Subscribe Feed (RSS)Which science fiction authors are the most political and comment the most on society?
November 9th, 2008 by Admin | Filed under Other - Social Science.
dyannamika asked:
I am looking for authors with a solid commentary on society, politics, or international relations.
H G wells probably(spelling could be wrong)
ISAAC ASIMOV..
of all the science fiction authors i’ve read i find that isaac’s novels put forward a picture of the society as it should be if what his imagination on progress of science really takes place. I mean to say the effect of science on the society of the future is brilliantly put forward by him. As far as politics is concerned i am not sure……but social view i dare say isaac is a pioneer
I think Stanislaw Lem is a good example. Irony always is a good weapon to comment on issues.
I sudgest –
The Futurological Congress (From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy)
NY: The Seabury Press (A Continuum Book), 1974
The Star Diaries
NY: The Seabury Press (A Continuum Book), 1976 & London: Secker & Warburg, 1976
(1. “The Eighteenth Voyage” and “The Twenty-fourth Voyage”, which are not included in this transl., were later transl. by Joel Stern & Maria Swiecicka Ziemianek in Memoirs of a Space Traveller (1982).
2. “The Twenty-fourth Voyage” was also transl. by Jane Andelman and included in D. Suvin (ed.) Other Worlds, Other Seas (1970).
3. “The Thirteenth Voyage” was transl. as “The 13th Journey” by Harry Stevens and included in Maria Kuncewicz (ed.) The Modern Polish Mind (1962). It was also transl. by Thomas Hoisington and included in D. Suvin (ed.) Other Worlds, Other Seas: SF Stories from Socialist Countries (1970).
4. “The Seventh Voyage” & “The Fourteenth Voyage” were repr. in The Cosmic Carnival of Stanislaw Lem (1981).
5. Few last pages of “The Twenty-second Voyage” have been omitted in the translation, most likely because of their controversial, anti-clerical and anti-American subject, which could offend some American readers (for example those in the so-called `Bible Belt’ in the Southern USA, where Darwin’s theory of evolution is still fiercely fought by the creationists). See also Liro’s Stanislaw Lem in Translation in The Polish Review vol. XXXVII No. 1 of 1992 pp. 63-65.
6. “Introduction” & “Introduction to The Expanded Edition” are attributed (by Lem) to professor A.S. Tarantoga.)
Peace on Earth
San Diego & NY: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1994
Maybe more. The reason he is not well recognised in US is that he critisesed not only USSR, but US as well, and (more important) made some nasty remarks about US/Western science fiction.
Frank Herbert’s Dune
Isaac Asimov’s first two Foundation Novels
Joe Haldeman The Forever War
There are others. Can’t think of them at the moment.
It’s hard to pin one down.
There is always Orson Scott Card – he even writes political pieces on the side of writing books.
“Enders Game” & “Speaker for the Dead”.
“The Worthing Saga”
for some shorter fiction try his “Maps in the Mirror”
and then there is David Brin and all the Uplift books, plus the stand-alone novel called “Earth”.