Speculations on Speculation

James Gunn, emeritus professor of English at the University of Kansas, has published more than 36 books and nearly 100 short stories. His novels include The Immortals, The Joy Makers, The Listeners, and The Dreamers. He has published seven collections of short stories, including Future Imperfect and Breaking Point. As a professor, he taught fiction writing and science fiction, including a long-running intensive Writers Workshop in Science Fiction. His books about science fiction include Alternate Worlds: The Illustrated History of Science Fiction, Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction, Inside Science Fiction, and the six-volume The Road to Science Fiction.Matthew Candelaria has published articles on science fiction and is recipient of the 2003 Golden Quill Award from the L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future Contest.

There are at least two obvious responses to the statement that Speculations on Speculation a group of essay son science fiction criticism, is one of the two or three most exciting books, fiction or nonfiction, that I have read recently: first, I'velost my mind, which, given that I have at one point or another lost track of nearly everything else, is a distinct possibility; second, this book must be very stimulating indeed, which I happen to think is the correct answer....There are too many substantial and sometimes brilliant contributions to this collection to discuss them all in detail, or even in passing. They range from Darko Suvin's scholarly essays soaked in Russian Formalism through Barry N. Malzberg's brash and challenging commentaries, through a fascinating contribution by Alexei and Cory Panshin linking science fiction to the 13th century Sufi poet Ibn Arabi, to Ursula K. LeGuin's Science Fiction and Mrs. Brown, which is pure - well, pure LeGuin. And, as might be expected in a field thatis composed of individuals who are very strongly individual, there isn't much in the way of consensus: Suvin more or less dismisses the mythic element in science fiction, which is the focus of the Panshins' essay - a not untypical occurrence....Specul

• Part 1 AcknowledgmentsPart 2 IntroductionPart 3 Before We BeginPart 4 Part I: IdentificationChapter 5 1 Toward a Definition of Science FictionChapter 6 2 Coming to TermsChapter 7 3 Estrangement and CognitionChapter 8 4 The Number of the BeastChapter 9 5 On the Origins of GenreChapter 10 Part II: LocationChapter 11 6 SF and the Genological JungleChapter 12 7 The Readers of Hard Science FictionChapter 13 8 Science Fiction and "Literature" - or, The Conscience of the KingChapter 14 9 Science Fiction and Mrs. BrownChapter 15 10 I Could Have Been a Contender....Part 16 Part III: DerivationsChapter 17 11 Introduction to Trillion Year SpreeChapter 18 12 On the Origin of Species: Mary ShelleyChapter 19 13 The Roots of Science FictionChapter 20 14 Science Fiction and the Dimension of MythPart 21 Part IV: ExcavationChapter 22 15 Some Notes toward the True and the TerribleChapter 23 16 Wrong RabbitChapter 24 17 The "Field" and the "Wave": The History of New WorldsChapter 25 18 Space Opera RedefinedPart 26 Part V: InfatuationChapter 27 19 The Golden Age of Science Fiction Is TwelveChapter 28 20 Some Presumptuous Approaches to Science FictionChapter 29 21 TouchstonesPart 30 Part VI: AnticipationChapter 31 22 A User's Guide to the PostmodernsChapter 32 23 Science Fiction without the FutureChapter 33 24 SlipstreamPart 34 BibliographyPart 35 IndexPart 36 About the Contributors