January journal: science fiction periodization

[ursula]

glowingfish asked:

The Golden Age of published science-fiction was more or less from 1955 to 1975 (lets say). Why did it end when it did? Do you think that science-fiction (or fantasy) published after 1975 was different, or do you just think it had less ability to become part of the "canon"?

This is really non-standard periodization! Wikipedia has the Golden Age of science fiction starting in the late 1930s, in connection with sci-fi magazine publishing history; the end of your period is solidly New Wave.

The counter-argument is the aphorism that the Golden Age of science fiction is twelve; by that rule, it's interesting to think about who was twelve in 1955-1975, or whatever guidelines you want to pick, and what influence they might have had on defining a canon, once they reached their twenties or thirties. The people who were twelve between 1955 and 1975 were mostly baby boomers, in the standard US generational framework; that was my parents' generation (and glowingfish's, I'm guessing), and it makes sense that the stories they considered formative would seem quasi-canonized to our generation.

Comments

[foxmoth]

Yes, I was about to ask where that periodization was from not because it's bad but because it doesn't match the terminology I grew up with. :D

[glowingfish]

I think I was basing it on the years when Ace Doubles were published, which I consider to be the zenith of science-fiction! :)

[foxmoth]

I've read some Ace Doubles over the years (picked up very secondhand ahahaha) and they ARE excellent! :D