Liverpool science fiction texts and studies ;

This first volume looks at the exuberant years of the pulp magazines. It traces the growth and development of the science-fiction magazines from when Hugo Gernsback launched the first, Amazing Stories, in 1926 through to the birth of the atomic age and the death of the pulps in the early 1950s.

"These essays and reviews have been selected from work by a practising SF writer produced during a decade in which the stuff of science fiction became part of everyday life. Dreams of galactic empire did not come true, the Invaders from Mars (or from any other alien planet in our locality) are consigned to fantasy. But a great deal of the future imagined by Gwyneth Jones' generation of SF writers is actually with us; reality and science fiction are moving into close conjunction, so that SF is no longer the strange reflection and artistic elaboration of current pre-occupations. The subject matter of this collection is varied, but displays Jones' stance as a practising SF writer and a feminist; the writing is characterised by both an incisive engagement with the texts and a refusal to dress that engagement in jargon. This very readable book both provides insight into the work of one of our most interesting writers and presents strongsometimes even subversive - views of a range of modern SF and fantasy."--BOOK JACKET.

This volume explores the various dialogues that flourish between different aspects of science fiction: academics and fans; writers and readers; ideological stances and national styles; different interpretations of the genre; and how language and voices are used in constructing science fiction.

"This is a sustained argument about the idea of science fiction by a renowned critic. Overturning many received opinions and sacred cows, it is both controversial and stimulating." "Much of the controversy arises from Westfahl's resurrection of Hugo Gernsback - for decades a largely derided figure - as the true creator of science fiction. Following an initial demolition of earlier critics, Westfahl argues for Gernsback's importance. His argument is fully documented, showing a much greater familiarity with early American science fiction, particularly magazine fiction, than previous academic critics or historians. After his initial chapters on Gernsback, he 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 which is possibly as important as his re-evaluation of Gernsback, as well as a very interesting critique of Robert Heinlein's Beyond the Horizon, one of the seminal texts of American science fiction. In conclusion, Westfahl uses the theories of Gernsback and Campbell to develop a descriptive definition of science fiction and he explores the ramifications of that definition."--BOOK JACKET.