Science Fiction Enters the Mainstream

The sudden and horrifying use of nuclear weapons in a way that had been predicted by science fiction for years brought the field a new prominence. Science fiction was read as serious literature for the first time, largely because it was judged to be predictive. In this early postwar era, major publishers were attracted to the field and brought out anthologies drawn almost exclusively from Astounding as well as reprinting older science fiction novels and publishing new works.

An additional expansion of the field occurred with the entrance of two new magazines, Galaxy (1950) and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (FSP, 1949). These magazines published most of the authors whose novels would legitimize the genre. Among them, Alfred Bester wrote ironic, skeptical stories about maicontents in corrupt societies and the relationships between androids (humanoid robots) and their human owners. Two of his novels, the Demolished Man (1953) and The Stars My Destination (1956), are classics. Walter M. Miller’s masterpiece, A Canticle for Liebowitz (1960), concerns the inevitably of repeated technological holocaust whenever the advance of science makes it possible. Philip K. Dick deals with notions of distorted perception, of the effect of artificial realities, or schizophrenic mind states, of illusion taking over from the real world.

Of the many other writers to start their careers in the 1950s science fiction magazines, two English authors are particularly significant. Brian Aldiss brilliantly advanced the starship as world plot (starship, 1958); J.G. Ballard’s physiological investigations of the significance of wrecked technologies, empty landscapes, and strange disasters made him one of the first authors of the so-called New Wave movement.