Building Yesterday’s Future–For Everyone
In the Fantastic Fiction column, a distinguished cadre of fan writers will take you back to the 1961-1962 era of the first Seattle Worldcon and Century 21 Exposition, also known as the Seattle World’s Fair, events that cemented Seattle’s position as a global center for futurism and technological innovation. We hope immersion in the speculative fiction dreams and influences of the era will inspire you to make something—a story, costume, poem, argument, essay, panel idea, heart wish, or short film—to bring to our Worldcon.
Zenna Henderson’s first six stories featuring the People—immigrant aliens who’ve escaped the destruction of the home planet and come to the American Southwest—were published as a fix-up, Pilgrimage, in 1961. Through these curiously gifted aliens Henderson explored themes of difference and belonging that still have relevance today.
One of my favorite novels when I was a teen science fiction reader was Andre Norton’s Catseye. In the 1960s, Andre Norton, better known for adult science fiction, was also one of the most important writers of science fiction for teens.
One might be surprised to learn that three (!) works of Czech speculative fiction in translation—all by Josef Nesvadba—were published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction over the course of 1962.
Here is a good question for nerdy trivia nights: Before winning a Hugo for Rendezvous with Rama in 1974, only one Arthur C. Clarke novel was a finalist for a Hugo Award for Best Novel. What was it?
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen is the first book by Alan Garner. While it is not his greatest work, it is still solidly written. Its publication history is also interesting, speaking to the post-Tolkien publishing world.
Science fiction has many long-running science fiction series. However, there is no series longer running than Perry Rhodan, which as of this writing has racked up a staggering 3,312 volumes since 1961. But who is Perry Rhodan and what makes his adventures so unique?
Three works of short science fiction/fantasy from France (in English translation) appeared in the pages of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1962: Henri Damonti’s “The Notary and the Conspiracy,” Charles and Nathalie Henneberg’s “Moon Fishers,” and Suzanne Malaval’s “The Devil’s God-Daughter.” All three were translated by Damon Knight, who was responsible for bringing several French-language speculative pieces into English during the 1960s and 70s.
Ask anyone who was the first trans person to win a Hugo Award and they will probably say “Charlie Jane Anders”, back in 2012. I think my 2009 win is probably the first by an out trans person, but I wasn’t the first trans winner, not by a long shot.
Before the first human spaceflight, Ham the astrochimp flew the sub-orbital MR-2 mission in January 1961 as a test of NASA’s Mercury-Redstone system. Discover the story of the pioneering primates who helped take human spaceflight out of the realm of science fiction and into reality and how Ham became one of America’s early space celebrities.
Most of the magical realism and surrealism that has come into English literature from the Japanese is from Kōbō Abe (1924–1993). His slipstream novels and collections, which easily move among the various subgenres of science fiction, surrealism, and magical realism, are focused on the absurd and bewildering.