Customer Reviews

Mechanics of Wonder: The Creation of the Idea of Science Fiction (Liverpool University Press - Liverpool Science Fiction Texts & Studies)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In The Mechanics Of Wonder: The Creation Of The Idea Of Science Fiction, Gary Westfahl presents a sustained and documented argument for the importance of magazine editor Hugo Gernsback as being the true creator of what has become known as the science fiction genre. After initial chapters on Gernsback, Westfahl goes on to examine the way in which the Gernsback tradition was adopted and modified by later magazine editors and early critics., including a re-evaluation of the importance of John W. Campbell to the history of science fiction. The Mechanics Of Wonder will prove of immense interest to scholars of science fiction literary history and scifi enthusiasts with an appreciation of how a literary subgenre came to be a commonly accepted category of American literature and popular culture.