S is for 'Science Fiction'

I’ve already done a post on R is for Reading, but I’m dedicating a post to science fiction since I feel it deserves one. I loved E.T and ‘Back to the Future’ as a child. I also enjoyed Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton back in the 90s when I was in high school. I’ve watched the movie, too, numerous times over the years. The movie has spun off sequels, too.

One of the earliest science fiction writers was H.G. Wells who wrote The Time Machine. Some best-selling science fiction writers include Michael Crichton and some books of Dean Koontz. I read a lot of Michael Crichton in high school.

My mom’s first science fiction novel was ‘Brave New World’ by Aldous Huxley. She was 18 when she read it. In fact, even my English teacher from high school had asked us to read this book along with 1984 by George Orwell when we were in Class 10. Recently, my mom read Blake Crouch’s Wayward Pines trilogy. The same author’s ‘Recursion’ is also doing well.

Many of the science fiction stories have been converted into movies. The star Wars and Star Trek franchises are the delight of every science geek. In fact, most of the characters on the show ‘The Big Bang Theory’ expend their time extolling the virtues of these franchises.

There are some novels, which outline doomsday scenarios and talk of an apocalyptic future, which is rather bleak. Contact with alien civilizations has been dealt with many a time, most notable through Steven Spielberg’s E.T ( which I mentioned earlier)  and Contact by Carl Sagan.

We have a whole compendium of Arthur C Clarke’s work at home, which runs into 1000 pages, but I haven’t delved into it yet.  My dad has a read a few of the stories, and he says the writer predicted communication satellites in the 1940s itself. In the Arthur C Clarke compendium, the author notes in his foreword written in June 2000, “By mapping out possible futures, as well as a good many improbable ones, the science fiction writer does a great service to the community. He encourages in his readers flexibility of mind, readiness to accept and even welcome change — in one word, adaptability. Perhaps, no attribute is more important in this age. The dinosaurs disappeared because they could not adapt to their changing environment. We shall disappear if we cannot adapt to an environment that now contains spaceships, computers — and thermonuclear weapons.”

Here’s WIRED magazine’ s list of top science fiction reads. I intend to explore this genre more in the coming years. Do let me know if you enjoy science fiction in the comments section.