LEADER 04944nam 2200817 a 450 001 9910788680403321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a1-283-89840-3 010 $a0-8122-0667-3 024 7 $a10.9783/9780812206678 035 $a(CKB)3240000000065389 035 $a(OCoLC)824522209 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebrary10642159 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000626489 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11420354 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000626489 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10690749 035 $a(PQKB)10826685 035 $a(SSID)ssj0001323591 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)12598500 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0001323591 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)11505382 035 $a(PQKB)11557390 035 $a(OCoLC)793012728 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse17641 035 $a(DE-B1597)449540 035 $a(OCoLC)979904892 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780812206678 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3441824 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10642159 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL421090 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3441824 035 $a(EXLCZ)993240000000065389 100 $a20111114d2012 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcn||||||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aAstounding wonder$b[electronic resource] $eimagining science and science fiction in interwar America /$fJohn Cheng 205 $a1st ed. 210 $aPhiladelphia $cUniversity of Pennsylvania Press$dc2012 215 $a1 online resource (401 p.) 300 $aBibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph 311 $a0-8122-2293-8 311 $a0-8122-4383-8 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [317]-374) and index. 327 $apt. I. Circulation -- pt. II. Reading -- pt. III. Practice. 330 $aWhen 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 1930's and after. 606 $aScience fiction, American$xHistory and criticism 606 $aScience fiction$xPeriodicals$xHistory 606 $aLiterature and science$zUnited States$xHistory$y20th century 606 $aScience in popular culture$zUnited States 610 $aAmerican History. 610 $aAmerican Studies. 610 $aCultural Studies. 610 $aLiterature. 615 0$aScience fiction, American$xHistory and criticism. 615 0$aScience fiction$xPeriodicals$xHistory. 615 0$aLiterature and science$xHistory 615 0$aScience in popular culture 676 $a813/.0876209 686 $aHU 1818$qSEPA$2rvk 700 $aCheng$b John$01172563 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910788680403321 996 $aAstounding wonder$93720879 997 $aUNINA