After Class Writing: Golden Age SF, Asimov, and Bradbury

For today’s after class summary, write at least 250 words summarizing our lecture on Golden Age SF and your readings of Asimov’s “Reason” and Bradbury’s “The Fireman.” Copy-and-paste your summary into a comment made to this blog post. If you’re needing to catch up on a past after class writing assignment, please get it posted and email me to let me know that you’ve turned it in.

20 thoughts on “After Class Writing: Golden Age SF, Asimov, and Bradbury

  1. Saif Ahmed

    Saif Ahmed
    Prof Ellis
    ENG 2420
    10/22/2017

    The Golden age started with editing the Astounding stories and it ended after 1945 and the development was pushed further in the efforts of the war. The characteristics of golden age was focus on so called hard sciences, better writing, primarily an American phenomenon and centered around the first phase of John W. Campbell who was born 1910 and died 1971. John took other writers Science Fictions and criticized them so the writers can write better instead of adding childish phonics etc.…. Isaac Asimov born 1920 and died 1992 created his Science Fiction piece inspired by John W. Campbell of work using hard some hard Sciences from characteristics of golden age and the short story later was published in the Magazine Astounding. Reason a short piece in Astounding is about a team of Scientists on a space station create a robot to control a section of the station from gamma rays. The robot asked questions and it tried to reason with itself if humans or the controls are god or creators then he came to a conclusion regardless of him being build the parts are not owned by the humans but came from elsewhere so he tell all the robots to not work as they do not have a right on them. Then one day a ray is going to blow the space station up the Scientists plead for the robot to stop it they make a robot to prove they created him he says the parts are not your then because he respects the space station control god he controls the barrage. Next The Fireman by Ray Bradbury born 1920 and died 2012 is about a time where books get burned by Guy Montag a fireman who instead of controlling flames in buildings burns books because people have better things to do than just sit around and read books. Instead of reading books the city is doing things. Montag experiences many problems like his wife about to commit suicide a lady keeping books stashed away hidden and he got a call to go burn the books but the lady requested he burns her whole instead. Finally to sum up the whole story the society is under turmoil because through books and reading things in general makes one smarter and if they are being destroyed like a threat and people like reading and gaining intelligence from them on their free time then it will create a hectic society.

  2. Brianna

    Brianna Grant
    Eng2420 E255 Science Fiction
    Prof. Ellis
    City Tech
    23 October 2017

    Assignment #5

    During lecture on October 18,2017 Professor Ellis expounded on the topic of the Golden Age of Science Fiction. The Golden Age was an imaginative period of time. He also elaborated on the essential characteristics of the Golden Age of SF, the 3 Laws of Robotics and even John W. Campbell’s 4 Rules of Good Science Fiction.
    He began by elaborating about Issac Asimov (1920-1992) who published his own science fiction magazine in 1977 called the “Astounding.” He often took stories edited them and put them in a novel with a chronological theme. He was the beginning of science fiction fandom. A group called the futurists was an influential group and many became science writers in the Golden Age. Unlike many SF writers, Asimov was a trained scientist with a PhD in bio chemistry from Columbia. Asimov wanted science to be accessible to all. His theories were based on reason and experimentation along with science and technology to solve human problems. Unfortunately, Professor Ellis also mentioned that Asimov contracted HIV/AIDS in 1983 and died in 1992 as a result of the complications of his illness.
    Another topic in lecture was the 3 Laws of Robotics which stated

    (1) A robot may not injure a human being or through inaction allow a human being to come to harm

    (2) A robot must obey the orders given it to human beings except when such orders conflict with the first law.

    (3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second law.

    John W. Campbell (1910-1971) was a writer and editor of SF. He began writing SF during the pulp era and got noticed and even offered an internship with “Astounding” and even renamed it in 1938 “Astounding SF” and later in 1960 renamed it “Analog.” His works focused mostly on the so called hard sciences like biology, astronomy and even physics. Lastly, Professor Ellis explained John W. Campbell’s 4 Rules of Good SF which are:

    (1) Conditions of the story must differ from the here and now

    (2) New conditions must drive the plot of the story

    (3) Plot must revolve around human problems arising from the new conditions

    (4) No scientific facts may be violated without reasonable explanation.

  3. Rebecca D.

    Rebecca Delgado
    ENG 2420
    Professor Ellis
    10/24/17

    The Golden Age of Science Fiction was from 1937-1945. This was when science fiction was at its peak. John W. Campbell Jr. became the editor of “Astounding Stories” later “Astounding Science Fiction” in October 1937. The four characteristics of the Golden Age are focus on hard sciences (biology, physics, astronomy etc.), better quality writing, primarily an American phenomena and is centered around the first phase of John W. Campbell Jr.’s editorship of “Astounding Science Fiction.” Campbell’s four rules of good science fiction are; the story must differ from here and now, new conditions should move the plot along, the plot needs to revolve around human problems stemming from new conditions and no scientific facts may be violated without reasonable explanation.
    Two authors discussed in class were Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury. Isaac Asimov was a trained scientist and wanted science to be accessible to all. His short story, “Reason”, about a robot that questions its’ existence. In the story 3 Laws of Robotics was created; a robot may not injure a human being, must obey human orders unless it conflicts with the first law and must protect its own existence as long as the protection doesn’t conflict with the previous laws. Asimov connected all of his robotic short stories together so that they are told chronologically and make fit with one another. Ray Bradbury was the first science fiction writer whose work was reviewed by the New York Times. He has no formal education yet has read every book in the library. His short story, “The Fireman”, is about a society that burns books in the fear that its’ people will become too smart and rebel. Bradbury’s stories are poetic, nostalgic, and symbolic, and often intermix genres.

  4. Jia Du

    Jia Du
    Professor Ellis
    ENGLISH 2420
    10/24/2017

    On Wednesday, Professor Ellis started the class discussion about the Golden Age and the relationship of it to Science Fiction. John W. Campbell Jr. (1910-1971) was known for shaping Science Fiction during the Golden Age. Campbell was an editor of Astounding stories on 1937 until his death. On 1945 The Golden Age Ended around the same time was World War Two. On 1938 it was renamed to Astounding Science Fiction. On 1960 it was renamed again to Analog. During that time there was a shift of pulp SF to Slicks. The Slicks were higher made with higher material quality. The cover of the magazines were also glossy which would attract readers. During the Golden Age the short novels were written by male authors and targeted mainly male readers. The characteristics of the Gold Age were focus on Hard Science, Better Writing, Primary an American pheromone.
    Campbell had four rules, first one was the conditions of the story must differ from the here and now. Second rule was the new conditions must drive the plot of the story. Third rule was the plot must revolve around human problems arising from the new conditions. Fourth rule was no scientific fact may be violated without reasonable explanation. There were two very good science fiction magazines during the Gold age. The first was, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (1949) and Galaxy (1950).
    The next famous author the professor mentioned was Issac Azamoth (1920-1992). He lived in NYC and brought more science to science fiction. He believed the power of science can solve any human problem by using reason, experiment, and SF. He wrote about 500 books and specialized in robot type stories. One of his popular works was Reason (1941) which was in astounding magazines. The robots follow three laws in the story. First rule was it cannot hurt human beings through action and inaction. Second rule, robot must obey orders given to human beings except it cannot conflict with first law. Third rule was robot must protect its own existence except as long it protection doesn’t conflict with the first and second law.
    In the novel Reason, The humans named Powell and Donovan are stationed in a space station with robots. One of the Robots to claims to be in charge is named QT1, also known as Cutie. Cutie takes command of the other robots and is also very stubborn and unreasonable. Powell and Donovan is unable to gain charge of the robots but later on they decided that, since there performance is great, they don’t need to interfere with their work and they believe the robots performance is better then them.
    The next author that was also mentioned was Ray Bradbury (1920-2012). Bradbury was born in Illinois but later moved to L.A. He graduated at age 28 and has work reviewed in the New York Times. One of his popular works was “The Fireman” (1953). In the novel the story is about a world were books were considered outlawed and they employ firemen whose job was to burn those books if they are found. The main character is named Montag who is a fireman who’s employed by the government to burn outlawed books. Montage seems to suffer from family problems regarding his wife’s behavior and he and fellow agents did a bust in an elderly women’s house filled with books. Before burning the books the women decided to light herself on fire killing herself long with the books but Montag did swipe a book without other agents knowing. Montag has a hidden stash of books knowing the consequences but he is interested in reading them. Later on in the story the Fire Chief discovers the books he was hiding because his own wife reported him and the Chief ordered him to burn down his house. Montag did what he was told but when he threatened Faber, he decided to burn his boss alive too. He then escapes to meet with the resistance book people. Shortly after, the city was completely destroyed by bombers.

  5. Randy Valcourt

    Randy Valcourt
    ENG SF
    10/24/17

    The origins of Golden age of SF occurred by the end of the WWII in the 1945. The man lead the golden age was John Campbell Jr who was the chief editor of Astounding SF magazine. In this the golden age of SF we moved form using cheap pulp to Slicks which was the more like are modern day magazines. In the golden age of SF the stories had changed completely for example the SF stories where now more science base with science like chemistry and physics not to mention the literacy in the stories had to be higher quality. Under Campbell editors he forced the storywriters to follow his four rules for good SF and the four rules can be seen though Isaac Asimov’ s Reasons. The story “Reasons” revolves around what two scientists went through who’s names are Gregory Powell and Mike Donovan in a solar station when they assembled a new robot they would serve as a replacement for the scientist managing the solar station that sends energy towards earth. The robot in questions is in Nicknamed Cutie and is a new robot capable of reason and basically formulating it’s own thoughts. We later find that to me problematic because Cutie makes up a theory that he as not built by Donavan or Powell but his true creator is the Master. He based this theory on the fact that he is much stronger physical and is more intelligent then humans there for there is no way the humans built him since a weak being cannot create a strong one. He later forms a mutiny taking over the ship and not letting the inferior scientist in the control room. The this story by Isaac hits all the rules of Campbell which are, one the condition of the story must not be related to the present, two the plot must be driven by that condition, the plot is revolves around human problems form said conditions and last no scientific fact is violated without a reasonable explanation. Now in the story “ the Fireman” by Ray Bradbury was not published under Campbell’s Astounding magazine so it does abide his rules but that does not stop it form being a great work of science fiction. Ray Bradbury has had many accomplishments one being the first SF writer to be reviewed by the New York press. In his Story he takes us to a dystopian society where fireman instead of putting out fires actually are assigned to start them. The fireman go out of their way to burn down any house that shelters books due to the fact that in that society books are looked as dangerous believed to corrupt the mind of the person that reads It. The society is a place where books are banned, people watch to much television; some people are unable to have independent thought and the interaction among people has stopped. The main character is Montag deals with this first hand he is a fireman and not to mention he barely has a relationship with his own wife. Stories like “Reason and “the Fireman” are some of the highlights of the golden age of SF.

  6. Alex G

    Alex Giffen
    ENG 2420
    Prof. Ellis
    25 October 2017

    Most of the discussion in class was centered around the Golden Age of Science Fiction. The Golden Age began with John W Campbell (1910-1971) who in Oct 1937, became the editor of Astounding Stories and ends in 1945 with WWII. As soon as Campbell became editor he made some big changes. He first renamed Astounding Stories to Astounding Science Fiction in 1938 and again in 1960 to Analog Science Fiction. In this time the standard pulp style of magazines were being fazed out and being replaced with the higher quality slick magazines. This was all based on Campbell’s changes to make Science Fiction a serious form of literature. The Golden Age of SF has four characteristics; it centers around when Campbell became editor, it was an American phenomenon, it focused on better writing and focused on hard sciences like math and physics. These changes helped push Science Fiction to a permanent form of literature.

    John W Campbell was a writer himself, and through his writing he discovered many rules to SF. First, the story must differ from the present. These different conditions from our world must then must drive the plot. The plot must revolve around human problems that come from the new conditions. The last rule states then that no scientific laws can be broken without explanation. He also helped develop the three laws of robotics. Robots must not harm or allow harm to come to humans. Robots must obey humans, excluding violation of rule one. And Robots must protect its own existence, excluding violation of rules one or two. Both these sets of rules are now standard practice and lore for most of SF.

    A short summary of “Reason” is a group of robots become self-aware on a space station. They take control of the space station and no longer follow human commands. It seems as though they win; however, they are still following the robotic laws and the humans realize they can use their ‘religion’ to their own gain. “Firemen” is the short story that leads to Fahrenheit 451. It tells of a dystopian society where books are now illegal and firemen are the ones tasked with destroying all the books.

  7. Justin Tam

    Justin Tam
    ENG2420
    Professor Ellis
    October 25, 2017

    The Golden Age of SF started roughly around the end of WWII on 1945. The characteristics for the Golden Age of SF is that it focused on the “hard sciences” including biology, astronomy, mathematics, and chemistry. Had better writing with depth of character and value compared to pulp SF era, was a American phenomenon, and centers around the first phase of Astounding when Campbell was editor. John W. Campbell was born in 1910 and died in 1971. He was a writer and an editor who has a bachelor for physics. His four rules for “good” SF is that conditions of the story must differ from the present time, new conditions must drive the plot of the story, plot must resolve around human problems, and no scientific facts may be violated without reasonable explanation.
    Reason by Issac Asimov (1920-1992) is about two humans named Powell and Donovan who is stationed in a solar station overlooking the robots that works there. A new robot named Cutie was just made and this robot begins to question things. Eventually, Cutie concludes that the energy converter is the “master” and that Powell and Donovan who are human is inferior to the robots even though it was humans who made and built the robots. Despite the irrational reasoning from the viewpoint of humans to robots and vice versa, Cutie still manages to do what it is made to do and Powell and Donovan leave the station and goes back to earth.
    The Fireman by Rad Bradbury (1920-2012) is a time where books are considered illegal and must be abolished. Everything is about listening to radio, watching television, and driving fast to get from point a to point b because people lacked patience. A man name Montag who is a fireman, but instead of getting rid of fires, fireman now uses fire to burn down properties with reports of having books. Montag was just doing what he normally does, burning a house down with books, when a lady refused to leave the house which is burning down with the books. He tries to stop the other fireman from burning down the house but they do so anyway, leaving the lady burned to death. From this point, his mind begins to wonder why things are as they are now. He then meets a teenager name Clarisse who happened to be talking a walk just like he was even though no one takes a walk nowadays. Spending time with her made him question things and he begins to secretly read books, gaining knowledge. This leads to his wife leaving him, his house burned down, and Montag having to run away from the authorities.

  8. CarissaSimeone

    Carissa Simeone
    ENG 2420

    Golden Age

    In class last week we discussed the Golden Age of Science Fiction which occurred in the early 1920’s. The Golden Age enhanced SF writing, which had strong emphasis on an American phenomenon, and centers around the prominent SF writer and editor John W. Campbell. Campbell (1910-1971), was essentially the point of origin for the Golden Age of SF. He is known for taking over editorship in October of 1937 of Astounding Stories. Campbell was a very smart man for his time, graduating with a BA from MIT. With the help of Campbell, SF genre began maturing tremendously at the time. Isaac Asimov (1920 -1992) another notable figure discussed in our previous lecture. He was inspired by Campbell. Asimov had the ability to apply science to his literary pieces, because unlike many other SF writers, Asimov had a PhD in biochemistry. Asimov written great works, the Empire series, Foundation series, and Reason published by Astounding. In 1977, he started his own SF magazine that is still publishing to this day. Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) an American SF author who had the 1st SF book reviewed on The New York Times. Oppose to Asimov, Bradbury focused more on literacy rather than science.
    “The Fireman” written by Bradbury is about the main protagonist Guy Montag, who is a fireman, but in a 24th century, alternate universe where the firemen create fires, oppose to dousing them out. Montag has an existential crisis, and starts to reflect on his life, and the society he is living in. He questions his position in his community, and essentially wonders why they are forbidden to read books. At the end, his wife Mallie reports him to the authorities, and his house and the books he is not supposed to have ends up being burned. Montag escapes down and encounters former writers. An atomic bomb destroys their city, but Montag and his fellows are able to rebuild a new society where free thought and autonomy can flourish.

  9. Mellissa

    Mellissa Valle
    ENG 2420
    Professor Ellis
    10/25/17

    7 thoughts on “After Class Writing: Golden Age SF, Asimov, and Bradbury”
    Golden Age
    Its point of origin began with John W Campbell (1910-1971) who became the editor in 1937, Astounding Stories but later in 1960 it was renamed to Analog SF. The end of the golden age coincided with the end of WWII. The primary characteristics of the Golden Age SF were: – Slicks magazines with higher quality. – The stories were more written by men for men.- Stories were more focus on hard science like Physics, chemistry, math,etc.- better writing, american Phenomena primary.- centered around the face of john W Campbell. Campbell describes the four rules for a good SF: -Condition of the story must differ from the here and now . – The new conditions must drive the plot of the story, – The plot must revolve around human problems arising from the new conditions. – NO scientific fact may be violated without reasonable explanation. Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) NYC, brought more sequence. He saw science was going to get as out of problems, reasonable and experimentation. Which unlike other writer he was also trained scientist, during his life he edited more than 500 SF. He came up with three laws of robotics after “Runaround”(1942): – Robot may not injure human beings through action and inaction.- Robot must obey orders given by human beings except it cannot conflict with first law. – Robot must protect its own existence except as long its protection doesn’t conflict with the first and second law. Ray Bradbury(1920-2012) American writer who got a review first page New York Times first time for SF. Some important works: -“Martian Chronicles”(1950) – “Grapes of Wrath”(1939)

    Isaac Asimov, “Reason”(1941)
    The story starts with Powell and Donovan that created an advanced robot called cutie(QT). It looks like this robot later becomes conscious and doesn’t accept the idea that humans created him since humans are inferior, so he takes over the spaceship where they all are in order to “protect” the master, which is the main function which he was originally programmed to do. A SF that is getting closer and closer to become true.

    Ray Bradbury, “The Fireman” (1951)
    The story is about how in some future books were illegal so the government had people in charge to burn them all, the firemen. Montag after seeing an old lady dying for her books and the 16year old girl who got killed, starts questioning if what he’s doing is right. He secretly reads some books and gets in big trouble losing everything.

  10. Jessica

    Jessica L. Roman
    Prof. Ellis ENG2420 E255
    October 25, 2017
    Golden Age of Science Fiction

    The Golden Age or peak of Science Fiction started in 1937 when John W. Campbell Jr. began his editorship at Astounding Magazine. Campbell renamed the magazine Astounding Science Fiction in 1938 and would rename it again in 1960 to Analog Science Fiction. During the Golden Age there was a change from pulp magazines to “slicks” which used higher quality paper. Magazines were the best place for authors to publish at this time, not only make money, but to get their name out as well. Some of the primary characteristics of the Golden Age were a focus on the hard sciences and better writing. Campbell was exposed to pulp SF growing up and as an undergraduate student he also wrote pulp SF, as well as writing to editors of magazine. This got him noticed and was offered the editorship at Astounding in 1937. Campbell’s education background had an influence on his writing and editorial work, having earned his Bachelors in Physics from Duke in 1932. Campbell molded the SF genre into its modern form through his editorial work, sharing of ideas and mentorship of authors. For him good SF followed the following rules:
    1. Conditions of the story must differ from the here and now
    2. The new conditions must drive the plot of the story
    3. Plot must revolve around human problems arising from the new conditions
    4. No scientific fact may be violated without reasonable explanation.

    The two golden age short stories we read this week were Isaac Asimov’s Reason (1941) and Ray Bradbury’s The Fireman (1951). Asimov was born in Russia but spent his life from the age of three on America’s east coast, primarily in New York. Asimov was exposed to pulp SF at an early age as they were sold in his father’s candy store. He was also a trained scientist who received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Columbia University. For him science was a means to work out human problems. Asimov wrote and or edited 500 books in his lifetime and created the robot laws, which are still present in present SF writing and film. These laws are present in Reason, the story of two space station workers, Donovan and Powell and their encounter with a reasoning robot, Cutie. Cutie’s ability to reason and learn makes him the most advanced of his kind. He is unable to believe lesser creatures like humans, could possibly be the creator of the superior robots. He develops a religion revolved around the power source of the ship, referred to by him as The Master and recruits the lesser robots to join. Donovan and Powell fail at convince Cutie of his origins. It becomes a moot point since, despite their loyalty to The Master; they still perform their tasks and do not look to harm the humans who merely helped maintain The Master.
    Ray Bradbury had a very different background; he was born in the mid-west, moved to L.A as a teenager and remained there until his death. He was unable to afford college so we self-educated by gong to the library. Some of his works were published in astounding however, the majority were published in other magazines such as Amazing and Weird Tales. This would likely be because he did not stick to Campbell’s rules of good SF and would mix SF, horror and fantasy freely. His short story the Fireman is a grim tale of censorship, society and dystopia. The Fireman takes place in an unknown time in the future where the protagonist, Montag is a fireman. Unlike in our here and now the task of fireman is to burn outlawed books, which was pretty much anything that was not a manual, comic or anything that had the possibility of offending anyone. Society is truly a shell of itself and even the relationships depicted in the story, primarily between Montag and his wife, have no depth. After a run in with a young girl who is not like the majority of society Montag begins to feel like something is wrong with this book burning and begins to start saving them. He is eventually discover when his wife and her friends rat him out and he is forced to burn his own home and the books and knowledge he tried to save. He becomes an outlaw and goes to lived among the exiles in the country. While with the drifters Montag discovers these people have a community of those who have memorized books and there importance was not to be taken likely because when society crumbles and people are ready for knowledge once more the books in their memories will be printed once again.

  11. RafMal87

    During class last week we spoke of the Golden Age of SF, a time just before the end of WWII, where most of the stories spoke of an idyllic, often imaginary time of peace, prosperity, and hope. The four characteristics on Golden Age SF are:
    1) Focus on the so-called hard scientists (Physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, math)
    2) Better writing- not about the word count, but each word has a purpose
    3) Primarily an American phenomenon- not an era in every country
    4) During the first phase of John W Campbell’s editorship of Astounding- Approx a ten year reign.

    John W. Campbell Jr. (1910- 1970) began his editorship at Astounding in October 1937, and immediately took the bull by the horns to change the quality of science fiction magazines to more of a permanent, proud, and classy literature than the campy writing it had been before. Campbell’s first drastic move is in 1938, when he renames the magazine “Astounding Science Fiction.” In 1960 the magazine is renamed again as “Analog Science Fiction” which is the name it goes by today. Although he was a writer himself, he was so immersed in the running of the company he often gave his story ideas and concepts to other writers to develop into stories, under certain conditions. Campbell’s rules upon writing for his magazine were:
    1) The conditions of the story must differ from the here and now- This story cannot take place in the present as it is, but an alternate dimension, or a different past, or in the future
    2) These new conditions must drive the plot of the story- the conditions must make the plot move, this is the purpose of the story; this story cannot take pace at any time or dimension.
    3) The plot must revolve around human problems arising from the new conditions- otherwise why do we care, if we cannot relate to the protagonist
    4) No scientific facts may be violated without reasonable explanation- must be based on what we know, or given adequate explanation on the way it works.

    Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) gave a lot of credit to Campbell. He claims that Campbell created the three laws of robotics and assigned Asimov with the task of creating what became the Robot Series stories. Asimov, as a trained scientist (a PhD in biochemistry), saw science as the means to puzzle out the dilemmas. He believed science can get us out of problems and one can use reason and experimentation combined with science and tech to solve human problems. It is apparent in his excerpt “Reason” (1941), that he believes that although humans created robots, a robot has the ability to surpass the excellence of humans and become a problem solver without the influence of humanity and morality and ethics in the way. Q-T1 realizes that, with human error being as unpredictable as it is, the safest thing for a human is to not be around the technology that they have created. He is still following the rules, but treating the humans as adults treat children; they do not know better, therefore they must remain in the dark.

    Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) is one of my first and favorite sf writers. His writing style is very casual, and lures the reader in not with fancy words, but with his blunt approach to ethics and conformity while also embracing poetic rhythm, symbolism with familiar and timeless objects, nostalgia of a past never had. Bradbury freely mixes science fiction, fantasy, and horror within the same story, which earned him a place as the first sf writer to make it to the front page of a NY Times book review. The Fireman (1951) is the short story written for “Galaxy Magazine” which later becomes one of my favorite books, Fahrenheit 451 (1953). It tells the story of Montag, a fireman in the future, where the purpose of firemen is to burn books under the theory that books will lead to revolution, individual thought and *gasp* ideas. The world constantly seems at war, but the purpose behind the war is never clear, and the people who have succumbed to the influence of television are shallow and thoughtless. Seeing as Bradbury’s primary form of education was reading, it seems interesting and very personal how he has created a world where book burning is the law.

  12. Gabriel Higuera

    Gabriel Higuera
    ENG-2420
    10/25/2017

    The “Golden Age” can be described as an idealist often imaginary period of prosperity. The brain tends to be bias towards a nostalgic feeling, making memories seem much better than what they actually were. John W. Campbell is credited with starting the golden age of Science Fiction when taking the position of editor in the Astounding Stories Science Fiction magazine in 1937. Coming from the pulp fiction era where it was rather quantity over quality, Campbell set the bar higher by requiring his writers to have a higher quality of writing and setting guidelines. Campbell set the bar high when it came down to actual science being used for story telling based on his physics background. This new era gave birth to many newer stories and are characterized as: bigger emphasis on hard sciences like chemistry or physics, better writing (compared to pulp), primary American, and centered around John W. Campbell’s editing. Campbell also set up several rules for different scenarios a write will encounter, he is credited with the “4 rules for good Science Fiction” as well as the “3 laws of robotic”.
    In Isaac Azemov’s (1920 – 1992) “Reason” published in 1941 as part of Astounding magazine, tells the story of two scientists in outer space, Donovan and Powell, after finishing assembling a robot that will take lead to allow their operation to run without any humans. They find a push back when the robot implements his own believes, but ultimately does the job it was specifically built for. Not after making Donovan question his own reality. It was a good interesting read. Ray Bradbury’s (1920 – 2012) “The Fireman” published in 1951 within Galaxy magazine, tells a story of an entity destroying books by burning them as crowd control, to help keep the public ignorant as books tied with intelligence show a threat to this sort of government. This story becomes even more interesting when knowing the author’s background, Bradbury did not have the financial ability to attend higher education and was self-taught using the public library resources as his teacher. He became as smart as he was based on books and warns against the destruction of books and the importance that they take in society.

  13. Pierre Polycarpe

    Pierre Polycarpe
    Prof. Ellis ENG2420 E255
    October 24, 2017

    Our class began by defining the Golden age of SF. The origin of the Golden age is from an early Greek and Roman poets who utilize it to refer to a time when mankind lives in a better place. In terms of SF, it simply refers to when great things were successful.
    Some of the things that occur during the Golden age were
    • A sift from the pulp magazine call slicks (Better quality magazine)
    • And during this age, magazine was still better than novel.
    John W. Campbell’s (1910-1937 had a great impact on the Golden age of SF. He by himself mold the genre of SF through his guidance and tutorial. As talented as he was, John encountered a few bumps during his career. He was admitted to MIT who’s known as a challenging place. He wasn’t doing too well, so he transferred to Duke where he completed his degree. His primary characteristics of the golden age were
    • Focus on the so called hard science
    o Such as Physics, chemistry, biology and mathematic
    • Better writing
    • Primarily American phenomenon
    • It centers around the first phase of John W Campbell.
    We also went over Campbell four rules that one must follow for good SF
    • The condition of the story must differ from the here and now
    o It simply means that the story cannot be the same. It has to be different from the way that it is now.
    • The new conditions must drive the plot of the story
    • The plot must have revolved around humans’ problem arising from the new conditions
    • No scientific facts maybe violated without reasonable explanation.

    We also discussed about Isaac Asimov. (1920-1992) Isaac was born in Russia. At the age of 3, he came to the United States (NYC) where he lived most of his life. Isaac is famous for bringing more science to SF. Unlike Gernsback, Isaac thought that science could resolve human problems. Unlike most scientists, Isaac was a researcher and professor and he also had a PHD in Biochemistry. In 1977, Isaac published his own SF book entitled Astounding. In 1940, Isaac published a SF short story entitled ‘Strange play” which was changed to “Robbie”.
    We also discussed the three laws of robotic.
    • A robot may not injure a human being or though in action allow human to come to harm
    • A robot must obey the orders giving by human being. Except if this command is conflicted with the first law
    • A robot must project its own existence as long as such project does conflict with the first and the second law

  14. Paul C

    In this lecture we discussed three main topics. We talked about the Golden Age of SF and the stories “Reason” and “The Fireman” by Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) and Ray Bradbury (1920-2012). The Golden Age of SF began in the year of 1937 when a man named John W. Campbell (1910-1971) became editor of the magazine Outstanding Stories and the Golden Age ended 1945. Campbell had a huge impact on SF. He got his bachelors in psychics he was offered the editorship of Outstanding Stories. During his time he wrote and helped many other big names writes write SF like Asimov. During the Golden Age, Outstanding Stories had a couple of name changes. In 1938 it was changed to Outstanding SF and in 1960 it’s name changes to Analog and stayed so since then. There are four primary characteristics for the Golden Age of SF. They include that SF focused on “Hard Sciences” (psychics, chemistry, biology, math, etc), better writing, it was an American phenomenon, and the fact that the Golden Age started at the same time as Campbell’s first phase as a editor. Campbell had his own set of rules for good SF literature that helped him write and allowed him to help others write better SF. His first rule was conditions of the story must differ from the here and now, his second rule was new conditions must drive the plot of the story, third was the plot must revolve around human problems arising from the new conditions, and lastly no scientific facts may be violated without a reasonable explanation. After our talk we talked about the stories we had to read.
    Asimov’s story “Reason” is about two men named Powell and Donovan who work on a space station. On this space station they build a robot to basically take over their jobs so they wouldn’t have to do it anymore so they can spend their time on Earth. They created a robot named QT 1 or later known as Cutie and the robot was like none they created before. They robot began questioning its existence and not understanding what his role is in the world. Powell and Donovan try to explain it to Cutie but it doesn’t believe them. Later on Cutie comes to discover his role to attends to his “Master”. The two men try to convince Cutie that they are his creators and not his master so they build a robot right in front of Cutie but after the task he still does not believe them. A storm is approaching and the men thought they were going to die because Cutie took over the controls with other robots he convinced but it turned it Cutie did exactly what the men needed to do to survive and when the men told Cutie about it, Cutie said he was only following his masters orders. This short story introduced the 3 law of robotics.
    Ray Bradbury’s story “The Fireman” is about a man named Montag who lives in a world different from our own in the year 2052. The story is about Montag living in a society where books were illegal and if anyone owns books, they get burnt down by firemen. Firemen in this novel are men who starts fires not ones who put them out. People don’t read so everyone mainly watches television or listen to radio programs, they drive insanely fast to get to places cause everyone is in a rush, and everyone basically stayed in their homes at all times in their free time. Montag is changed after going to set fire to a women’s book collection. The women didn’t want to leave her books and the fire chief threatened to burn her down along with the books. They were going to burn her along with the books but before they could she struck her own match and lit herself and her books on fire. Montag sneaks a book into his fire jacket and goes home where thoughts start to ponder in his mind. Later on he meets a teenage girl named Clarisse who really opens up his way of thinking and he becomes sick when he discovers a month later that she died in a car accident and no one told him. Montag basically becomes a kind of outsider and distant to society because he thinks and acts different then the rest of the world.

  15. Chris

    Christopher Gonzalez
    October 25, 2017
    Professor J. Ellis
    ENG 2420 – E255

    In Isaac Asimov’s “Reason”, Powell and Donovan, two workers on a space station that provides solar energy for Earth as well as other planets inhabited by humans, build a new kind of robot to operate the space station in their place in order to end having the need for humans to be there altogether. In the process, they create a robot who indeed does his job perfectly but is by no means obedient to its creators. He refuses to believe that two humans, which he claims are inferior to himself, could have created him and states it was the converter that made him, going as far as calling it master. He also does not believe in the earth or stars but refers to them as illusions. After Powell and Donovan’s many attempts to prove that they created the robot, a QT model they refer to as Cutie he soon takes over the station as well as the other robots, forming an almost cult like group, ironic being that a robot basically found religion.

    In Ray Bradbury’s “Fireman”, the reading and possession of books is illegal in this futuristic world. Firemen no longer put out fires as houses are made fireproof. Instead they start firs themselves when they receive alerts of people keeping books and must go to the location to burn them. People spend their days watching television nonstop to escape their lives, husband and wife may sleep in the same bed every night but don’t truly know each other and are almost strangers. The protagonist, Montag, a fireman who gets a change of heart starts to diverge from the rules of society, no longer wanting to burn books but gains a fascination for them. His fascination grows towards the outside world as well, leading him to take late walks, contemplate things, and truly ask questions, things not normally seen in this society.

  16. Brian Kriczky

    Brian Kriczky
    Prof Ellis
    ENG 2420

    In this class the professor started with the golden age of SF. The golden age of something is referred to as the best time period. It is the decided time where something is at its peak, the best works are being created, the subject is at its pinnacle. The golden age of science fictions point of origin is referred to when John W Campbell Jr who lived from 1910 to 1971 started editing “Astounding Stories” in 1937, and ends in 1945. So this period from 1937 to 1945 is seen as the best time for science fiction. During this time science fiction moved from being published from the pulp method to what is referred to as slicks. Slicks are the glossy better quality type magazines that we use today. The storied were mostly written by men for young male readers. The characteristic of the golden age are: focusing on the hard sciences, better writing, and it centers around the first phase of “Astounding”. Sturgeon’s law of science fiction states that 90% of SF is crap. We also discussed Isaac Asimov. Asimov who lived from 1920 to 1992 had a huge impact on SF. I don’t believe anyone else has written as many books as him. He wrote more than an estimated 500. Asimov saw science fiction as a way to puzzle out delimeas. He used reason and experimentation to solve human problems. The last thing we discussed in class the writer Ray Bradbury. Bradbury lived from 1920 to 2012 and was born in Illinois, but later moved to L.A.. He was the first SF writer to have his work reviewed. His work was poetic, symbolic, nostalgic and freely mixes SF, fantasy, and humor.

  17. David

    In class, Professor Ellis talked about the Golden Age of Science Fiction, many authors the 3 laws of robotic and John W. Campbell’s 4 Rules of Good Science Fiction.

    Issac Asimov, born in Russia but moved to NYC at the age 3, (1920 – 1992) was a man that brought more science into science fiction. Asimov started off by often taking stories, editing them, and put them in a novel. This can be seen as the beginning of science fiction fandom. The Golden Age of SF was said to be mostly stories written by men for boys to read that started with John. W Campbell Jr becoming the editor of Astounding Stories in October 1939 and ended in 1945. All of Asimov’s theories were based on reason and research along with science and technology to solve human problems. Asimov died in December 1993 as a result of him contracting HIV from a blood transfusion.

    The famous 3 Laws of Robotics were:
    #1: A robot may not injure a human being or through inaction allow a human being to come to harm
    #2: A robot must obey the orders given it to human beings except when such orders conflict with the first law
    #3: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second law

    John W. Campbell (1910 – 1971) was a writer and editor of SF. He began writing SF during the pulp era and got noticed and even offered an internship with Astounding and in 1938, renamed it “Astounding SF” and later in 1960 renamed again to “Analog.” It was said he worked with many notable writers such as Lester Del-Ray, Robert A. Heinline, Theodore Sturgeon, Clifford D. Symak, A.E. Van Vogt and more.

    Professor Ellis also gave us John W. Campbell’s 4 Rules of Good SF which are:
    #1: Conditions of the story must differ from the here and now
    #2: New conditions must drive the plot of the story
    #3: Plot must revolve around human problems arising from the new conditions
    #4: No scientific facts may be violated without reasonable explanation.

    Finally, Professor Ellis told us the four characteristics of the Golden Age of SF:
    #1: Hard Sciences
    #2: Better Writing
    #3: American Phenomenon
    #4: Afro-Futurism
    #5: Centered Around John W. Campbell being the editor Astonishing

  18. Sharon Rios

    Sharon Rios
    We discussed The Golden Age of science fiction. John W. Campbell Jr. (1910-1971) was known for shaping science fiction during The Golden Age. Campbell was an editor of Astounding stories in 1937 until his death in 1971. In 1945, The Golden Age ended around the same time as World War Two. In 1938 it was renamed to “Astounding Science Fiction”. In 1960 it was renamed again to “Analog”. The characteristics of the Golden Age were revolved around the “hard sciences”, better writing, and were primarily an American phenomenon. Campbell criticized other writers so they could write better instead of adding childish phonics. His story characteristics were:

    1. Conditions of the story must differ from the here and now
    2. New conditions must drive the plot of the story
    3. Plot must revolve around human problems arising from the new conditions
    4. No scientific facts may be violated without a reasonable explanation.

    Issac Asimov (1920-1992) who published his own science fiction magazine in 1977 called the “Astounding” took stories, edited them, and put them in a novel with a chronological theme. He was the beginning of science fiction fandom. A group called the futurists was an influential group and many became science writers in the Golden Age. Unlike many SF writers, Asimov was a trained scientist with a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Columbia. Asimov wanted science to be accessible to all. His theories were based on reason and experimentation along with science and technology to solve human problems. Unfortunately, Asimov contracted HIV/AIDS in 1983 and died in 1992 as a result of the complications of his illness.

    Another topic in the lecture was the 3 Laws of Robotics:
    1. A robot may not injure a human being or through inaction allow a human being to come to harm
    2. A robot must obey the orders given it to human beings except when such orders conflict with the first law.
    3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second law.

  19. JBanschick

    Jacob Banschick
    Prof. Ellis
    ENG2420

    In today’s Lecture we’d begun covering the Golden age of Science Fiction, a time in the history of Science Fiction where science began to particularly become focused on what was referred to as the “hard sciences”. More importantly, it was a time where the writings of science fiction began to take a more serious note, where Asimov introduced the “Three Rules of Robotics” as well as John W. Campbell’s “4 Rules of Good Science Fiction”.
    Asimov (born in 1920), a trained scientist and founder of the 1977 sci fi magazine “Astounding”, wanted to bring some consistency in his stories, and thusly created the “Laws of Robotics” which are as follows:

    1 – A robot may not injure a human being or through inaction allow a human being to come to harm
    2 – A robot must obey the orders given it to human beings except when such orders conflict with the first law.
    3 – A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second law.
    Though Asimov died of HIV in 1993, these laws would go on to be be used in countless Science Fiction stories, and continue to be used to the present day.

    John W. Campbell, a Duke Graduate in Science and Physics, also introduced the “4 Rules of Good Science Fiction” at this. They are as thusly:
    1 – The condition of the story must differ from the here and now o It simply means that the story cannot be the same. It has to be different from the way that it is now.
    2 – The new conditions must drive the plot of the story
    3 – The plot must have revolved around humans’ problem arising from the new conditions
    4 – No scientific facts maybe violated without reasonable explanation.

  20. Konstantinos Perselis

    Konstantinos Perselis

    In class we continued on the topic of the golden age of science fiction. We discussed about a play “R.U.R” which stands for Rosums Universal Robots and was written by Carol Capek, and the play is about workers’ rights and how their jobs were being replaced by robots, and the robots where protesting how they should have rights because they work. In class we also discussed about another author Tom Godwin and he was born 1915 and died 1980, and he wrote 30 short stories and as a child he was poor and he dropped out of school in the third grade. One of Tom Godwin’s hard SF stories “The Cold Equations” written 1954 set the model for SF, and hard science fiction has no emotion and that the universe doesn’t care about us as a whole. The story “The Cold Equation” is about a 18 year old girl sneaks onto a spaceship and is later discovered by a pilot of the ship, eventually he had to report her and her punishment is that she has to be set adrift out in space. The girl accepted consequences, and also the pilot that found her tried to save her but couldn’t and the other pilots didn’t show any sympathy towards her. We also talked about another author of Science fiction Robert A. Heinlein he was born 1907 died 1988 and he was considered as one of the best in the SF world, and he also was a hard SF writer.

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