Public Image

The sf community comprises:

writers

editors

publishers

readers

Con-goers, who might not read much

critics

artists

cartoonists

some TV and film types

What is this community's public image? I don't know but it must have changed since the times decades ago when James Blish wrote criticism as William Atheling, Jr.

We observe developments in our lifetimes, like the emergence of the off-shoot Star Trek fandom, and read about earlier developments, like the emergence of the literary ghetto of sf mags. Fortunately, Poul Anderson emerged from and transcended that ghetto, created several major series and also contributed to well-known series created by several other authors so that he could have augmented Star Trek. (James Blish adapted TV scripts into prose fiction and wrote one ST novel.)

Because someone at a New Year's Eve party enquired about my interests and activities, I mentioned blogging about an sf writer called Poul Anderson. The name meant nothing so I added that I also discuss other writers connected with Anderson like HG Wells. That name connects.

Asked whether I read a lot of sf, I replied that I used to but no longer do and that Anderson sets such a high standard both of descriptive writing and of creative imagination that I will no longer accept mere sf backdrops. I do not want to read about a spaceship landing on a planet unless I can also read a detailed description of the environment on that planet. 

The most obvious Wells-Anderson link is The Time Machine-the Time Patrol although we should also add There Will Be Time, The Corridors Of Time, "Flight to Forever" and other time travel works.

There is an obvious link between Wells' The War Of The Worlds and Anderson's The War Of Two Worlds - both about Martians invading Earth - as well as the latter's "The Soldier From The Stars," about a different way to conquer a planet.

Wells' The First Men In The Moon is about a first journey to the Moon whereas Anderson's Tau Zero is about an ultimate journey beyond the end of the universe. Both are about space travel. Wells imagines a substance opaque to gravity whereas Anderson's narrative remains within the parameters of relativistic physics.

Learn the difference between British and American future histories, then read:

Wells

Stapledon

Aldiss

Heinlein

Anderson

(Not just them but they make a start.)

Anderson's last future history, Genesis, synthesizes British/Wellsian and American/Heinleinian models and readdresses the Frankenstein question: is it right to create human life?

We can connect with the general public by mentioning Wells and Frankenstein.