num_pages: 544
description: Until recently, speculative fiction was viewed as popular entertainment and was long denied the mantle of literary respectability. The insistence of characterization as the major criterion of literary judgement contributed to this appraisal. Whereas "mainstream" fiction concerns itself with characterization, speculative fiction emphasizes ideas. Yet the ideas in speculative fiction cannot exist without characters any more than characters in traditional fiction can exist in a vacuum. With the recognition that the differences between speculative and mainstream fiction were more of emphasis than of kind, the barriers that long divided the two are being dismantled and speculative fiction is experiencing critical acceptance as a legitimate literary form.The selections included in Past, Present, &amp; Future illustrate the continuous vision of speculative writing from its classical precursors to its contemporary practitioners.Contents:Preface (Past, Present, and Future Perfect), by Jack C. Wolf and Gregory Fitz GeraldIntroduction (Past, Present, and Future Perfect), by Jack C. Wolf and Gregory Fitz GeraldWelcome to the Monkey House (1968), by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.The Sentinel (1951), by Arthur C. ClarkeA Discovery in the Woods (1963), by Graham GreeneThe Veldt (1950), by Ray BradburyJudas (1967), by John BrunnerEutopia (1967), by Poul AndersonThe Morning of the Day They Did It (1950), by E. B. Whitefrom Walden Two, by B. F. SkinnerThe Immortal Fish (1957), by Elizabeth Mann BorgeseYear Nine • (1946), by Cyril ConnollyThe Feeling of Power (1958), by Isaac AsimovNew Folks' Home (1963), by Clifford D. Simakfrom The Poison Belt, by Arthur Conan DoyleThe Ingenious Patriot (1891), by Ambrose BierceThe Star (1897), by H. G. Wellsfrom A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, by Mark Twainfrom Looking Backward, by Edward Bellamyfrom Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Vernefrom Erewhon, or Over the Range, by Samuel ButlerThe Balloon-Hoax (1844), by Edgar Allan PoeThe Birthmark (1843), by Nathaniel Hawthornefrom The Last Man, by Mary Shelley from Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, by Mary Shelley from Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan SwiftMicromégas (1752), by Voltaire (trans. of Micromégas)from A Voyage to the Moon, by Cyrano de Bergeracfrom The New Atlantis, by Francis Baconfrom The City of the Sun, by Tommaso Campanellafrom Utopia, by Sir Thomas Morefrom A True History (1965), by Lucian of Samosata from Critias, or The Island of Atlantis, by Plato
language: English
title: Past, Present, & Future Perfect: A Text Anthology of Speculative & Science Fiction
titlecomplete: Past, Present, & Future Perfect: A Text Anthology of Speculative & Science Fiction
genres: Science Fiction, Anthologies
ratings_count: 5
publisher: Fawcett Premier