Science fiction (sometimes shortened to sci-fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life.  It has been called the "literature of ideas", and it often explores the potential consequences of scientific, social, and technological innovations.   Science fiction can trace its roots back to ancient mythology, and is related to fantasy, horror, and superhero fiction, and contains many subgenres.  Its exact definition has long been disputed among authors, critics, scholars, and readers.  American science fiction author and editor Lester del Rey wrote, "Even the devoted aficionado or fan—has a hard time trying to explain what science fiction is," and the lack of a "full satisfactory definition" is because "there are no easily delineated limits to science fiction."  According to Isaac Asimov, "Science fiction can be defined as that branch of literature which deals with the reaction of human beings to changes in science and technology."  Robert A. Heinlein wrote that "A handy short definition of almost all science fiction might read:  realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough understanding of the nature and significance of the scientific method."   Forrest J Ackerman is credited with first using the term "sci-fi" (analogous to the then-trendy "hi-fi") in about 1954.  As science fiction entered popular culture, writers and fans active in the field came to associate the term with low-budget, low-tech "B-movies," and with low-quality pulp science fiction.  Many critics consider H. G. Wells one of science fiction's most important authors, or even "the Shakespeare of science fiction."  His notable science-fiction works include The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898).  His science fiction imagined alien invasion, biological engineering, invisibility, and time travel.  In his non-fiction futurologist works he predicted the advent of airplanes, military tanks, nuclear weapons, satellite television, space travel, and something resembling the World Wide Web.  Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars, published in 1912, was the first of his three-decade-long planetary romance series of Barsoom novels which were set on Mars and featured John Carter as the hero.  In 1926, Hugo Gernsback published the first American science-fiction magazine, Amazing Stories.  In its first issue he wrote:  By 'scientifiction' I mean the Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and Edgar Allan Poe type of story—a charming romance intermingled with scientific fact and prophetic vision . . . Not only do these amazing tales make tremendously interesting reading—they are always instructive.  They supply knowledge . . . in a very palatable form . . . New adventures pictured for us in the scientifiction of today are not at all impossible of realization tomorrow . . . Many great science stories destined to be of historical interest are still to be written . . . Posterity will point to them as having blazed a new trail, not only in literature and fiction, but progress as well.  Some scholars assert that science fiction had its beginnings in ancient times, when the line between myth and fact was blurred.  Written in the 2nd century CE by the satirist Lucian, A True Story contains many themes and tropes characteristic of modern science fiction, including travel to other worlds, extraterrestrial lifeforms, interplanetary warfare, and artificial life.  Some consider it the first science-fiction novel.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction 

Somnium (Latin for "The Dream") is a novel written in Latin in 1608 by Johannes Kepler, and first published in 1634 by Kepler's son, Ludwig Kepler.  In the narrative, an Icelandic boy and his witch mother learn of an island named Levania (our Moon) from a daemon.  Somnium presents a detailed imaginative description of how the Earth might look when viewed from the Moon, and is considered the first serious scientific treatise on lunar astronomy.  Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov have referred to it as one of the earliest works of science fiction.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somnium_(novel) 

From:  Sylvia Reid  Subject:  taw  When I went square dancing in college, the caller would sometimes refer to a man’s partner as his taw.  I never saw this in print, just heard it called:  Turn to the right and swing Sally Goodin!  Swing your taw!  Turn to the left and swing that gal from Arkansas!  Now cross the hall and swing Grandma!  She ain’t been swong since late last fall!   AWADmail Issue 1023 

My book was banned.  Here's how we fought back--opinion by Brad Meltzer   Someone told me "I am Rosa Parks" and "I am Martin Luther King, Jr." had been banned.  Can't be, I thought.  But it was true.  In Pennsylvania, after the Central York School District's diversity education committee recommended 200-plus books as anti-racist resources, the school board vetoed the entire list in November 2020.  The list included books by Malala Yousafzai, an adaptation of "Hidden Figures," a Sesame Street book about racism, and yes, books written by me and illustrated by Chris Eliopoulos on Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King.  Central York School Board members called the reading list "divisive" and "bad ideas."  The community immediately mobilized.  I teamed up with local activists and incredible students, all of us speaking at a local school board meeting.  Thankfully, the so-called "freeze" on these books was withdrawn in September 2021.  "Victory!" we declared, though we all knew this was one battle in a larger war.  https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/07/opinions/books-ban-in-the-us-meltzer/index.html 

 Cormac McCarthy, author of The Road and No Country for Old Men, who's widely considered one of the greatest American writers alive, is publishing two new novels this fall, The New York Times reports.  The novels, The Passenger and Stella Maris, will be connected and published only one month apart.  McCarthy has not published a new novel in the more than 15 years since 2006's The Road, the acclaimed post-apocalyptic novel that won him a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.  Brendan Morrow   https://theweek.com/news/1011075/cormac-mccarthy-set-to-publish-his-1st-novels-in-over-15-years 

Congress weighs permanent daylight saving time in a debate as regular as clockwork.  Health groups including the American Academy of Sleep Medicine have called for an end to the shifting, which was first adopted in the United States a century ago.  Daylight saving time has since been revised repeatedly by lawmakers trying to strike the right balance, including a short-lived effort to make it year-round in response to the 1970s energy crisis.  Nearly two-thirds of Americans want to stop the twice-per-year clock change, according to an Economist/YouGov poll in November 2021.  “We heard today … that changing our clocks twice a year severely impacts our health,” said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), who chairs the committee.  “And over the years, the science continues to get clearer that sleep is vital for our health and well-being … I haven’t decided yet if I want daylight or standard, but I don’t think we should go back and forth.”  Pallone after the hearing sent a request to the Transportation Department, which enforces the federal Uniform Time Act first enacted in 1966, asking for an analysis of the effects of changing the clocks.  That analysis was promised in 2018 but never delivered to Congress, according to a letter Pallone’s office provided to The Washington Post.  While states can choose to adopt permanent standard time—as Arizona and Hawaii have done—it would take an act of Congress to allow states to adopt permanent daylight saving time, a fact that has repeatedly astounded lawmakers over the years.  Dan Diamond   https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/03/09/congress-hearing-daylight-saving/ 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2506  March 11, 2022