What Purpose, Science-Fiction?
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| Title: | What Purpose, Science Fiction? |
| Creator: | Donald A. Wollheim |
| Date(s): | December 1937 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Science Fiction |
| Topic: | Michelism, Leftism in Fandom |
| External Links: | Hosted online. Novae Terrae #19 pp. 3-5. Dec. 1937. |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
What Purpose, Science-Fiction? was a 1937 article by Donald A. Wollheim, following on the heels of a speech he delivered at the Third Eastern Science Fiction Convention called Mutation or Death!
Wollheim argued for a new attitude among science fiction fans. It had once been thought that science fiction would encourage its fans to seek out scientific careers. To Wollheim, this had failed. He cited the recent failure of the International Scientific Association, which he'd dissolved himself after its old head resigned because was moving away from practical science. Instead, fan clubs and fanzines had encouraged fans to focus on the fiction aspect of science fiction. Wollheim, who was at the forefront of the Futurians' new leftist movement, felt that the real purpose of science fiction should be to open the public up to embracing scientific change.
Already the success of science-fiction is apparent. The average man today is aware that rockets are a conceivable method of space flight. What is even greater, the idea of space flight and travel to other worlds no longer strikes him as grotesquely as it had. They may yet smile, but they do not laugh. It is becoming apparent that there is a genuine possibility of it and that that possiblity is coming closer to reality. Science-fiction in the form of books, magazines, radio skits, movies, etc. have constantly drummed in the idea of space-flight until now it is almost an old story.That, then, is the real value and purpose of science-fiction. And in the United States at least it has achieved its purpose. It must keep up its work of course, in order that those concepts and visions may not fade from the mind of the public. But the main work, that of introducing these visions, has come to fruitition. In Britain and other countries the work has not yet come to success. In England there has not been sufficient material to bring these ideas to the public, but there are signs that success is on the way. There is no place in Britain yet for the idle fantasy-amateur publications; in England the publications must fight for their purpose and carry on. The fan organization, the powerful Science-Fiction Association is doing its share. British science-fiction magazine seems on its way, and in other respects the conservative-thinking islanders are waking up to the future.
Thus is the real purpose of science-fiction found out. It is the duty of those who read it to further its reading in others because it is one way of working for the future. The public mind must be prepared for the future and to accept and aid the coming progress. If it never did another thing, the fact that science-fiction was directly responsible for the organization of the American Rocket Society and the British Interplanetary Society would alone have made it worth while. But there is an infinity of things still to be done, it is up to the dreamers of fantasies to seek those out and tell of them in glowing colours so as to stir the world to want them. And to that end is science-fiction dedicated.