Ancient Greeks And Modern Science Fiction

[zavvy]

<b>Ancient Greeks And Modern Science Fiction</b><br /><br />LINK<br /><br />New research into the Ancient Greeks shows their knowledge of travel inspired early forms of fantasy and science fiction writing. <br /><br />There is a long tradition of fantasy in Greek literature that begins with Odysseus' fantastic travels in Homer's Odyssey. Dr Karen Ni-Mheallaigh, at the University of Liverpool's School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, is exploring fantasy in ancient literature, examining theories of modern science fiction writing and how these can be applied to texts from the ancient world. <br /><br />Dr Ni-Mheallaigh is looking at the work of 2nd century AD writer, Lucian of Samosata, who wrote True Histories, a travel narrative that includes an account of a trip to the moon and interstellar warfare. Antihanes of Berge - who wrote about his travels in the far north of Europe, where it was so cold that conversations 'froze in the air,' - will also be examined, as well as the writer Herodotus who wrote about 'flying snakes; and 'giant gold-digging ants' in India. <br /><br />Dr Ni-Mheallaigh explains: "Fantasy writing in the ancient world is still relatively unexplored from a literary perspective. What is so interesting about these fantastical journeys is that many of them are written in the form of truthful travel logs and historical texts. The Greeks had a fascination with the exotic and other worlds and some writers travelled to the north and Far East to satisfy their intrigue. The cultures they found there were so different from their own that they were inspired to fantasize and speculate about even more remote and exotic worlds. <br /><br />"The Greeks seemed to have had an anxiety about writing pure fiction, and so writers who were notorious for their 'tall' tales – such as Ctesias, Antiphanes and Megathenes - would write about their adventures in the form of travel logs, or

 

[wmdragon]

so Frankenstein was not the first work of scifi as some think <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#993366"><em>The only laws of matter are those which our minds must fabricate, and the only laws of mind are fabricated for it by matter.</em> <br /> --- James Clerk Maxwell</font></p> </div>

 

[Aetius]

I love ancient literature. I finished reading "The Greek Romance Of Alexander The Great", by Pseudo-Callisthenes, a while back. It had A LOT of fantastic elements, like Alexander's journey to the bottom of the sea and the encounter with ball-shaped men. The book was intended to be a popular adventure yarn, and while it certainly wasn't Homer, it was entertaining. I love this stuff. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" />

 

[CalliArcale]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>so Frankenstein was not the first work of scifi as some think <p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />Oh goodness, no. Part of the trouble, of course, is the definition of "science fiction". Where it started depends on what you count as "science fiction". I can definintely see a case for much of ancient Greek literature. (I would exclude classical mythology, however. Those weren't so deliberately fictional, and people believed in them religiously. I think that puts them in a different class of literature.) Shakespeare's "Tempest" may count. I definintely think Thomas Moore's "Utopia" counts. (Many modern SF classics owe a lot to Moore; his book was clearly a dystopia hidden as a utopia, and that trope became very popular in the modern period.)<br /><br />"Frankenstein" did introduce several new concepts to the fold, however, and it's important to be aware of how hugely influential the book was. Mary Shelley was not writing in a vacuum, however. Many of the concepts were being used by other writers of the same period; experimentation with electricity in particular was a big thing, and there were those who seriously did think that you could acheive a kind of immortality using it, or at least reanimate the dead. (They weren't without basis; a scientist had recently proven that a dead frog's leg could move if you ran a current through the muscles, a really revolutionary discovery.) Actually, it's intriguing to read "Frankenstein: or the Modern Prometheus" nowdays because it provides a snapshot of the pop science of the day. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[JonClarke]

Gulliver's travels also has many SF aspects, using recent voyages of exploration to lend plausibility to the tale. Slightly off topic I've just finished reading a biography of the remarkable buccaneer, occasional pirate, hydrographer and author William Dampier who had a seminal literary influence on Swift, Defoe, and Colderidge, and scientific influence in Halley, Humbolt, Cook, Banks, and Darwin.<br /><br />Jon <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>

 

[wmdragon]

Voltaire scifi sounds familiar. what the name of the work? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#993366"><em>The only laws of matter are those which our minds must fabricate, and the only laws of mind are fabricated for it by matter.</em> <br /> --- James Clerk Maxwell</font></p> </div>

 

[ronprice]

EMBLAZONED SIGNPOSTS<br />The transience and formlessness of experience gives added luster to what we do and adds perspective. They also return the writer and, hopefully, the reader to the actual , living moment with an enhanced, heightened and reorganized perception of life’s value, of perceptual experience itself. Sometimes it does this through a combination of the ancient classical poetic tradition and the modern, the science fiction genre. -Ron Price with thanks to Greg Johnson, Emily Dickinson: Perception and the Poet’s Quest, University of Alabama Press, 1985, chapter 9.<br /> <br /><br />Making emblazoned signposts on my empty <br />stretches of time between there and eternity, <br />that abyss and the emperean, with these artistic <br />constructs, as old as Homer, helps me enhance <br />my engagement with the world; while friends now <br />gone, far from pity and complaint, as cool to my <br />speech as stone, warm my hearth but not my bone <br />with their tint of yesteryear where I find a home.<br /><br />These words may not last forever along with friends <br />of old, along with new associations long past their <br />frozen zone, long past what seems indifference, into <br />some pavilion keen, perhaps a fragrant, sweetened, <br />garden, deep in some scented scene, or plunged in <br />a sea of light where I have never been, <br />what I have never seen.<br /><br />Ron Price<br />13 January 1997<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />

 

[tyciol]

I never thought Frankenstein was... there were old legends of golems and the like.<br /><br />Anything involving magic and matter is basically scifi.<br /><br />Also... they play a big role, what with the greeks in DC and the norse in Marvel.