Frontmatter

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. CONTENTS vii
3. Introduction. “The Hope of Today and the Reality of Tomorrow”: Popular Science, Popular Culture, and Science Fiction 1
4. PART I. CIRCULATION
5. 1. “Magazines for Morons”: Pulp Magazines and the Emergence of Science Fiction 13
6. 2. Conversations from the “Backyard”: Reading and Imagining Community 51
7. PART II. READING
8. 3. Discovering the Freedom of Facts: Fact, Fiction, and the Authority of Science 79
9. 4. Involving Adventure, Reassuring Romance: Engendering Science Fiction’s Domestic Tranquillity 111
10. 5. Human Martians and Asian Aliens: The Racial Nature of Wondrous Worlds 147
11. 6. The Progress of Time: Einstein, History, and the Dimensions of Time Travel 179
12. PART III. PRACTICE
13. 7 “Fandom Is Just a Goddamn Hobby”: The Industry of Fans and Professionals 211
14. 8 “We Want to Play with Spaceships”: Popular Rocket Science in Action 251
15. Epilogue. Beyond the “Gernsback Continuum”: Science Fiction’s Community and Social Networks 301
16. List of Abbreviations 315
17. Notes 317
18. Index 375
19. Acknowledgments 389