The Mechanics of Wonder: The Creation of the Idea of Science Fiction

Offering a sustained argument about the idea of science fiction, this volume aims to overturn many received opinions and sacred cows. The author contends that Hugo Gernsback, for decades a derided figure, was the true creator of the genre, and examines the way in which the Gernsback tradition was adopted and modified by later magazine editors and early critics. This involves a re-evaluation of the importance of John W. Campbell to the history of science fiction, as well as a critique of Robert Heinlein’s Beyond the Horizon , one of the seminal texts of Amerian science fiction. In conclusion, Westfahl uses the theories of Gernsback and Campbell to develop a descriptive definition of science fiction, and explores the ramifications of that definition.