Monday, September 4, 2017

SF themes according to Clare Winger Harris

Mrs. Harris was an early 20th-century SF writer.  In 1931, her list of "themes" was published in Wonder Stories, one of several pulp SF magazines of the day.  Here's the list:

1. Interplanetary space travel.
2. Adventures on other worlds.
3. Adventures in other dimensions.
4. Adventures in the micro or macro-cosmos.
5. Gigantic insects.
6. Gigantic man-eating plants.
7. Time travel, past or future.
8. Monstrous forms of unfamiliar life.
9. The creation of super-machines.
10. The creation of synthetic life.
11. Mental telepathy and mental aberrations.
12. Invisibility.
13. Ray and vibration stories.
14. Unexplored portions of the globe; submarine, subterranean, etc.
15. Super intelligence.
16. Natural cataclysms; extra-terrestrial or confined to the earth.


Let's see... Buddy only hits one of those, and that's 8.  And possibly 9, depending on what "micro-cosmos" means.  Mr. Wilson hits 1, 2, and 4.  It also includes 8 if one considers time dilation to be a form of time travel into the future.

Yet-to-be-published works: The Free Space books hit 1, 2, and 9.  The Wheel of Fire books hit 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 15.  Lol... Looks like I'm sort of throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the Wheel of Fire.  :D

I think Harris's list is a pretty good one, and surprisingly still relevant all these decades later.  Here's one of Mrs. Harris's stories, "The Fate of the Poseidonia."  It's about Martians trying to steal Earth's water.  Man, you just can't trust those darn Martians.  Free to read at the link.

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