ASTOUNDING WONDER: IMAGINING SCIENCE AND SCIENCE FICTION IN INTERWAR AMERICA
Book ID/图书代码： 13567914B70488
English Summary/英文概要： When physicist Robert Goddard, whose career was inspired by H. G. Wells’s War of the Worlds, published "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes," the response was electric. Newspaper headlines across the country announced, "Modern Jules Verne Invents Rocket to Reach Moon," while people from around the world, including two World War I pilots, volunteered as pioneers in space exploration. Though premature (Goddard’s rocket, alas, was only imagined), the episode demonstrated not only science’s general popularity but also its intersection with interwar popular and commercial culture. In that intersection, the stories that inspired Goddard and others became a recognizable genre: science fiction. Astounding Wonder explores science fiction’s emergence in the era’s "pulps," colorful magazines that shouted from the newsstands, attracting an extraordinarily loyal and active audience.
Pulps invited readers not only to read science fiction but also to participate in it, joining writers and editors in celebrating a collective wonder for and investment in the potential of science. But in conjuring fantastic machines, travel across time and space, unexplored worlds, and alien foes, science fiction offered more than rousing adventure and romance. It also assuaged contemporary concerns about nation, gender, race, authority, ability, and progress—about the place of ordinary individuals within modern science and society—in the process freeing readers to debate scientific theories and implications separate from such concerns.
Readers similarly sought to establish their worth and place outside the pulps. Organizing clubs and conventions and producing their own magazines, some expanded science fiction’s community and created a fan subculture separate from the professional pulp industry. Others formed societies to launch and experiment with rockets. From debating relativity and the use of slang in the future to printing purple fanzines and calculating the speed of spaceships, fans’ enthusiastic industry revealed the tensions between popular science and modern science. Even as it inspired readers’ imagination and activities, science fiction’s participatory ethos sparked debates about amateurs and professionals that divided the worlds of science fiction in the 1930s and after.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 当职业生涯的灵感来自于《H•G•威尔斯的世界大战》的物理学家罗伯特•戈达德出版了《到达极高空的方法》，得到了令人震惊的反应。全国各地报纸的头条宣布，“现代儒勒•凡尔纳发明了到达月球的火箭”，而来自世界各地的人，包括两名第一次世界大战的飞行员，都自告奋勇做太空探索的先锋。虽然不成熟（戈达德的火箭，唉，只是想象），但其情节不仅表现了科学的普遍流行，还有它与两次世界大战之间的流行和商业文化的交集。在那个路口，启发戈达德和其他人的故事成为一个公认的类型：科幻小说。《惊人的奇迹》探索了科幻小说在”纸浆“和丰富多彩的杂志时代的勃兴，来自报摊的叫卖，吸引了非常忠实和积极的听众。
不仅邀请读者读科幻小说，更参与其中，和编辑和作家一起欣赏科学潜力下的集体惊叹和投资。神奇的魔术机器，跨越时间和空间的旅行，未开发的世界和外来的敌人， 科幻小说带来的不仅仅是激动人心的冒险和浪漫。它还缓和了对民族，性别，种族，权力，能力和进步的当代关切——普通个人在现代科学和社会中的位置——在这个过程中释放读者进行科学理论和独立影响的辩论。
读者同样寻求建立自己在纸张之外的价值和位置。组织俱乐部和公约，生产自己的杂志，扩大一些科幻小说的社区，创造专业的粉丝文化从专业纸浆工业中分离出来。其他成立的社团泽发动火箭实验。从辩论相对论和对未来俚语的使用，到打印紫色爱好者杂志和计算飞船的速度，粉丝热情的工业揭示了流行科学与现代科学之间的紧张关系。即使它启发读者的想象力和活动，科幻小说的参与精神引发了业余爱好者和专业人士将科幻小说分为20世纪30年代和以后这两个阶段的辩论。(LNL)
Awards/获奖情况：名列轨迹杂志2012推荐阅读清单上。
“《惊人的奇迹》是一本引人入胜的书。它讲述了科幻小说历史中往往被忽视的一段引人入胜的故事，并通过档案资料的频繁报价带来了当代演员的生活。”——洛杉矶图书回顾
“以独特的视角真正了解多学科工作....程显然爱他的题材，并在书中注入幽默感。”——美国文化期刊
Named in Locus magazine’s 2012 Recommended Reading List
"Astounding Wonder is an absorbing book. It tells fascinating tales of an often-neglected period of SF’s history and brings contemporary actors to life through frequent quotation from archival sources."—Los Angeles Review of Books
"Truly a multidisciplinary work with a unique perspective. . . . Cheng clearly loves his subject matter and infuses the book with a sense of humor."—Journal of American Culture
About the Author/作者介绍： 约翰•程在宾厄姆顿大学教亚美研究。
John Cheng teaches Asian American studies at Binghamton University.
Format:插图
Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE
Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE
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