On Science Fiction – Class 12 English Chapter 19 Notes & NCERT PDF

About the Author

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) was a Russian-born American author and biochemist. He was "exceptionally prolific", known for science fiction such as the Foundation series and robot stories, and for popular science books that explain concepts historically. The magazine Asimov's Science Fiction carries his name. The chapter joins two of his forewords:

Summary

Part I: The Prescientific Universe

"To every history there is a prehistoric period." Just as Ice Age art can hold its head up beside modern art, the "prehistoric aspects of science fiction" can be accomplished literature.

True science fiction is only about two centuries old. It needs the idea that "science and technology produce the future". People could only get that idea when change became noticeable within a lifetime, with the Industrial Revolution, by about 1800.

What came before? Earlier people had only "a dim understanding" of laws of nature. They thought the Universe was "the plaything of life and the will". Great events were caused by beings like us but bigger, the gods, pictured "in human form, but of superhuman strength". The gods were "whimsical and unpredictable" because nature seems senseless, easily offended because nature is often disastrous, and basically kindly because nature is often helpful.

People invented formulas to placate the gods. When the formulas failed, someone was blamed, so faith "never wavered". Asimov adds a joke: "We needn't sneer. By the same principle, we continue to have faith in economists, sociologists, and meteorologists today." The priest, magician, wizard or shaman filled the scientist's role.

Magic as prescientific technology:

Mythical monsters combine animals: the Centaur (man-horse), Satyr (man-goat), Sphinx (woman-lion), Harpy (woman-hawk), Gryphon (eagle-lion) and Gorgon (snake-woman). Science fiction's extraterrestrials are often built "on the same principle". Imagination is limited, "as Hollywood 'Sci-fi' constantly demonstrates".

Same goal, different universe. Myths and science fiction share a goal, "the depiction of life as we don't know it", and an emotional need, "the satisfaction of the longing for wonder". The difference is that myths are set in a Universe run by gods and demons, controlled by magical formulas: "enchantments to coerce, or prayers to cajole". Science fiction is set in a Universe run by "impersonal and unswervable laws of nature", controlled through understanding them.

Strictly speaking, only science fiction is valid today. But "Reality isn't all there is". We still thrill to Achilles and Hector and to wooden-ship battles. So Asimov, though "stick-in-the-muddish" in his definition, accepts sword-and-sorcery as "the equivalent of science fiction set in another kind of Universe—a prescientific Universe". He asks only that such stories be "self-consistent", "well-written and exciting".

Part II: The Universe of Science Fiction

Asimov jokes that editing anthologies may be "literary senescence". He lets his co-editors, Martin Harry Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh, handle "the more turgid aspects".

Background, not content. Science fiction is defined "not through its content but through its background". A sports story needs competition, a Western needs the cowboy's nomadic life, and a jungle story needs tropical dangers. Place any of these in a significantly different society and the genre stays, but it becomes science fiction too:

John W. Campbell, "the late great science fiction editor", said science fiction's domain is "all conceivable societies". Mainstream fiction is only "an inconsiderable fraction". Asimov agrees. But in "a moment of failure of nerve", Campbell said a science fiction mystery was impossible, because the broad possibilities would break the rules of fair play.

The danger he feared is a sudden change of rules. Asimov parodies it with Holmes's "pocket-frannistan" and "Q-rays, a little discovery of my own". Even Holmes identifying hundreds of tobacco ashes at sight is "a step in the direction of the unfair". Using real science is fair, but writers make bloopers:

It can be done. Writing one is difficult but not "conceptually impossible". The writer must explain "all the boundary conditions of the imaginary society", such as telepathy, light-speed transport or computerised knowledge. The reader must see every clue the investigator sees. Red herrings are allowed. "Can it be done? You bet!" Asimov points "modestly" to his own novels *The Caves of Steel* and *The Naked Sun* (1950s), written to prove Campbell wrong.

Themes & Arguments

Style

Asimov's tone is witty, self-mocking and conversational ("stick-in-the-muddish", "You bet!", "Modestly, I refer you..."). He is tolerant, even affectionate, towards the prescientific imagination, with gentle irony at modern "faith" in economists. He uses one-sentence paragraphs for emphasis ("Never!", "And I agree with him.", "Let's consider—"). Discourse markers such as "Let me explain the difference that makes", "Naturally", "Instead", "Nevertheless" and "After all" link his points.

Word Power

Board Exam Focus

Language work from the exercises:

Common Mistakes