Where science fiction Came From
August 16th, 2010Where Science Fiction Cane From
(Only my personal ideas, of course).
As Sam Moskowitz has shown us, the genre goes back at least to Lucien of Samos?s account of a trip to the moon, circa, 150 AD, but the Odyssey pushes the genre back a few hundred years when the bronze man, Talos, who fought Jason and the Argonauts, and can claim to be the first robot. Of course, both of these stories are fantasies, by modern standards. They are also travelogues.
It ant of this is right, science fiction is a branch of fantasy, but is also an outgrowth of fantasy. The counter-argument is that science fiction as we know it really originated with Jules Verne and HG. Wells. Verne, however, mostly wrote travelogues, whether they be in the air, such as Six Weeks in a Balloon, on land, such as Around the World in Eighty Days, or underwater, as in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Personally, I feel this aspect has been ignored, as you?ve probably noticed from my stories. They?re all ?road? books ? I can?t seem to make anything happen until my heroes get away from home.
Of course, that puts me in with Joseph Campbell?s Hero of a Thousand Faces.
If any of you would like to comment on this, even disagree, please do.
Christopher Stasheff
August 11, 2010
Where Science Fiction Came From
August 11th, 2010New Arrival
July 8th, 2010Rejoice with me! I am now a grandfather for the fourth time. Reminds me of another novel I intend to write one of these years -- about Cordelia's and Alain's chldren, the boy being younger, and deaf. Big sister loves him dearly but is horribly jelous that he's going to become king and she'll always be only a princess. He tries to abdicate, even though he can't spell it -- Big Sister means more than the throne -- but they insist he has to be the heir. That doesn't stop her from saving him when he's kidnapped, of course.
The Seaman: A Ghost Book in the Machine?
June 21st, 2010Ever heard of a book called The Seaman? Neither have I. Which is odd, considering that I supposedly wrote it.
When my son was building this website, he kept coming across online references to a book called The Seaman, written by Christopher Stasheff, and published in 1997. It even had a ISBN number! He finally asked me which series it belonged to, or if it was a standalone novel.
He was surprised when I told him it wasn't one of mine. Apparently, he'd come across at least four different websites that listed this book in my list of novels. He just assumed it was just one of my books he hadn't gotten around to reading yet.
My first instinct was that The Seaman was a real book that had been attributed to me by an accidental typo (things like that happen all the time). As far as I can tell, though, there is no book by this title--or if there is, Amazon.com has never heard of it.
So where did this phantom book come from, and why was it attributed to me? I have no idea. My son theorizes it's what he calls an "internet ghost."
He tells me a "ghost" is inacurate information put on the internet by someone, somewhere, at some time. The origional author may have realized the mistake and taken the information down, but not before other people copied the information onto their own websites... and other people copied those... and other people copied those... until the information appears in so many places, people automatically assume it's true.
It's a fascinating concept. It's like watching a myth or legend arise in months instead of centuries. Gives me an idea for a St. Vidicon story, actually...
Now, I'm hardly an expert at seaching the internet, so I could easily have missing something. If anyone out there has ever heard of this novel, please let me know. It would solve the mystery, and... well, I'd like to read this book now, if it exists. I'm too curious not to.