|
A sense of wonder is an intellectual and emotional state frequently invoked in discussions of science fiction. It is an emotional reaction to the reader suddenly confronting, understanding, or seeing a concept anew in the context of new information. ==Definitions and origins== In ''Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction'' the term ''sense of wonder'' is defined as follows: In the introductory section of his essay 'On the Grotesque in Science Fiction', Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., Professor of English, DePauw University, states: John Clute and Peter Nicholls associate the experience with that of the "conceptual breakthrough" or "paradigm shift" (Clute & Nicholls 1993). In many cases, it is achieved through the recasting of previous narrative experiences in a larger context. It can be found in short scenes (e.g., in ''Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope'', it can be found, in a small dose, inside the line "That's no moon; it's a space station.") and it can require entire novels to set up (as in the final line to Iain Banks's ''Feersum Endjinn''.) George Mann suggests that this ‘sense of wonder’ is associated only with science fiction as distinct from science fantasy, stating: Mann later defines the term as “the sense of inspired awe that is aroused in a reader when the full implications of an event or action become realized, or when the immensity of a plot or idea first becomes known;” and he associates the term with the Golden Age of SF and the pulp magazines prevalent at the time. One of the major writers of the Golden Age, Isaac Asimov, agreed with this association: in 1967 commenting on the changes occurring in SF he wrote, However, the editor and critic David Hartwell sees SF’s ‘sense of wonder’ in more general terms, as ”being at the root of the excitement of science fiction.” He continues: Academic criticism of science fiction literature (Robu 1988) identifies the idea of the sublime described by Edmund Burke and Immanuel Kant—infinity, immensity, "delightful horror"—as a key to understanding the concept of "sense of wonder" in science fiction. For example, Professor of English at the University of Iowa, Brooks Landon says: Edward James quotes from Aldiss and Wingrove’s history of science fiction in support of the above suggestion as to the origin of the ‘sense of wonder’ in SF, as follows: Paul K. Alkon in his book ''Science Fiction before 1900. Imagination Discovers Technology'' makes a similar point: Alkon concludes that "science fiction ever since (19th century ) has been concerned as often to elicit strong emotional responses as to maintain a rational basis for its plots. Far from being mutually exclusive, the two aims can reinforce each other ...",〔 Edward James, in a section of his book entitled ‘The Sense of Wonder’ says on this point of the origin of the 'sense of wonder' in SF: James goes on to explore the same point as made by David Hartwell in his book ''Age of Wonders'' (and quoted above) as regards the relationship of the ‘sense of wonder’ in SF to religion or the religious experience. He states that, As an example James takes the short story ‘The Nine Billion Names of God’ by Arthur C. Clarke. He explains: It is appropriate that Edward James chooses a story by Arthur C. Clarke to make the point. One critic is of the opinion that Clarke "has dedicated his career to evoking a "sense of wonder" at the sublime spaces of the universe ..."〔Seed, David. 'Introduction' in David Seed (ed.) ''A Companion to Science Fictiion'' (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2008)〕 Editor and SF researcher Mike Ashley agrees: Kathryn Cramer in her essay ‘On Science and Science Fiction’ also explores the relationship of SF’s ‘sense of wonder’ to religion, stating that “the primacy of the sense of wonder in science fiction poses a direct challenge to religion: Does the wonder of science and the natural world as experienced through science fiction replace religious awe?” 〔Cramer, Kathryn. ‘Introduction: On Science and Science Fiction,’ in David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (eds.), ''The Ascent of Wonder. The Evolution of Hard SF'' (London: Orbit, 1994)〕 However, as Brooks Landon shows, not all 'sense of wonder' needs to be so closely related to the classical sense of the Sublime. Commenting on the story 'Twilight' by John W. Campbell he says: Perhaps the single most famous example of "sensawunda" in all of science fiction involves a neologism, from the work of A. E. van Vogt (Moskowitz 1974): Despite the attempts above to define and illustrate the 'sense of wonder' in SF, Csicsery-Ronay, Jr. argues that "unlike most of the other qualities regularly associated with the genre, the sense of wonder resists critical commentary."〔 The reason he suggests is that, Nevertheless, despite this "resistance to critical commentary," the 'sense of wonder' has "a well-established pedigree in art, separated into two related categories of response: the expansive sublime and the intensive grotesque."〔 Csicsery-Ronay, Jr. explains the difference between these two categories as follows:: Later in this same essay the author argues that "the sublime and the grotesque are in such close kinship that they are shadows of each other," and that "it is not always easy to distinguish the two, and the grotesque of one age easily becomes the sublime of another."〔 He gives as an example the android (T-1000) in the second 'Terminator' film ''Terminator 2: Judgment Day'', saying that "the T-1000, like so many liminal figures in sf, is almost simultaneously sublime and grotesque. Its fascinating shape-shifting would be the object of sublime awe were it not for its sadistic violation of mundane flesh〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「sense of wonder」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|