Science Fiction from 125 AD - History Dose
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Date: 2022-09-15
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Comments and reviews: 10
KefkeWren
Personally, I _don't_ think that A True Story can really be called science fiction. That it doesn't attempt to promote any of its premises as plausible is a part of it, but more importantly the fact, it was deliberately fantastical. It was unabashedly _fantasy, _ mocking the very idea that anyone could imagine any such stories to be believable. _Of course_ you can't travel into space, Lucien suggests, and _of course_ there would be nothing waiting for you if you did. The world is less exciting than that, he posits, and the stories of the day purporting to have seen all manner of wonders are exaggerated at best, and complete fabrications at worst - a stance he makes clear in his very introduction to the work. The second book doesn't even exist, his cliffhanger ending encouraging readers to purchase a sequel simply another way to mock the ways in which his contemporaries would conduct their business. Lucien's work deliberately bears more in common with mythology than observation, even including gods, legendary figures, and an apparent land inhabited by the famous dead within, a jab at other writers purporting their sensational stories to be truthful accounts that suggest, rather unsubtly, that such tales belong to the same realm of superstition as those older tales of gods and monsters. The entire thing is intended as an elaborate reductio ad absurdum to the genre it purports to be part of, not merely presenting the fantastical, but openly mocking it _as_ fantastical, and expecting the reader to understand that everything they're reading is ridiculous nonsense.
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Personally, I _don't_ think that A True Story can really be called science fiction. That it doesn't attempt to promote any of its premises as plausible is a part of it, but more importantly the fact, it was deliberately fantastical. It was unabashedly _fantasy, _ mocking the very idea that anyone could imagine any such stories to be believable. _Of course_ you can't travel into space, Lucien suggests, and _of course_ there would be nothing waiting for you if you did. The world is less exciting than that, he posits, and the stories of the day purporting to have seen all manner of wonders are exaggerated at best, and complete fabrications at worst - a stance he makes clear in his very introduction to the work. The second book doesn't even exist, his cliffhanger ending encouraging readers to purchase a sequel simply another way to mock the ways in which his contemporaries would conduct their business. Lucien's work deliberately bears more in common with mythology than observation, even including gods, legendary figures, and an apparent land inhabited by the famous dead within, a jab at other writers purporting their sensational stories to be truthful accounts that suggest, rather unsubtly, that such tales belong to the same realm of superstition as those older tales of gods and monsters. The entire thing is intended as an elaborate reductio ad absurdum to the genre it purports to be part of, not merely presenting the fantastical, but openly mocking it _as_ fantastical, and expecting the reader to understand that everything they're reading is ridiculous nonsense.
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Riad
Although Syria and Assyria were used exchangeable in the age and life of Lucian, Lucian himself, in fact, in all his writings referred to himself as Syrian and to his culture and homeland as Syria and Syrian and he admitted that he was a foreigner to Greek, the language that he mastered and used in almost most of his writings. Some references, some scholars, in fact, referred that some of his writings, one or two only perhaps, were written in his own language which was Syriac/Aramaic the language that he mentioned to be his first language and his parents' mother-tongue. I wished you referred to these facts in your introductory lines about Lucian. Understanding his personal biography could help tremendously in any interpretations of his works especially this one True Story.
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Although Syria and Assyria were used exchangeable in the age and life of Lucian, Lucian himself, in fact, in all his writings referred to himself as Syrian and to his culture and homeland as Syria and Syrian and he admitted that he was a foreigner to Greek, the language that he mastered and used in almost most of his writings. Some references, some scholars, in fact, referred that some of his writings, one or two only perhaps, were written in his own language which was Syriac/Aramaic the language that he mentioned to be his first language and his parents' mother-tongue. I wished you referred to these facts in your introductory lines about Lucian. Understanding his personal biography could help tremendously in any interpretations of his works especially this one True Story.
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kelvyquayo
Id argue its as much Science-Fiction as Star Wars (IE fantasy. It would be science fiction if the characters were dumbfounded by what they were experiencing. although the lamps and glass do blur the lines a bit. It forces the question. Is Sci-Fi possible when the audience is ignorant of science?
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Id argue its as much Science-Fiction as Star Wars (IE fantasy. It would be science fiction if the characters were dumbfounded by what they were experiencing. although the lamps and glass do blur the lines a bit. It forces the question. Is Sci-Fi possible when the audience is ignorant of science?
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imkluu
I am not sure this is technically Science fiction. It does have travel thru space and some science was known to give reason for some of the story in it, but that is all, so I think it is still only fantasy.
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I am not sure this is technically Science fiction. It does have travel thru space and some science was known to give reason for some of the story in it, but that is all, so I think it is still only fantasy.
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Nivek
On 21 July, 1969, everyone was going on about the mood landing. An African night-watchman was unconvinced, saying The Americans are lying. I watched the moon carefully last night and saw no one there.
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On 21 July, 1969, everyone was going on about the mood landing. An African night-watchman was unconvinced, saying The Americans are lying. I watched the moon carefully last night and saw no one there.
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Andrew
All this shit is excellent! Y'all have to keep making more of this stuff because I am addicted to it and will have watched all of them I can find soon.
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All this shit is excellent! Y'all have to keep making more of this stuff because I am addicted to it and will have watched all of them I can find soon.
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G. C
You should read about hindu gods and their stories. it is full of scifi shit like parallel universe, multiverse, anti matter bombs etc.
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You should read about hindu gods and their stories. it is full of scifi shit like parallel universe, multiverse, anti matter bombs etc.
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Cody
This essay was fantastic, very cool insights into something I had never heard of before now. And great art too, that was fun.
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This essay was fantastic, very cool insights into something I had never heard of before now. And great art too, that was fun.
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Riley
But the planet Venus wasnt discovered until the 1600s? How did this author know to write that 1500 years earlier
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But the planet Venus wasnt discovered until the 1600s? How did this author know to write that 1500 years earlier
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Bjrn
To claim this story is even close to being sience fiction is far fetch and pushed to the say the least.
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To claim this story is even close to being sience fiction is far fetch and pushed to the say the least.
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