Why Everyone Should Read Science Fiction

"Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real." -- Jules Verne

That's a great quote, especially coming from Jules Verne who may be responsible for more of the things we have today than any other man. At least as far as concept goes. During one of the A-to-Z challenges, my theme was all about things that we have now (or that are being worked on) that originated in fiction, mostly science fiction, and I ended up back at Jules Verne more times than I can remember right off hand.

Right now, I'm reading Brave New World and, again, I'm struck by the incredible vision of the author, in this case Aldous Huxley. I mean, the book is full of helicopters, which didn't exist yet, and TV that was fully experiential, which the Japanese are working on, not that TV even existed, and genetic engineering, which... well, yeah, who knows exactly what we're capable of with that.

Science fiction is so often belittled as just "genre writing" that is done by hacks that can't keep their feet on the ground. It's not "important," whatever that means. Real writing is literary and deep and, well, heck, often incomprehensible, but, you know what, if Joyce had not written Ulysses or not written at all, the world would be basically the same place it is today. Take away John Irving and the nothing changes. But if Jules Verne had never put pen to paper, or Wells or Asimov, and everything would be different.

Everything.

I think that's something to think about. There's your "A Sound of Thunder."