Short Stories Science Fiction

What is Science Fiction?
Nightfall (Asimov, 1941)
Q1. What is different about the world of the story from the “normal” world? What elements make the world of the story seem strange and different from our own?
There are a number of elements in Nightfall that establish the planet’s difference from the normal world on earth. First, it is set on another planet, in a fictional universe. This universe is lighted by several, rather than one sun such as in our solar system. It is a place where there is endless daylight, and nightfall of any kind is viewed as catastrophic. The idea of night descending upon the planet is viewed as something conducive to mass hysteria and madness, and must be hidden from by the population of the planets’ citizens, like an end-of-the-world scenario.
Q2. What are the ways in which the author uses language that are characteristic of SF? Are there any words or phrases that the author seems to have created (neologisms) or is using in a very different way or context than is usual? What are they? What do you think they might mean?
Despite the fact that the situation described in Nightfall appears to have a kind of mythic dimension, there is also scientific jargon. The main protagonists speak of religion, such as the Book of Revelation, and cultists who prophesized the end of days with the coming of darkness. But they also have numbers as well as names, talk about the Law of Universal Gravitation, and there is an observatory by which scientists observe the stars that illuminate the planet. Asimov blends true aspects of the natural world, such as the human need for light and the law of gravity, and the technology of observation technology of space, with the scientific doublespeak of the scientists used to justify their fears about the loss of constant daylight.
Q3. What do you think the story is about? What ideas is the author trying to make us think about?
The story highlights how human beings fear and assign meaning to natural phenomenon. The level of madness and hysteria assigned to the coming of darkness seems strange to the reader, because nightfall is a natural aspect of our solar system. Because it seems unusual and is given a religious significance in the world chronicled in the narrative, it becomes a source of fear. The people are also distraught when they learn about the existence of other solar systems and galaxies, reducing the importance of their own planet, similar to how earthlings feel that their planet is all-important.
What is Science Fiction?
“Scanners Live in Vain” (Smith, 1950)
Q1. What is different about the world of the story from the “normal” world? What elements make the world of the story seem strange and different from our own?
The most disturbing element of “Scanners Live in Vain” is the creation of scanners, or people who have been cut off from all normal aspects of feeling other than being able to see and carry on the necessary functions to pilot a spaceship. Every now and then, the scanners will have a period of so-called cranching, or reconnecting to their human selves. In this new world, space travel is possible, and the scanners pilot the vehicles, because normal human beings will grow unhinged in space. Normal people are kept in a state of suspended animation on such spaceships.
Q2. What are the ways in which the author uses language that are characteristic of SF? Are there any words or phrases that the author seems to have created (neologisms) or is using in a very different way or context than is usual? What are they? What do you think they might mean?
The majority of the vocabulary of this short story is fictionalized. For example, the term scanner itself is created by Smith for the purposes of the tale, and it takes the reader several pages to fully understand the full implications of the scanner identity. Similarly, the phenomenon of cranching or becoming human that the central protagonist is wrestling with, which is made all the more poignant because he is married to a human woman, is a term specifically created for the purpose of the short story and to give a sense of being in a future world scenario.
Q3. What do you think the story is about? What ideas is the author trying to make us think about?
Although the short story is set in the future, the tale seems to be an intentional metaphorical parallel between the conformity of the 1950s when the story was written, more than an actual commentary on space travel or future technology. Individuals are actively dissociated from their true, human selves in order to better serve a societal function and to be good workers. But this seems to disassociate them from what being truly human is all about.
What is Science Fiction?
Microcosmic God (Sturgeon, 1941)
Q1. What is different about the world of the story from the “normal” world? What elements make the world of the story seem strange and different from our own?
Kidder, the central protagonist of the novella, is a kind of Dr. Frankenstein who creates his own race of rapidly-aging beings called Neoterics. Kidder, in the vein of typical mad scientists, begins to kill his own creation when they disobey his order. The strangeness of the story comes from the scientist’s ability to create synthetic life, first and foremost, and secondly his mad behavior in the belief in his ability to be able to create life in the first place.
Q2. What are the ways in which the author uses language that are characteristic of SF? Are there any words or phrases that the author seems to have created (neologisms) or is using in a very different way or context than is usual? What are they? What do you think they might mean?
The use of the tern Neoterics first and foremost to describe the new race gives the story a strange and unsettling quality. Kidder is referred to only by his last name, which likewise gives the scientist a strange and mechanical sound to both his identity and his behavior. There are also references to transmitters and radiophones, which do not necessarily play a critical role in the plot, but give a “science-y’ feel to the language, letting the reader know that he or she is in a mechanically populated world where the conventional scientific laws of our own do not apply.
Q3. What do you think the story is about? What ideas is the author trying to make us think about?
Like all Frankenstein-inspired tales, this story is a warning about the dangers of playing at being a god and acting as if science gives someone the moral right to control other people’s lives. Science often advances at a rate far beyond that of human beings’ ability to ethically comprehend its implications, which is a problem today with innovations in genetic technology, not just when the story was written. The central scientist in the story is dangerously powerful, and eventually his creation exceeds his control and attracts the interest of others (including bankers) who want to use the new race for their own purposes. At the end of the story, it is not clear who is in control.