What abilities do science fiction novels reflect about the author?

Looking at the history of Western science fiction for more than one hundred years, we can roughly divide it into four stages, namely: the budding era, the golden age, the new wave era and after the new wave (cyberpunk stage). Below are some brief introductions. During the budding period of the period (19th century - early 20th century), why did the famous science fiction writers Asimov and Aldiss identify the first science fiction novel as "Franken" written by Mary Shelley in 1818? Stan", this issue deserves study. Because, nearly two hundred years before this, the famous German astronomer Kepler had written a novel titled "Dream", which contained detailed descriptions of sleeping pills, the overweight, extremely low temperature and vacuum state of space flight. The author also imagined huge plants and strange animals on the moon. Any researcher can know that these contents are exactly the typical contents of later science fiction novels. Unfortunately, the hero's method of traveling to the moon is beyond the scope of science, and he uses witchcraft. The reason why we mention Kepler's "Dream" is to illustrate that there is a strong fantasy element in the Western literary tradition very early on. As early as the ancient Greek period, Lucian on the island of Salas wrote "True History" and Plato wrote "The Republic". Later, there were Thomas More's "Utopia" (1516), Francis Bacon's "New Atlantis" (1627), Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" (1726), etc. series of works. In these works, the author uses rich imagination to describe some worlds beyond reality. In such a world, people see their own future. It is this imaginative literary tradition that led to the birth of science fiction. Another factor that gave rise to science fiction was the Industrial Revolution in the West. In 1765, Watt created the world's first steam engine, in 1807, Fulton invented the steamship; in 1814, Stevenson built the train. Before all this happened, Copernicus established the central position of the sun; Kepler discovered the three-lei law of planetary motion; Newton discovered the law of universal gravitation. All of this is strongly changing the face of the world, impacting the politics and economy of society, and also impacting people's hearts. People can't help but ask: What exactly has science brought? What else will it bring? It was under this circumstance that in literature, an ideological field that serves as a barometer of social reality, a new literary category—science fiction—came into being. In 1818, the twenty-year-old Mary Shelley (1797·1851), the wife of the famous British poet Shelley, published a novel titled "Frankenstein" (subtitled "The Modern Prometheus") . When recalling the creation of this work afterwards, Mary Shelley tried her best to leave us with the impression that the creation of "Frankenstein" was purely accidental. She wrote in the preface: I spent the summer of 1816 outside Geneva. It was summer, and the weather was cold and rainy. Every evening, we would sit around a burning firewood pile (there were also Shelley, Byron, and Byron’s personal physician present), and occasionally borrow a few books. We amuse ourselves with tales of Germanic ghosts that have fallen into our hands. These stories make us feel interesting and want to join in the fun. Two friends and I agreed that each of us would write a story based on a mysterious incident. (Original preface of "Frankenstein"; translated by Chen Yuan and He Jianyi, Jiangsu Science and Technology Press, 1982) However, reading the entire work makes us dispel the inference that it originated from an accidental "campfire story". Because it everywhere reveals the author's concern for the serious themes of science and the world, science and humanity. The protagonist of the novel, Frankenstein, is a scientist who created an ugly monster through experiments. The monster is running around in the human world, but cannot get support, understanding and sympathy; he yearns for love and beautiful things, but what he gets are lies and pursuit; he desperately seeks revenge from humans, but is finally forced to wander to the arctic ice fields. The famous British writer and science fiction historian Brian Aldis once spoke highly of the story content of "Frankenstein" in his science fiction history book "The Trillion Year Carnival". He departed from previous reviews that regarded the novel as merely a technological miracle of "artificial man", and instead believed that it bravely proved that technology can challenge God. "In Mrs. Shelley's writings, scientists become creators. The theme of "Frankenstein" is that God no longer creates humans, and humans take over. This is the quasi-evolutionary view of Darwin (Darwin, the founder of the theory of evolution), that once humans After being created, the work of progress is left to the activities of its descendants, and God no longer interferes. ""Frankenstein" is indeed not an accidental work, it has very profound thoughts. The book is about science and technology. The attitude reminds people of the complex mentality that a human representative in a dilemma may have when standing at the crossroads of the new era: On the one hand, science challenges God and creates miracles; on the other hand, this miracle is related to Human beings are incompatible with their traditional nature. In the past two hundred years, this sharp conflict has never stopped between human beings and technological progress. This is the main theme of science fiction works started with "Frankenstein". Frankenstein", scientific fiction entered the literary stage. In its long initial period, there are two other writers worth mentioning, they are the French Jules Verne and the British Herbert George. Wells.

The two of them developed two main schools of classical science fiction from different aspects: the technical school and the social school. Verne (1828-1905), wrote plays and worked as a theater secretary. He wrote hundreds of science fiction novels in his life, the most famous of which are "Journey to the Center of the Earth" (1864), "From the Earth to the Moon" (1865), "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" (1871), and "Around the Earth in Eighty Days" "(1873), "Amiens in the Year 2000" (1874), "The Master of the World" (1904) and "The Meteor Chase" (1908), etc. Verne imagined a beautiful future society with great enthusiasm. He was the best embodiment of the so-called optimistic theme in science fiction. However, his enthusiasm sometimes seems a bit artificial, and he describes some "fanatics" like a moron. Those people tried to create a cannon to fly to the moon (From the Earth to the Moon), or travel around the world for a bet (Around the World in Eighty Days). Or sailing on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea." The reason why we feel that Verne's characters are a group of idiots or fanatics may be because he did not follow the horror writing method of Mary Shelley's Gothic novels, but inherited the comprehensive tradition of French literature. The characters in his works are the same, without deep inner lives, and he does not try to express the inner conflicts brought about by technology. As a result, his novel became a grand exhibition of scientific and technological achievements and a prophecy of the future. This is why some later critics went astray and regarded science fiction novels as apocalypses of scientific development. However, in any case, Verne opened up many fields of science fiction, and the various themes he wrote are still repeated by writers today. Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was just the opposite of Verne. He focused on describing the impact of science and technology on human life, but was not interested in how many types of airplanes and trains would be produced tomorrow. , Wells was a biologist and political commentator. He had a wide range of interests throughout his life, and science fiction was only an early part of his creation, including "The Time Machine" (1895), "The Island of Dr. Moreau" (1896), "The Invisible Man" (1897), and "Star Wars" (1898). (The Chinese translation is "Battle of the Martians"), "The First Men on the Moon" (1901), "Eat of the Gods" (1904) and "In the Days of the Comet" (1906), etc. Although Wells and Verne lived almost in the same era, we can see that they are indeed two generations of writers. In Wells's works, the writing style is no longer classical. The novels are very action-oriented, and the characters are not facially shaped. Through the progression of the story, we can experience the protagonist's pain, ecstasy, and powerlessness under the changing scientific miracles. The "science" in Wells's works is also much more "advanced" than that of Verne. Verne basically wrote based on common sense, while Wells involved more profound things such as time and space transformations, elements and compounds. Almost every one of Wells's works feels very tragic. He is the embodiment of the so-called "pessimism" in science fiction literature. "The Time Machine" may be Welles' most successful work. It is about a man who has mastered the technology of traveling through time and his exploration of the earth in 802701 AD. He discovered that in that era, people on the earth were divided into two groups, one group was called the Eloi, who lived on the surface of the earth, living and drinking all day long, and getting something for nothing; and the other group was called the Morlocks, who lived below the ground. , their bodies have deteriorated, but they still work hard to create wealth for the world of Elloy. The reader is well aware of the classes corresponding to these two groups of people. Almost every novel written by Wells feels pessimistic, and he is the embodiment of the so-called pessimism in science fiction works. This is true for the scientific madman in "The Island of Dr. Moreau", the tragic experience of the protagonist in "The Invisible Man", and the burning and killing of the invincible Martians in "Star Wars". If Verne captured the joy that science brings to mankind, then Wells expressed the complex feelings of mankind under the miracle of technology, which is in the same vein as Mrs. Shelley. There were also some writers in the budding period, such as the American Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), who was the originator of detective novels and a very good science fiction writer. He brought the tradition of suspense and logical reasoning into science fiction creation, and achieved excellent results. The works in the embryonic period mainly have the following characteristics: First of all, the writers did not realize that they were creating a special kind of literature. Maybe they were aware of it, but they were not willing to flaunt this specialness. They have no manifesto, no special names or definitions for their works. The advantage of this is that it avoids too much criticism of innovation from readers and the literary world. There is no fixed format for the works in the second initial period, and the writers try their best to explore from all aspects. Mrs. Shelley wrote Gothic stories; Verne's works were "journeys"; Wells used science as an introduction to exploring social problems; and Poe solved crimes. Their explorations were combined and formed into a fixed pattern in the golden age of science fiction that followed. These explorations were synthesized into a set pattern during the Golden Age of Science Fiction that followed. Third, we can see that since the inception of science fiction, science and technology have not risen to a major position in it. It is not created as a popular science book or a scientific prophecy. Writers are more concerned about the fate of mankind and the future of the entire world.

Finally, the budding period established the main themes of future science fiction novels, including space exploration, strange creatures, war, catastrophes, time travel, technological progress, and the direction of future civilization. Section 2. The Golden Age of Science Fiction (the 1930s to the 1960s). Through the joint efforts of many writers, especially the promotion of American publishers at the beginning of this century, science fiction has developed greatly. Beginning in the late 1930s and early 1940s, there was a sustained peak of creative publishing. This period is often called the golden age of science fiction (the start and end dates of the golden age are also controversial, Nichols Pitt set it as 1938-1946, but obviously there are other views, so we can only generally limit it to the 1940s-1960s). The golden age of science fiction novels generally has the following characteristics: 1. A group of science fiction activists emerged. Under their active organization, a prosperous scene of writers and works emerged in large numbers. As early as the 1930s, American booksellers had their sights set on science fiction. At that time, there was a very cheap set of books called the 10-cent series. You could buy one for just a dime. They were all science fiction novels with poor content and illustrations: aliens came, fought against evil forces, and heroes rescued them. The beauty of the earth and so on. Such works with extremely poor ideological and artistic qualities have tarnished the reputation of science fiction and have had a negative impact on readers. The first person to come forward to reverse this situation was the American Hugo Gernsback (1884-1967), an engineer who was responsible for editing the magazine "Science and Invention". In order to expand the functions of the publication and to restore the reputation of science fiction as an elegance, Gernsback has dedicated a certain space to publish science fiction works from a long time ago. By 1932, he simply issued a science fiction issue. Professional magazines publish entire sections of literary and artistic works, which undoubtedly has a shock to the reading world. In the subsequent public opinion poll, 32,644 readers supported the revision, accounting for 98.52% of the total readers, while only 498 opposed it, accounting for 1.48%. Gernsback continued his efforts and opened a "Discussion" column in the publication, allowing readers to express their own opinions. In this way, the understanding of science fiction has been deepened. If Hugo Gernsback's main work was to enlighten readers, then John Campbell Jr.'s (1910-1971) contribution was mainly to unite and cultivate authors. For thirty years, from 1938 to 1971, Campbell edited the leading science fiction magazine Amazing Science Fiction Stories. He discovered authors from manuscripts, guided them tirelessly, arranged exchange gatherings among new writers, rewrote their manuscripts, and even designed writing topics for them. It was during these thirty-three years that he discovered artists including Asimov, Lester Del Rey, Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon, A.E. Vogt and K. Riford Simak and many other writers. In order to commemorate the contributions of Hugo Gernsback and John Campbell, Jr., two science fiction awards were created in their names. Among them, the Hugo Award has developed into the most authoritative science fiction award today. 2. A large number of writers and excellent works have appeared. Thanks to the readers' path cleared by Gernsback, and under the expansion of John Campbell Jr.'s "Amazing Science Fiction", a large number of excellent writers and works were successfully launched. It is difficult to enumerate the outstanding figures of the Golden Age and their masterpieces. We can only take a few from the chronicles written by some researchers. They are "The Skylark Series" by Smith (1915-1966), "The Girl Helen" by Lester Del Rey (1938), "The Slender" (1940) by Van Vogt, and "The Non-A Series" "(1945-1946), Theodore Sturgeon's "The God of the Microcosm" (1941), "Superhuman" (1953), Robert Heinlein's "He Built a Strange House" (1941) ), "Future History Series" (1950-1953), Isaac Asimov's "Foundation Trilogy" (1942-1948), "Fantastic Voyage" (1966), George Orwell's "1984" Years", John Campbell Jr.'s "The Moon Is Hell" (1950), Ray Bradbury's "Mars Chronicles" (1950), "Fahrenheit 451" (1954), Arthur C. Clarke's "The End of Childhood" "(1950), "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968), John Wyndham's "The Age of the Three-Top Tree" (1951), Jack Williamson's "Time Legion" (1952), Hal Clay Mentor's "Gravity's Mission" (1953), William Golding's "Lord of the Flies" (1954). Alfred Best's "The Dismantled" (1953), "The Star - My Destination" (1965), Philip K. Dick's "Eye from Space" (1957), "The Man in the High City" (1962), Nightwing (1969), Frank Herbert's Dune Books (1963-1980), and Clifford Simak's The Station (1963), among others. In addition, there are works by Hubbard, More, James Blish, Cowan Bruce, Frederic Pohl, Anderson, Sheckley, etc., too numerous to count. The level of their novels is very high and the quality is neat. Due to space limitations, here we only introduce three representative writers: Heinlein from the United States, Clark from the United Kingdom, and Asimov from the United States.

Robert Anson Heinlein (1907-1988) was an American writer, educated at Missouri University and the Annapolis Naval Academy. He served in the army for five years and then entered the University of California, Los Angeles to study physics. Started creating in 1939. His major works include "Future History Series" (1950-1953), "Planet Beast" (1954), "Double Star" (1956), "Starship Paratroopers" (1959), "Stranger in a Strange Land" (1961), "The Moon Is a The Harsh Woman" (1966), as well as the recent "The Number of the Beast", "Voyage Beyond the Sunset" and so on. Heinlein is a master storyteller. He does not pursue excessive literary taste, but only wants to write stories in a simple and popular way. The novella "The Puppet Master" was published in 1951 and describes a group of aliens who specially attach themselves to the human body and control human behavior. They suck into the human body like bugs and then enter the brain. Therefore, incompetent people can only obey orders and become puppets. Commentators believe that this insect-like alien creature is just an inducement used by Heinlein to express human beings' fear of death. "Double Star" is a thriller that tells the story of how an actor got involved in a political conspiracy and acted as a stand-in for the leader. Because of his outstanding performance, he saved the Republic of China from renovating the Milky Way. The novel is a subtle satire on the leaders in today's political arena. Just imagine, when an actor who does not understand political affairs and diplomatic regulations at all can successfully negotiate at the negotiation table in the interstellar world, then professional diplomats and politicians become very ridiculous figures. This work won the Hugo Award in 1956. "The Gate to Summer" was written in 1957 and is about time travel. The protagonist deals with time again and again, and each time the method used changes. Finally, he succeeded in traveling between history and the future. The plot of this novel must have inspired the blockbuster movie "Back to the Future" in the early 1980s. In the movie, the protagonist goes back thirty years to serve as a marriage broker for his parents. Heinlein was a truly American writer, one who made liberal use of slang and folk sayings. Although he has created a variety of protagonists, people always feel that these guys belong to the same class, that is, the type of people between the bottom and the upper class of society. The scientists, engineers, military officers, workers, and even presidents he wrote about were like this. They were very arrogant and seemed to be quite insightful when speaking, but in fact they were not profound. The reason why he is called a pillar of the Golden Age is probably because of the richness of his writings and his wide readership. There is no denying the fact that Heinlein's works are wonderfully conceived and constantly suspenseful; in addition, he does not care about machines more than people like others. Arthur Clark (1912-) is a British writer, scientist, and the founder of international communications satellite technology. In his paper "Extraterrestrial Relays" published in 1945, he was the first to describe the possibility and method of satellite earth communication. His main works include: "The End of Childhood" (1950), "Cities and Stars" (1956), "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968), and "Meet Rama" (1973). And later "Fountains of Paradise" (1980), "2010: A Space Odyssey" (1983) and "2061: The Third Odyssey" (1987), "Ghost on the Levee" (1990) and so on. Clark's works are famous for their outstanding scientific foresight, Eastern mysterious sentiment and Hemingway's tough-guy writing style. He is the only scientist and writer who is quite philosophical. In "The End of Childhood", the writer discusses what happens when life in the universe wants to interfere with the process of earth's civilization, and the various natures of human beings are undoubtedly exposed in front of alien creatures. "Cities and Stars" follows this theme. Finally, the people on earth broke through their own shackles and became a member of the universe. The topic that interests Clark most is humanity's place in the universe. In his opinion, there must be a life form higher than human beings, which is simply incomprehensible to humans. Therefore, the best literary expression method is mysticism. This was vividly demonstrated in the 1969 film "2001: A Space Odyssey", which he collaborated with Stanley Kubrick. The whole movie is divided into four independent parts: the first part is about the distant ancient times, when apes lived in the woods in groups. Suddenly one day a supernatural cuboid landed. It explored the apes and enlightened the apes. , kicked off its fight against nature. Humanity was born. Immediately afterwards, the camera switched to the future, a space station in the 21st century, and US government officials were rushing to the moon. There, the astronauts discovered a strange object, buried under the earth's unchanging dust for thousands of years, but undoubtedly a supernatural creation. Because it is exactly the cuboid we have seen. Under the pale sunlight, the cuboid suddenly made a sound. The third part of the film seems a bit dull. The story is about astronauts flying towards Saturn. The large computer controlling the spacecraft somehow got tired of the heavy mental work and "rebelled". It designed to murder a large number of members of the spaceship and cut off the connection between humans and the earth. The only surviving astronaut has to contend with the computer. It took out its memory components and regained the initiative in decision-making. At the same time, the spacecraft was approaching its destination, Saturn, and the audience was surprised to see the cuboid floating in the sky for the third time. The last part of the movie is the most exciting.

With the help of the cosmic cuboid, the pilot traveled through billions of light-years of space. He roamed in the gorgeous ocean of constellations, and finally came to the interior of a flaming planet. Here, he found a peaceful hut, where he transformed into a cosmic baby. "2001: A Space Odyssey" appeared at the end of the Golden Age, so it has a fully mature approach to expression. It is an outstanding product of modern science and technology, and at the same time, it is also a direct evaluation of modern science and technology. Whether it is the intervention of alien cuboids, human technological achievements, or the rebellion of computers, they all reflect how cold the world created and understood by modern science and technology is. The cold feeling of this technology, coupled with the fear of alien behaviors that humans cannot understand, caused people to lose confidence. You seem to be standing in front of that black rectangular body, touching its solid surface, but unable to transcend it. You can only worship it. "2001: A Space Odyssey" received multiple nominations for the 1969 Academy Awards. Isaac Asimov (1920-1996) was a Russian-American and professional popular science writer. He has written more than 300 works. His major science fiction works include "Foundation Series" (1942), "I, Robot" (1950), "Steel Cave" (1954), "The Naked Sun" (1956), and "Two Hundred Years of Robots" (1976) , "Fantastic Voyage" (1966) and the sequels after the 1980s, etc. Asimov was known for his "lack of style". He sat in front of the typewriter for more than eight hours a day, typing at a speed of 90 words per minute without interruption during these eight hours. His works include science fiction, popular science, literature, history, chemistry, etc. In such a mixed business atmosphere, "no style" has become a natural thing. But it is precisely this "lack of writing style" that has become a unique writing style that fascinates many people. Asimov had the ability to control big scenes. In the novella "Twilight", the author describes such a scene: there will never be night on the planet Regesh under the shining of six suns, because the suns can take turns throwing light and heat. But, finally one day, this is a rare moment in a thousand years, all six suns entered the eclipse state, and the fragile human mind simply could not bear this absolute darkness. So, in search of light, they suffered a mental breakdown, igniting a global fire. The famous critic David Hartwell (1987) believes that this is a classic work of the golden age, and the grand scenes it left to people are very unforgettable. The "Foundation Series" consists of "Foundation" (1942), "Foundation and Empire" (1945) and "Second Foundation" (1948). According to Asimov's own recollection, at that time, he was studying the history of Rome and discovered that it was entirely possible for events throughout ancient times to repeat themselves in the future, within a time span as vast as the Milky Way. As a result, he conceived and created this huge work. The first three volumes were serialized in "Amazing Science Fiction" for seven years before they were completed. Asimov knew that civilization would decline sooner or later. In order to restore this loss and save the Galactic Empire that was about to collapse, he designed two secret bases to preserve human civilization. Another characteristic of Asimov's works is his love of reasoning. Combining the writing style of mystery novels with robot stories, he formed another series of stories, the most famous of which are "I, Robot" and "Steel Cave". Here, Asimov solemnly proposed the so-called "Three Laws of Robotics", namely: The first law - a robot must not harm people, nor must it stand idly by while people are being harmed. Second Law - Robots should obey all orders given by humans, but must not violate the First Law. The third law - robots should protect their own safety, but must not violate the first and second laws. ("I, Robot", Popular Science Press) These laws are not so much contributed to robotics as they are provided for his own reasoning. Asimov used these three laws as a starting point to push the protagonist of each of his robot stories into a dilemma. To obey the third law, he must violate the second law, or to obey the second law, he must violate The first law, and so on. Then, those robots "incarnated" by Asimov used their brains to solve the problem satisfactorily and escape from the predicament. Freewheeling commercial writing can sometimes create wonderful works. Asimov was certainly a genius at pioneering genres. In 1966, he revived "Gulliver's Travels". In order to treat the blood clots in the patient's brain, he used scientific methods to "shrink" a tide boat, together with several navy soldiers and doctors, to the size of molecules; then let them enter the human body, follow the blood flow into the brain, and then use lasers to open it up embolism, saving lives. In addition to Heinlein's storytelling, Clark's mystery, and Asimov's logic, distinctive science fiction writers in the golden age include the ironic Sheckley, the pastoral Simak, and the black humor Clay Mentor, the dystopian Orwell, etc. 3. The understanding of science fiction novels is gradually unified. The golden age was full of excellent works and talented people, which promoted the development of people's understanding of science fiction novels. During this period, the authors no longer had the uncertain conflicts of mind as in the embryonic period, but instead all followed a fixed pattern. This model is: (1) There must be a good story with suspense; (2) The story must be related to the development of science or the work of scientists; (3) There must be several magnificent and strange scenes; (4) Regardless of the ending Optimistic or pessimistic, it is best to give people something to think about. Definitions of science fiction are also beginning to converge.

For example: John Campbell Jr. and Breitner both believed that science fiction novels are works that show the impact of science on human beings. Breitner wrote: "Science fiction is fiction based on rational inferences about the impact of science and the resulting technologies on humanity." Lester Del Rey further clarified that science fiction is actually about writing about "change." He wrote: "Science fiction is a means of entertainment that uses theory and reasoning to try to describe the possibilities of various alternative worlds. It uses change as the basis of the story." Obviously, this "alternative world" refers to a world in another world. A world view under the influence of technology and civilization. Asimov also agreed with this view. Earlier, he wrote: "Science fiction is a branch of literature that mainly depicts fictional societies. The difference between this society and real society lies in the nature of technological development and Degree." The Golden Age gave science fiction a firm foothold in readers' minds. However, the formal establishment of literature has not yet officially accepted this form. The unified understanding of science fiction and the standardization of creative methods in the "golden age" of the Three Sections New Wave period (the 1960s to the mid-1970s) brought shackles to science fiction. In addition, the international political, military and scientific and technological situation has undergone great changes in the decades after the Second World War: the Cold War, the rise of the left, the spread of Eastern religions, the United States' involvement in Southeast Asia, the destruction of the ecological environment, the decline of popular art The emergence of the epidemic, the proliferation of drugs, etc., especially the launch of the first artificial satellite in 1957 gave people a great shock. The public finds that the wonderful stories in science fiction either lack reality or are less magical than reality. In addition, for a long time, science fiction works have been in the category of popular literature and have not received attention from the mainstream literary circles. This has also deeply hurt science fiction writers. In this way, a storm of change is inevitable. In the summer of 1965, the famous writer and editor Mitchell Moorcock (1939-) became the editor-in-chief of the British magazine "New World". As soon as he came to power, he immediately had a new impact on the entire British science fiction community, launching innovative works by some writers, including himself. These works are opposed to traditional science fiction. They no longer regard orthodox science such as physics as the main content, but pay attention to psychology, sociology, politics and even theology. Its writing style is as close to orthodox mainstream literature as possible. It is no longer as keen on the world 2,000 or 30,000 years in the future as the science fiction novels of the past. Instead, it strives to express the recent future and even the current world. The complete and clear story is gone, and fragmentary, trivial, stream-of-consciousness, humorous, mocking, and symbolistic techniques appear. At first glance, these novels are obscure and difficult to understand, but upon closer inspection, the implications are profound. In 1968, editor Judy Merrill compiled a collection of such works and officially called them New Wave works. This gave rise to the New Wave movement.