Sometime in the late 60s
a civil war would begin
within the science-fiction community
on one side
stood the old guard
who looked for good clean stories
about good clean Science and engineering
on the other side
stood a movement of young radicals
that said science fiction could be every bit as revolutionary
every bit as abstract
every bit as sensual or gritty
as any other art
Their works would be called
the new wave
But before we can talk about the new wave
we have to talk
about some of the authors who led up to it?
Oh, that's right, baby extra scythe eyes back
This season of extra sci-fi is sponsored by the phenomenal folks at curiosity stream
The world's first streaming service
dedicated to the lifelong quest to learn
Explore and understand
to check out their excellent educational content free for 30-days
use the promo code extra credits at the link below
The new wave movement in sci-fi
was the final break from the Golden Age style of writing
It came amidst the anti-war protests
and the hippie counterculture
it drew heavy on the work of The Beat Generation
and found influences in the abstract art
and Impressionist movements
because it wanted to take sci-fi out of space
and put it in our backyards
it strove to be more literary
More symbolic
and more psychological than its predecessors
It argued
that science fiction of the past had three major flaws
First
that it presents us with stories
about radical technological change
But never acknowledges
that with great technological leaps
or great spans of time
The change in humans themselves
might be as great or greater
After all
today the way we think
might actually be closer
to that of an alien from a society of a similar technological level
than it would be to an ancient Greek
or medieval peasant
second
It felt that sci-fi had been too constrained in both style and content
the new wave brought insects
It brought in drugs
and it brought in more studied writing.
It decided that characters had to have depth
and should be well-rounded personalities
They could have flaws
struggle with depression
Battle addiction
just be lost
or merely listless
New Wave played with form
bringing a much more literary sense of style to science fiction writing
Showing that sci-fi
wasn't just a means to convey a story
but a thing of beauty itself
and it also brought symbolism to science fiction
providing layered stories
whose point
could be analyzed
discussed
and debated
and Third
it said that science fiction needn't have a slavish devotion to science
JG Ballard,
one of the mainstays of the movement
famously said
accuracy
that last refuge of the unimaginative
Doesn't matter a hoot
NuWave felt
that science fiction was by its very nature
speculative
and that no piece of sci-fi was going to actually be a hundred percent right
and in trying to be in
Exploring only the things that we at the time thought of as possible
rather than all of the things that were imaginable
we missed out on many aspects of human nature
The NuWave philosophy said
that Reese isn't all that makes up the human experience.
And for that matter
It isn't all that makes up a human being
so we better stop making human characters
purely rational
and only creating stories about problems that can be solved with logic
and this is where Ray Bradbury comes in
though
he wasn't part of the new wave
He came in well before it
but to me
He prepared part of the science fiction audience
to be ready to embrace it
if you read through the pages of the illustrated, man
you'll find it filled with psychological issues
it touches on depression and suicide
stress and poverty
it deals in the fantastic
the psychedelic
and theological
and it's stories address human themes
like race
religion
and surprisingly often
family life
and the raising of children
Bradbury himself
often said
he wasn't a science fiction writer.
He said he wrote fantasies or myths
later
He would say he was a magical realist
or simply a magician
who happened to write down ideas
But why?
because of the same rejection of the focus on
science and gadgets
that the new wave writers
would state outright a decade and a half later and
So his work
still stood as a bridge point
for many readers
It's still filled with rocket ships and time travel
distant planets and space aliens
But within those familiar trappings,
it was really about something more
It was trying to do something greater
in terms of themes and tone
It was trying to bring in
the human and the emotional
plus
it did more
linguistically and symbolically
pulling more from Shakespeare and Frost
than from Amazing Stories
and the later you go into his work
the more of it takes place on earth
often involving the fantastic and the allegorical
as in something wicked this way comes
Though in truth.
We see this tendency
all the way back
to what he called
his one true science fiction book
Fahrenheit 451
making the argument
that there was as much to think about
as much to find wonder in
right down here on earth
as there was
out there
But there's still a long way to go
before we get to the weird wonderful movement
that blew the doors wide open on what
Sci-fi was
we have to trace it to a darker
deeper
and more addled place
So join us next time
as we talk about the antecedent to the new wave
the movements anxious uncle
philip k dick
Zoe
start charging those electric sheep
thanks so much to
curiosity stream for sponsoring this season of extra sci-fi
their dedicated platform all about the love of learning is something we at ICI enjoy and
Are really proud to get behind
they've got thousands of documentaries and nonfiction titles
from some of the world's best filmmakers spanning science history
technology and nature
one of which that you will not at all be surprised that I've been enjoying
is called this secret life of cats where they follow
A kitten all the way to full-grown floofy feline.
I've now learned all of your secrets Joey, haha
I'm getting to that part and until January 5th 2020
They're offering 40% off their annual plans and gift cards for all this geeky goodness
Plus if you head to curiosity stream comm slash extra credits right now
and use the code extra credits, of course
You can get your first month. Absolutely free