Dasharin]

Define "father"

By father do you mean first?...then yeah...Jules Verne and the like....
By father do you mean patriarch/leader?..then you need to discuss Clarke, Asimov, and Bradbury

[Lochton]

If Mary Shelley is the mother of science-fiction, who do you think is the father of the genre?

I would say H.G Wells or Jules Verne...

I'd have to say Jules Verne, loved his works.

[Gratlim]

Jules Verne

[schwarzkopf]

Umm... you realize that what you are talking about is sometimes referred to as "Wells's Law" right?

H.G. Wells never practices that concept, and I'd never heard it attributed to him for that very reason.

[Mekkle]

Flat earthers.

[Lynarii]

H.G. Wells never practices that concept, and I'd never heard it attributed to him for that very reason.

I'm not sure how you get the idea that he never practiced that concept or that it's never attributed to him. It was a central tenant of how The Time Machine was written, and he spelled it out in the introduction to one of his later works. The only thing I can think of that you may be referring to is how Wells didn't generally go into great technical detail of things like how the machine worked, instead focusing on the story that he was presenting? Not explaining the odd element out is different than having no rules for how the worlds can work.

[Ghostpanther]

Gene Roddenberry before him nobody cared.

Are you calling me a nobody? lol! Before Star Trek, I really liked War of the Worlds and The Time Machine.

So for myself, I have to say H.G. Wells. It was his story of aliens invading, that even caused some public panic when Orson Wells told the story on radio.