Origin of the most captivating and creative genre, "Science Fiction"

Science is an ever growing field, so science fiction has endless possibilities. The genre has been around for a long time now with readers increasing day by day. Although Western countries have a lot more readers than their eastern counterpart. Now, has anyone wondered when exactly had sci-fi had it's beginning?? Let us explore the origin of this genre.

The first ever sci-fi story was "Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus" by Mary Shelly, published in 1818. Although a few stories were written prior to this, Frankenstein is considered the first of it's kind. It is about a person named Victor Frankenstein who creates an artificial man from corpses. It first seeks affection but then turns monstrous. Story then continues on Victor trying to save himself from the creature. Little did Mary Shelly know then, that she was creating the foundation of a new genre.

Categories of Science Fiction

Science fiction can be categorised into 3 categories: Gothic, Soft sci-fi and Hard Sci-fi.

1. Gothic

Gothic stories explore the scientific advancements and it's impending danger. We could easily observe this pattern in Frankenstein.

2. Soft science fiction

This category involves the protagonist being a normal human, but somewhere, something supernatural or abnormal would happen that leads to him. Soft sci-fi doesn't concentrate more on science or technology but more on social matters. One of the best examples to this is Dune.

3. Hard science fiction

Hard science fiction focuses more on science, technology and logic. Asimov is the king of this genre.

Science fiction is the only form of literature that consistently considers the changes that face us. - Isaac Asimov

We have seen that Frankenstein is the first of this genre. But is it really? Historical texts have a lot of elements that could be considered science fiction. But their relative lack of references have lead them to be put under fantasy rather than science fiction.

For example, Epic of Gilgamesh written in 2000BCE has a touch of sci-fi in that the plot revolves around the search for immortality. Indian literature has enormous elements of this genre - the two Indian epics have proven so. In the epic Ramayana, from the 4th century BCE, the villain is portrayed to be riding an airplane, and another interesting feature is that this airplane is similar to current aeronautics in that it took flight after taxiing. The other Indian epic, Mahabharatha has a lot of stories and sub-stories. There is a story where, a king travels from earth to meet Brahma, the creator of the universe, and is shocked when he returns, because ages have passed on earth. This relates to the concept of relativity and time travel.

So, science fiction has had it's origin way before but because of lack of references, it is put under fantasy. This is my understanding of origin of science fiction and it's categories. Correct me if I'm wrong. And comment your favourite books. Please read this blog where I've listed mine. Before ending this article, here is the world's shortest science fiction story:

The last man to survive reached the end of the universe and there's a plaque under his feet. It says, "You've reached the end of the universe". But the board is placed upside down.

Image source: Square Frog from Pixabay, Chris Lawton on Unsplash