‘Around the World in 80 Days’ — WHAT IS "SCIENCE FICTION"?

Today, Verne's novels are widely considered to be the origins of what is considered modern science fiction literature. Verne combined imagination with scientific detail, marrying the two in brilliant narrative with strong, clearly etched characters.

Though it is extremely difficult to pinpoint what exactly literary "science fiction" is, simplistically the genre is best described as novels using science to further the action. Author Isaac Asimov defined science fiction as "...that branch of literature which is concerned with the impact of scientific advance upon human beings."

The titling of science fiction as a separate genre dates to the early 20th century, when magazine publisher Hugo Gernsback called fiction in his science and inventions magazine "scientific fiction." When the stories became popular, he started a second magazine devoted entirely to this genre and called the stories "scientifiction." By 1929 he was calling the stories "science fiction" and the name stuck.

When Verne was writing in the nineteenth century, his books were called "extraordinary voyages" (though in America and Britain the genre was referred to as "scientific romances"). Verne was extremely careful to make sure that whether his story was about a trip to the moon or under the ocean, about a floating island that traveled around the world, or a machine that flew, that each detail was defined scientifically. His brother Paul, who was very astute at science, read Verne's proofs before they were sent to the publisher and he checked for any problems or impossibilities, giving Jules ideas about how he could more accurately describe the stories technological aspects.

One of the first authors to marry scientific advancements with fiction was Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849). Poe popularized "science fiction" and influenced many writers, including Verne, by writing not only that someone flew to the moon in a balloon, but described in detail how the balloon was built, what sort of gas it used, how it was launched, and what special arrangements had to be made so that its passengers could withstand the rigors of traveling is space. He took available technological facts into account and used them to make his story realistic and believable.

Other writers that subsequently popularized "science fiction" include H.G. Wells (1866 - 1946) who wrote The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and The War of the Worlds; Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, wrote The Lost World; Mark Twain, who wrote the time-traveling, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court; and William Rice Burroughs, the creator of Tarzan, who also wrote books such as A Princess of Mars.

More contemporary writers of science fiction include Frank Herbert, who wrote Dune, Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey, Ray Bradbury who wrote The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451, and Isaac Asimov, who wrote, among many others, The Foundation Trilogy.