Compiling hundreds of the most important science fiction books required much more effort from our editors than similar books. game lists, movies and series. No wonder, because books are the foundation of all world fiction. As before, the main criterion for us was the significance of this or that work for world and domestic science fiction. Our list includes only those books and cycles that have become universally recognized pillars of science fiction literature or have had a significant impact on the development of individual science fiction trends. At the same time, we did not give in to the temptation to attribute the main contribution to science fiction to English-speaking authors: almost a fifth of our list is occupied by books by Russian masters of the word. So, here are the 100 books that, according to MF, any self-respecting fan of science fiction must read!

Forerunners of fantasy

Mary Shelley "Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus"

The book of an English lady, the wife of a famous poet, written "on a dare". Percy Shelley and his friend Byron failed, and the 20-year-old girl wrote one of the most famous "Gothic" novels. But the matter was not limited to one gothic! The story of the Swiss scientist Victor Frankenstein, who learned how to animate dead tissue with electricity, is considered the first truly science fiction work.

Lewis Carroll "Alice in Wonderland"

Jules Verne "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea"

One of the most famous books"founding father" of NF. Of course, several more of his novels can be put side by side - "Journey to the Center of the Earth", "From the Earth to the Moon", "Robur the Conqueror", but it is "20 thousand ..." that combines scientific and technical predictions that have come true, a fascinating adventurous plot, cognition and a bright character, whose name has become a household name. Who doesn't know Captain Nemo and his Nautilus?

Robert Louis Stevenson "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"

The story of two opposite halves of a single personality, at the same time - a moralizing parable about the duality of progress and the responsibility of science to society (later this topic was developed by G. Wells in The Invisible Man and The Island of Dr. Moreau). Stevenson cleverly combined elements of sci-fi, gothic horror and philosophical romance. The result is a book that spawned a lot of imitations and made the image of Jekyll Hyde a household name.

Mark Twain "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court"

Another classic that combines a satire on the writer's contemporary society and a brilliant embodiment of several fantastic ideas, later replicated by hundreds of authors. Time travel, alternative history, the idea of ​​a clash of cultures, the dubiousness of progressorism as a way to change an "inert" society - everything fits under one cover.

Bram Stoker "Dracula"

A novel about vampires that spawned an ocean of imitations in literary and cinematic fiction. The Irish Stoker showed the world an example of a competent "black PR". He took the true figure of the Wallachian ruler - a person of little sympathy, but in historical terms quite ordinary - and created a monster with a capital letter from him, whose name in the mass consciousness is placed somewhere between Lucifer and Hitler.

Isaac Asimov, Future History series

The first monumental history of the future in the world science fiction, the most striking part of which is the Foundation trilogy (Hugo award as the best fantasy series of all time). Asimov tried to reduce the development of civilization to a set of laws similar to mathematical formulas. The saviors of mankind are not generals and politicians, but scientists - adherents of the science of "psychohistory". And the action of the entire series covers 20 thousand years!

Robert Heinlein "Starship Troopers"

The novel caused a serious scandal, because many liberals saw in it propaganda of militarism and even fascism. Heinlein was a staunch libertarian whose idea of ​​responsibility to society coexisted with the rejection of the total restriction of personal freedom by the state. "Starship Troopers" is not just a reference "military war" about battles with strangers, but also a reflection of the writer's ideas about an ideal society, where duty is above all.

Alfred Elton Van Vogt "Slan"

The first significant work on biological mutations that threaten humanity with the transition to a new stage of evolution. Naturally, ordinary people are not ready to just go to the dustbin of history, so mutant slans have a hard time. The situation is complicated by the fact that slans are the fruit of genetic engineering. Will mankind itself give birth to its own gravedigger?

John Wyndham "Day of the Triffids"

The epitome of a sci-fi "disaster novel". As a result of a cosmic cataclysm, almost all earthlings became blind and turned into prey for predatory plants. End of civilization? No, the British science fiction novel is imbued with faith in the power of the human spirit. Say, "Let's join hands, friends, so as not to disappear one by one"! The book started a wave of similar (though often more pessimistic) stories.

Walter Miller "The Leibovitz Passion"

Classic post-apocalyptic epic. After a nuclear war, the only bulwark of knowledge and culture remains the church in the person of the Order of St. Leibovitz, founded by a physicist. The action of the book takes place over a thousand years: civilization is gradually reborn in order to perish again ... A sincere believer, Miller looks with deep pessimism at the ability of religion to bring true salvation to humanity.

Isaac Asimov, I, Robot

Asimov's stories about robots developed the theme raised by Karel Capek in the play R.U.R. - about the relationship between man and artificial intelligence. The Three Laws of Robotics are the ethical basis for the existence of artificial creatures, capable of suppressing the "Frankenstein complex" (an implicit desire to destroy one's Creator). These are not just stories about thinking pieces of iron, but a book about people, their moral throwing and spiritual experiments.

Philip K. Dick "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

The first example of genuine cyberpunk, which appeared long before the birth of the term itself and the fantastic phenomenon it designated. The acid-gloomy world of the future, whose inhabitants constantly question the meaning and even the reality of their own existence, are themes that are characteristic of this novel, and of Dick's entire work. And the book served as the basis for Ridley Scott's cult film Blade Runner.

William Gibson Neuromancer

The holy book of cyberpunk, where there are almost all of its iconic signs. Brilliantly depicted in a high-tech near future, in which predatory multinational corporations hold power and cybercrime flourishes. Gibson acted as a real prophet of the digital era that has come today, not only foreseeing the problems of information technology development, but also introducing specific computer jargon into wide circulation.

Arthur Clarke "2001: A Space Odyssey"

Based on an old story, Arthur C. Clarke wrote the screenplay for Stanley Kubrick's film - the first real sci-fi epic of world cinema. And novelization has become a symbol of serious space science fiction. No Star Wars, no superheroes with blasters. A realistic story about an expedition to Jupiter, during which the machine mind reaches its limit, but a person is able to go beyond any limits of the possible.

Michael Crichton "Jurassic Park"

Crichton is considered the father of the science fiction techno-thriller. "Jurassic Park" is not the first work of its kind, but one of the most famous, largely due to the adaptation of Steven Spielberg. Being essentially a skillful combination of themes and ideas repeatedly worked out in science fiction - genetic engineering, cloning, rebellion of artificial creatures - the novel has gained millions of fans and many imitations.

HG Wells "Time Machine"

One of the cornerstones of modern SF is the book that pioneered the exploitation of the theme of time travel. Wells also tried to continue his contemporary capitalism into the distant future, in which humanity was divided into two biological species. Even more than the strange society of Eloi and Morlocks, the "end of times" shakes, which marks the complete death of the mind.

Evgeny Zamyatin "We"

The first great dystopia that influenced other classics - Huxley and Orwell, not to mention the many science fiction writers who try to critically predict the development of society. The action of the story takes place in a pseudo-utopia, where the role of a person is reduced to the position of an insignificant cog. The result is an "ideal" anthill society in which "one is zero, one is nonsense."

Aldous Huxley "Brave New World"

One of the foundations of literary dystopia. Unlike his contemporaries, who exposed specific political models, Huxley's novel polemicized with idealistic views about the perfection of technocracy. The intellectuals who have seized power will build another version of the concentration camp - albeit a decent-looking one. Alas, our modern society confirms the correctness of Huxley.

George Orwell "1984"

Another classic dystopian novel inspired by the grim events of World War II. Perhaps now in all corners of the world they heard the terms “Big Brother” and “Newspeak” coined by Orwell. "1984" is satirical image absolute totalitarianism, no matter what ideology - socialist, capitalist or Nazi - he covered himself.

Kurt Vonnegut "Slaughterhouse Five"

A masterpiece of anti-war fiction (and literature in general). The hero of the book is the alter ego of the author Billy Pilgrim, a war veteran who survived barbaric bombardment Dresden. Abducted by aliens, the hero only with their help will be able to recover from a nervous shock and find inner peace. The fantastic plot of the book is just a technique with which Vonnegut fights the inner demons of his generation.

Robert Heinlein "Stranger in a Strange Land"

First sf book to become a national bestseller in the United States. This is the story of "cosmic Mowgli" - the earthly child of Michael Valentine Smith, who was brought up by representatives of a fundamentally different mind and became the new Messiah. In addition to the obvious artistic merit and the discovery of many topics forbidden for science fiction, the significance of the novel is that it finally turned the public perception of SF as literature for immature minds.

Stanislav Lem "Solaris"

The flagship of philosophical science fiction. The book of a remarkable Polish writer tells about an unsuccessful contact with a civilization that is absolutely alien to us. Lem created one of the most unusual SF-worlds - a single mind of the planet-ocean Solaris. And you can take thousands of samples, put hundreds of experiments, put forward dozens of theories - the truth will remain "out there, beyond the horizon." Science simply cannot unravel all the mysteries of the universe - no matter how hard you try...

Ray Bradbury "The Martian Chronicles"

A multifaceted cycle about the conquest of Mars by man, where a strange and once great civilization is living its last days. This is a poetic story about the collision of two different cultures, and reflections on eternal problems and values ​​of our life. "The Martian Chronicles" is one of the books that clearly demonstrates that science fiction is able to touch upon the most complex problems and can compete on equal terms with "big" literature.

Ursula Le Guin, Hein cycle

One of the brightest stories of the future, a masterpiece of "soft" SF. Unlike traditional space fantasy scenarios, Le Guin's relationship between civilizations is based on a special ethical code that excludes the use of violence. The works of the cycle tell about contacts between representatives of different psychologies, philosophies and cultures, as well as about their everyday life. The most significant part of the cycle is the novel The Left Hand of Darkness (1969).

Henry Lyon Oldie, The Abyss of Hungry Eyes

The first multi-layered philosophical and mythological work in modern Russian science fiction, The Abyss of Hungry Eyes includes various areas of science fiction and fantasy. Creating the universe, the co-authors use a variety of mythological schemes, combining a strong adventurous plot and well-developed characters with a philosophical understanding of the events.

space opera

Edgar Rice Burroughs "Princess of Mars"

The novel that opened the super-popular series about the adventures of earthling John Carter on Mars. In fact, the book and the cycle marked the beginning of adventurous fantasy about the adventures of "ours" in another world and became the forerunner of the space opera. And although Burroughs' literary gift was very frail, his incredible imagination and ability to build an exciting intrigue influenced several generations of science fiction writers.

Edward Elmer "Doc" Smith "Space Lark"

This book began the history of "space opera" as a separate direction of adventure fiction. The hero of the novel, the inventor Seton, on the spaceship "Space Lark" for the first time in the history of literary fiction goes flying to the stars. Subsequently, Smith cemented his position as "admiral" of the space opera with another famous Lensmen cycle.

Frank Herbert "Dune"

One of the most famous and multi-layered SF novels, showered with numerous awards. An example of a successful combination of political intrigues of the galactic level, a thorough display of a kind of pseudo-Islamic culture, a romanticized biography of a charismatic leader with a detailed description of the psychology of the characters. Herbert has taken space opera to a whole new level.

Caroline J. Cherry, Alliance and Union Series

This is not just another story of the future about the confrontation between two galactic forces - the trade Alliance and the militaristic Union. The main advantage of the series, which consists of several cycles, is an incredibly accurate description of life and inner world non-human civilizations. The heroes of Cherry's novels and stories are most often various "strangers" who are fundamentally different from us in thinking and behavior. Maybe the writer is an alien foundling?

Dan Simmons "Hyperion"

Like Herbert's Dune, this book is a Space Opera with a capital letter. Simmons has managed to create a superbly layered work about the world of the distant future, combining several of the main themes of science fiction - from time travel to the problem of artificial intelligence. The novel is full of references to world literature and mythology, full of philosophical reflections and at the same time extremely fascinating.

Satire and humor

Karel Capek "War with the Salamanders"

The Czech writer's novel is a philosophical epic exploring social phenomenon the emergence of fascism and, at the same time, the standard of satirical fiction. Cute salamanders, possessing the rudiments of reason, are shamelessly exploited by cunning little people. They make cheap labor, uncomplaining soldiers and even canned food. And then there is a certain little man, the former sergeant major Andreas Schulze, who leads a successful salamander riot ...

Robert Sheckley short stories

Best Humorous Fiction Short Form (maybe add a few Henry Kuttner stuff). The subject matter is the most diverse - from parody of sci-fi genre clichés to outright satire of social phenomena. Brilliant ideas presented in a really funny way. In terms of literary style, the work of Robert Sheckley is closest to the work of O'Henry: soft humor, as well as a shock and often completely unexpected ending.

Piers Anthony "A spell for a chameleon"

Far from being a brilliant novel by a far from outstanding writer, he brought comic fiction to completely new frontiers. The audience for fantasy humor has long been limited. However, the first novel about Xanth became a sensational bestseller, after which humor became a welcome guest of Western publishers. The much brighter "MYTHIC" cycle of Robert Asprin consolidated the success, but Anthony still got the glory of the pioneer.

Douglas Adams "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

A cycle of radio plays remade by the author into a novel about a man who escaped from the destroyed Earth and embarked on a journey through the Galaxy. In the best traditions of English humor, the author ridicules the stereotypes of science fiction, as well as "life, the universe and everything else." In Britain, Adams' books sparked a "comic boom" without which we wouldn't have Discworld.

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky "Monday begins on Saturday", "The Tale of the Troika"

The brightest Soviet comic fiction. An organic fusion of fairy-tale folklore, ironic and satirical prose in the best traditions of Russian literature. “Monday starts on Saturday” is a rather humorous thing, imbued with the romance of scientific research, faith in technological progress. But the sharply satirical "The Tale of the Troika" confronts this romance with an inhuman bureaucratic machine. Two stories are like two sides of the Soviet sixties: light and dark.

Andrey Belyanin "The sword without a name"

Belyanin has played the same role for our modern science fiction as Anthony and Adams did for English-language fiction. The humorous adventures of his heroes are not exactly very good and witty, they just turned out to be just right for readers and gave rise to a legion of imitators. Partly the merit of popularizing fantasy humor belongs to Mikhail Uspensky's Adventures of Zhikhar, but, one way or another, Belyanin's books turned out to be much more popular.

Alexander Belyaev "Amphibian Man"

Belyaev is by far the most brilliant author of early Soviet science fiction. He has several excellent novels to his credit, the most famous of which is The Amphibian Man, which describes the tragic story of a young man who gained the ability to live in the ocean. One of the first books in the world science fiction, which shows the morally and ethically difficult relationship between ordinary people and artificially created "superhumans". Partly - the forerunner of the NF about genetic engineering.

Ivan Efremov "Andromeda Nebula"

A milestone book for Soviet science fiction, marking the rejection of the science fiction ideology of "close range". This is a large-scale utopia about the distant communist future, saturated with social and philosophical ideas. Efremov managed to create a vivid fictionalized treatise about the time when people became "like gods" primarily in the spiritual plane. However, the ponderous style did not allow the novel to retain its appeal to this day.

Sergey Snegov "People are like gods"

Another communist utopia that went down in the history of science fiction thanks to an affinity, unusual for Soviet literature, with the "capitalist" space opera. If Efremov and Strugatsky's conflicts were of an intra-systemic or moral-psychological nature, then Snegov draws the world of a comprehensive galactic war. The battles of star fleets shown by the author have no analogues in the Soviet science fiction in terms of scale.

Kir Bulychev, a cycle about the Great Guslar

An iconic series of science fiction literature "made in the USSR". Humorous stories about the unusual everyday life of the provincial town of Veliky Guslyar are a magnificent sketch of Soviet and post-Soviet life, where everyday life mixes with fantasy. The cycle continued successfully for many years, reflecting the changes taking place in our society. The result was a kind of fantastic chronicle of the mysterious Russian soul.

Alexander Volkov, cycle about the Emerald City

A free adaptation of L. Frank Baum's fairy tale series about Oz, which made Volkov a classic of children's literature and a forerunner of Russian children's fantasy. The initial story is only a "remake" of the American original, but with each volume, Volkov moved more and more away from Baum, building his own world. And if Baum's books suffered from strained moralizing, Volkov managed to combine unobtrusive edification with a dynamic plot and vivid characters.

Kir Bulychev, a cycle about Alisa Selezneva

Several generations in our country have grown up on books about the adventures of the “guest and the future”. The best of the stories about the brave, honest and noble Alisa Selezneva have become the standard of teenage fiction, which should not only entertain its readers, but teach them in a good way, without dull tediousness, implicitly encouraging self-improvement. Interest in Alice does not disappear to this day - a full-length cartoon coming out next year guarantees this.

Vladislav Krapivin, cycle about the Great Crystal

A cycle of conditionally related works included in the golden fund of national children's fiction. The plots are largely similar: a teenager or a young man finds himself in an extreme situation (transferred to another planet, encounters aliens, etc.). Fiction for Krapivin is nothing more than a technique for accentuating the growing up of a child, reflections on the boundaries between good and evil, lies and honesty, the problem of "fathers and children."

Philip Pullman's Dark Materials

Unlike Harry Potter, this cycle is closer to the traditional fantasy epic. The heroes embark on a journey that will determine the fate of the universe. But the main thing is the adventure of the spirit. Lyra and Will are ordinary teenagers who mature before the eyes of the reader, learning about the world around them and themselves. The cycle is accused of promoting atheism, but rather a story about the search for the true essence of God, which cannot be monopolized by a bunch of priests.

Joan Rowling Harry Potter series

You can have different attitudes to books about a young magician in round glasses, which put the whole world on the ears, but Rowling's merits to science fiction and literature are generally undeniable. The true magic of Harry Potter is that he returned the book to the hands of the younger generation, revived the interest in reading that had died out under the onslaught of multimedia entertainment. And multimillion-dollar circulations and fabulous profits are just a consequence.

Philip K. Dick "The Man in the High Castle"

An excellent example of a serious and dramatic alternative history - without trying to concoct a light entertainment adventure. Dick managed to create a very believable world where Germany and Japan won World War II. However, the author did not limit himself to AI - the novel also has a metaphysical background associated with Dick's favorite topic about the unreality of the reality surrounding a person. That's where the "Matrix" legs grow from!

Andrey Valentinov "Eye of Power"

The very term "cryptohistory" appeared thanks to the work of Valentinov - specifically the cycle "Eye of Power" (however, in the West, the direction of "secret history" has existed for a long time). The cycle is a large-scale, albeit somewhat naive canvas, where our history has been considered from different angles for many decades. It turns out that the favorite leaders Soviet people were... shhh... who-knows-who! And in general, everything is not what it seems!

Vera Kamsha "Chronicles of Artia"

The first novels of the cycle are a cumbersome and clumsy imitation of Perumov. However, starting from the third volume, Kamsha changed her vector towards pseudo-historical fantasy, taking as a basis the period of the English Wars of the Roses and the work of George Martin. And the cycle healed anew, thanks to a gallery of brightly written characters. Today, Vera Kamsha is one of the few domestic authors who write books at the level of the best world samples.

epic fantasy

John R. R. Tolkien "The Lord of the Rings"

The "Bible" of modern fantasy, which combines an adventure novel, an allegorical parable, a linguistic and mythological epic, a philosophical and moralizing fantasy. At first, Tolkien wrote a fairy tale for his children, which he then published under the title The Hobbit (1937). Work on the sequel dragged on for almost 20 years, bringing a very unexpected result. Epigones still use Tolkien's work for numerous epics.

Ursula Le Guin, Earthsea Series

A series of novels and short stories united by the magical world of Earthsea, although the main part of the cycle's fame comes from the trilogy about the wizard Ged. Much attention is paid to the inner experiences of the characters. The magic carefully described by the author resembles an alternative science. Along with The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny, the Ged trilogy was among the top fantasy books of the new wave.

Terry Brooks "The Sword of Shannara"

The merit of this ordinary novel is in the mass popularization of fantasy. Prior to that, only Tolkien had been published in large numbers, and even then he was quoted as a specific author for "advanced" readers. "The Sword of Shannara" - the first fantasy contemporary author, which was included in the bestseller list of the newspaper New York Times and stayed there for about six months. Without the success of this book, there would be no fantasy boom in English-language fiction.

Andrzej Sapkowski "The Witcher"

The starter book of stories about the Witcher can be considered the founder of Slavic heroic fantasy. True, the Polish writer created his stories using the techniques of ironic postmodernism, which distinguished them from the same type of fantasy action movies. In subsequent books in the series, Sapkowski drew an amazingly authentic magical world populated by unconventional characters who take part in epic events.

Nick Perumov, cycle about Ordered

"The Ring of Darkness" - an imitation and at the same time a somewhat naive attempt at polemics with Tolkien - became the first fantasy epic in the history of Russian science fiction. Then Perumov created several more cycles, linking them together in a single universe of the Ordered, subject to the general laws of Equilibrium. Although Perumov's work is not free from serious shortcomings, his influence on the development of Russian fantasy is undeniable.

Roger Zelazny "Chronicles of Amber"

A combination of sci-fi adventure and mythological fantasy with a strong touch of philosophy and esotericism. The basic idea of ​​the center of the universe, its countless Reflections and the family ruling there, entangled in a network of intrigues, Zelazny borrowed from Farmer's "Tiered World" cycle. But the references to mythology and literature, the creation of psychologically believable characters, turned The Chronicles of Amber into something much more than an exciting adventure.

Margaret Weis, Tracey Hickman "The Spear Saga"

Visual proof that a book based on a board game could very well be worth reading. The Saga of the Spear won the love of numerous readers around the world, giving the fantasy image of one of the most charismatic magicians - Raistlin. Unfortunately, over time, the cycle has become mired in endless monotonous sequels, but the original trilogy still remains the standard of game novelization.

Maria Semyonova "Wolfhound"

The first domestic heroic on the Slavic theme was Yuri Nikitin's novel "Three from the Forest", but the initial book about the Wolfhound from the Gray Dogs gained the greatest resonance, mass popularity and cult status. Its main advantages are a high-quality literary language and deep ethnological character, for which the author generously used her considerable knowledge in the field of history and traditions of near-Slavic tribes and nationalities.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft short stories

Early 20th century official science claimed that life on the planet has existed for many billions of years, also suggesting that unknown outer spaces lie beyond the Earth. All these abysses of time and distance were frightening - and Lovecraft was able to express these fears. But, more importantly, the writer created a single mythological background for his works. His stories, in due proportion mixing the said and the hidden, to this day excite the imagination of readers.

Anne Rice "Interview with the Vampire"

A novel that opened a very popular series that has become the standard of "vampire" fiction. Rice with perfect new side looked at the familiar image of a bloodsucker-ghoul - a natural enemy of man. Vampires in her books are suffering creatures, they are only a mirror that reflects human virtues and shortcomings. The novel laid the foundation for an ocean of similarly thematic books about refined blood-sucking aesthetes.

Stephen King "Carrie"

King's debut novel is not his best book. He himself calls "Carrie" student nonsense, and in many ways he is right. However, it was this novel that: a) revealed to the world the future ruler of the horror genre, b) laid down many of the main themes of his work, c) turned out to be the first brick in the arena of provincial America, where the action of almost all King's books unfolds, and d) became in many ways innovative, making emphasis on the psychology of the heroes of "terrible" stories.

Stephen King "The Dark Tower"

King considers the Dark Tower cycle to be the pinnacle and quintessence of his work. He not only managed to bring together the images and plots of many of his books, but also created a magnificent hybrid of horror and classic fantasy epic, full of numerous references to mythological and historical archetypes. In addition, always paying special attention to the development of characters, King simply outdid himself here.

Clive Barker "Books of Blood"

Splatterpunk is a lot of blood that splatters in picturesque fountains, and the violence is shown with cinematic precision and aesthetic sophistication. Barker is so talented that his most nightmarish notions look absolutely realistic. "Books of Blood" are brilliant, but it is not recommended to read them nervous, underage and pregnant. In short, if you want to keep your sanity, stay away from Grimpen's quagmire of Barker talent!

Lord Dunsany "Gods of Pegana"

Long before The Lord of the Rings appeared, Edward John Morton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany, dreamed up the country of Pegana and populated it with people, magical creatures and gods. There were no obvious allegorical parallels or literary games in his short stories. These are magical stories in their purest form, little masterpieces that have influenced many of the founding fathers of the genre, from Lovecraft to Tolkien.

Terence Hanbury White "The Once and Future King"

The most famous "Arthuriana", one of the most significant books of early fantasy. The opening story, The Sword in the Stone, is written in the tradition of a classic English literary tale. However, then the author, using the book by Thomas Malory "The Death of Arthur" as a basis, significantly complicated his work, introducing elements of a philosophical novel into it. The book served as the basis for the famous musical "Camelot" and the Disney cartoon.

Marion Zimmer Bradley "The Mists of Avalon"

Although Bradley's novel was published in our country, it did not attract much attention. Meanwhile, this is in many ways a milestone book in which the mythology of Arthurian is combined with feminist ideas, and the realistically written action takes place on a wide scale. historical background. The book became an international bestseller, second in popularity only to The Lord of the Rings in the West for a long time.

Roger Zelazny "Prince of Light"

An unusual reworking of classical mythology. The heroes are "like gods", in fact, colonists from the Earth, who, using high technology, play the characters of the Hindu pantheon. The novel is both a gripping thriller and a complex metaphor about a man who rethinks his life and rebels against the system. The book, by the way, can be used as a guide for the study of Hinduism.

Neil Gaiman "American Gods"

A gem of modern mythological fiction written using the techniques of psychological thriller, drama and mystery novel. The gods need a flock, without which they are only pale shadows of past centuries. And, no matter what anyone says, now people still believe - only their new deities have changed color ... The novel is a thoughtful parable about the nature of faith and the search for oneself.

Mervyn Peak "Gormenghast"

A whimsical trilogy, decisively breaking out of any framework and definitions. A mixture of Dickens and Kafka, phantasmagoria, grotesque, parable - and all this is written in an exquisite style. The story of the giant castle and one of its inhabitants has become a milestone in fantasy literature. Peak had no followers, because he simultaneously opened and closed the topic: you can borrow certain images from Gormenghast, but you can’t imitate the author’s style.

Philip José Farmer "The Lovers"

Paul Anderson "Time Patrol"

Anderson's series is an adventure fantasy, but adventure is not an end in itself, but only a means to think about serious problems. The concept of a special secret service that prevents unauthorized intervention in the course of history in order to avoid a global temporal catastrophe has spawned a legion of imitators. In fairness, let's clarify: the "time police" was not invented by Anderson, but by Beam Piper.

Michael Moorcock, The Multiverse Series

A super series that has no analogues in the world of science fiction. Moorcock developed the concept of the Multiverse, where many parallel worlds coexist. Megacycle books written in different genres- Science fiction, fantasy, alternative history, even realistic fiction. The characters freely migrate from novel to novel, eventually forming an incredible polyphonic canvas. Moorcock's contribution to heroic fantasy is especially significant.

Mikhail Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita"

A multifaceted philosophical novel, which was published many years after the death of the author, producing the effect of an exploding bomb. The book has long been considered the banner of the Soviet intelligentsia. The genre is difficult to define, but now it fits perfectly into the framework of modern "magical realism" - an artificial direction invented by critics to ennoble "low" fantasy.

Peter Beagle "The Last Unicorn"

The epic "Lord of the Rings" played with fantasy bad joke: numerous successors rushed to copy the "letter", completely forgetting about the "spirit". Beagle poured new wine into old wineskins: he created a chamber and fragile thing, in which the real magic is present. A lively and wise fairy tale strikes readers to the very heart for forty years in a row. Beagle recently wrote a short story-continuation of "Two Hearts" - and the magic is not dead!

Gene Wolfe, New Sun Cycle

An explosive mixture of fantasy, mysticism, sci-fi and another-Wolf-knows-which makes readers still argue about the meaning of certain events of the tetralogy. A book for intellectuals? No - Wolfe knows how and loves to build a dynamic plot. However, strong storytellers in science fiction are a dime a dozen, and there are only a few people with such a rich imagination - for which we appreciate Wolfe. True, the subsequent books of the Brian epic are inferior in order to the initial cycle.

Michael Swanwick "Daughter of the Iron Dragon"

The boundaries of genres exist in order to erase them. This thesis is not new, but few have made truly revolutionary and successful "escape attempts." In "Daughters ..." Swanwick managed to combine the seemingly incompatible: fantasy and futurological romance with elements of cyber and steampunk. More importantly, such a connection looks quite natural. Add to this a fascinating plot and exquisite style - and you get a real masterpiece.

Robert Shea, Robert A. Wilson "Illuminatus!"

Our cycle was lost in the wave of the last of the Da Vinci Code. Meanwhile, it is considered the most significant work of fantastic conspiracy theories - it is compared even with "Dune"! The authors managed to create a multidimensional world with large quantity masterfully interwoven storylines. The mysterious society of the Illuminati has been carrying out the main Conspiracy for many centuries - however, the authors are rather ironic in relation to mass hysteria on this topic.

Sergei Lukyanenko, Vladimir Vasilyev "Patrols"

A hybrid of urban fantasy and detective thriller, the most commercially successful series of modern domestic fiction. In the first novels, the authors introduced elements of psychological drama into the narrative, and there were also philosophical reflections on the topic of moral dualism. "Sentinel" stories and their film adaptation contributed a lot to the popularization of fantasy in our country, although recent volumes markedly inferior to their predecessors.

Dan Brown "The Da Vinci Code"

The real value of Brown's novel is small. A strong thriller on a near-historical theme - the usual mass entertainment with a claim to "intellectuality". And before Brown, such books were written in abundance. But some ephemeral Miracle allowed this particular book to be at the right time and place to become a stone that set off an avalanche. The result is a legion of imitations and a general world fashion for opuses that expose the secrets of centuries (especially religious ones).

Three books that changed fiction.

Olaf Stapledon is a pioneer in many branches of science fiction. He wrote the most grandiose works in the genre, deserving rave reviews from his contemporaries and influencing many classics of science fiction. For example, it was Stapledon's books that inspired the writing of serious fiction.

But with all this, Stapledon remained virtually unknown to a wide audience. We tell what kind of books he wrote and why they are so important.

"Weird John" (1935)

The plot of the book is the story of the mutant John Wainwright, told by the only person who can somehow be called his friend.

John was born to two completely normal parents, but unlike them, he is a representative of a new species of Homo Superior. The boy grew up eccentric, brilliant, decisive, unbalanced and often aggressive. With age, he realized himself as a representative of the next stage of evolution, learned telepathy and patented several inventions.

Disillusioned with humanity, John built a special glider with a yacht and set off to travel the world and communicate with other mutants. In the end, he gathered a team of superhumans and decided to found in pacific ocean state for Homo Superior, professing the power of reason.

"Man is a rope stretched between the animals and the superman." The arrival of the "superman" according to Nietzsche is a natural stage in the development of mankind. Unlike his predecessors, he must be a radical egocentric and highly intelligent creator with a frenzied lust for power.

The stories about mutants that preceded Weird John mostly focused on their abilities, and the central characters of these books were more like Greek heroes. So Olaf Stapledon took Nietzsche's concept of "superman" as a basis and decided to concentrate on social and psychological spheres life of a new stage in the evolution of mankind. For example, already in his youth, John Wainwright treated with contempt even the greatest thinkers people because of the limitations of their minds. In the book, many mutants, having become disillusioned with society, withdrew and "withdrew into themselves."

The post-humanistic ideas of the novel quickly became popular among writers. The term Homo Superior has been elevated to the rank of a synonym for the superman. The authors of the magazine Astounding Science Fiction pulled "Weird John" into separate elements that served as the basis for "Slan", "Mutant", "Atom Child" and other novels. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were inspired by these stories when creating the first issues of X-Men.

The first issue of the X-men in 1963

Interestingly, two main characters of the Marvel cycle appeared from the image of John at once: Professor X, who owns telepathy and travels the world to found a society of mutants isolated from society, and Magneto, with his aggression and arrogance towards the human race.

Homo sapiens is a spider that tries to crawl out of the bath. The higher it crawls, the steeper the walls. Sooner or later, he ends up at the bottom. He feels quite good as long as he stays at the bottom, but as soon as he begins to climb, he begins to slide off. And the higher it rises, the further it will fall. It doesn't matter which way he tries.

John Wainwright

But "Weird John" just set many of the foundations of works about superhumans. Other books by Olaf Stapledon have influenced all of science fiction in one way or another.

"Last and First Men: A History of the Near and Distant Future" (1930)

The story is told from the perspective of a writer, to whom a voice from the future dictates the history of mankind from the middle of the 20th century until the last moment of human existence, which came two billion years later.

Over such an astronomically long period, many catastrophes have happened: nuclear wars, the invasion of the Martians, the collision of the Earth with the Moon, the cooling of the Sun - but humanity has experienced all this and moved on. Let for this it was necessary to evolve into something new as many as eighteen times.

People have managed to try on many forms: hairy intellectual giants on the wreckage of torn continents, flying dreamers over the Venusian oceans, primitive animals adapted to the hot Neptunian prairies with high gravity - and many more.

But not only external conditions changed people - Stapledon in his work paid great attention to their spiritual throwing. Humanity either experienced an incredible spiritual upsurge in an automated utopia, or because of religious torment, doomed itself to tyranny. giant brains towers.

The first part of the plot, which tells about humanity before a nuclear catastrophe, is the weakest in the novel: here are the minuses of the First and last people' appear most clearly. Firstly, Stapledon did not take into account the acceleration of progress, which is why people in the book come to the things we are used to only after millennia. Secondly, the author's behavior is sometimes naive, and this omission is immediately evident. Thirdly, there is a problem with the style of the work itself. This is more of a futuristic essay than a traditional fiction novel.

However, despite all this, Stapledon was able to make a number of successful predictions. Taking the writings of Spengler as a basis, he wrote first about the decline in the importance of Europe for the world (even if for this Europe had to be literally destroyed), and then about the rise of the United States and China. Moreover, their culture is described in such a way that at some point you forget that the book was created in the thirties.

In addition, Olaf Stapledon is one of the first science fiction writers who spoke about the possibility of the massive use of biological weapons, the dawn of civil aviation, alternative energy sources in the event of an early exhaustion of coal and oil.

"The last and first people" are even mentioned in Deus Ex. And not without reason: Stapledon was the first to introduce into science fiction a story about a global conspiracy of transhumanists to radically modernize humanity as a species.

The ideas that served as the basis for the part of the plot with the first globally changed people, Stapledon borrowed from the work of HG Wells: the evolved branches of humanity from The Time Machine, the Martians who died from the virus during the invasion of Earth, from the War of the Worlds - but here are these images taken to a new level. For example, if the Morlocks and Eloi are just globally degraded people, then Stapledon's post-humans are already the next evolutionary step after the total degradation of civilization and humanity as a species. This was largely due to the influence of the writings of John Bernal and John Haldane.

Wells' aliens were a real revolution in science fiction, because physiologically they did not resemble humans in any way. Stapledon's aliens were a big leap forward because of their dissimilarity to any terrestrial species at all. At the same time, in contrast to the structure of “indescribable universal horrors”, which did not go into details, Stapledon spoke about aliens in detail.

In The Last and First Men, in conditions of a less dense atmosphere and less gravity, organisms appeared on Mars that exist in the form of flying clouds-colonies, united by radio waves. Therefore, the Martians gradually lost their individuality, merging into collective mind. Deciding that intelligent life, in principle, could only be similar to them, they organized an expedition to a neighboring planet, reaching there on solar sails. The goal was the liberation of all diamonds from "an inappropriate form of existence for them." The Martians did not even think that humanity could be intelligent.

One of Stapledon's main sources of inspiration is the writings of the German historian Oswald Spengler. He proposed to perceive history as a series of cultures independent of each other, living, like living organisms, periods of origin, formation and death.

According to the plot, at some point, humanity turned itself into giant brains, the existence of which was supported by special devices. The concept of improving human abilities with the help of special artificial limbs is not new in the literature - one can recall at least the works about Goetz von Berlichingen with his iron devilish hand. And if you give an example from science fiction, then since 1908 books about Nyctalope, a cyborg superhero, have been published. But there were no examples of such massive and so radical cyborgization before the release of The Last and First Men.

The topics of genetic engineering in science fiction have also practically never been raised before. For example, in Čapek's "R.U.R", all biorobots were created from scratch from bioplasma. So Stapledon borrowed his concept from the works of Julian Huxley. For a long time after The Last and First Men, science fiction used genetics only for some minor changes: already in Brave New World, which came out a year later, it was more about maintaining the status quo in society.

Even more curious in this context is part of the plot about the telepathic connection of one of the subspecies of people. And although back in 1863 Jules Verne in the story "Paris in the 20th century" described an all-planet information network, there it is just a global telegraph. The network of telepaths in Stapledon's novel was already more like the Internet, because the World Wide Web is more than just a messaging tool.

Genetic experiments, cyborgization, telepathic communication similar to the Internet; uprising against the world government, zombified most the population of the earth; the organizers of the new world order themselves, who were actually biocomputers; agents of giant brains, indistinguishable from the rest of humanity - in fact, Olaf Stapledon in the thirties came up with the concept of traditional cyberpunk.

Stapledon's books influenced Van Vogt, Stanisław Lem and other authors. They in turn influenced the writers who inspired William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. In general, The Last and First Men can be called the great-great-grandfather of cyberpunk.

The Neptunian story of human evolution partially inspired Dougal Dixon's Man After Man: An Anthropology of the Future

Another important element of "People" is terraforming. In particular, humanity there tried to change the climate of Venus, simultaneously arranging genocide against the natives.

Some descriptions of terraforming can be found in Wells' War of the Worlds, where the Martians changed the ecology of the Earth for themselves. Then science fiction writers either did not think about this issue at all, or a priori considered other planets suitable for colonization.

So The Last and First Men is not only the progenitor of cyberpunk, but also the first book in which the process of artificial climate change on the planet was described in more or less detail. And this is almost the first novel about the migration of mankind from a dying Earth. At that time, most cosmist philosophers (which also included Stapledon) did not consider catastrophes on Earth as a reason for the colonization of other planets.

The term "terraforming" itself was coined by Jack Williamson only in 1942, in the story "Collision Orbit".

The episode with the degradation and subsequent development of people into various primitive species is again not new. In the original version of Wells' Time Machine, there was an episode with rabbit-like animals, which turned out to be another branch of a degraded humanity. Since these animals were food for giant centipedes, the publisher decided that the picture of such a fall of mankind was too depressing for readers.

However, Stapledon took the concept to a new level: he inhabited Neptune almost exclusively by the descendants of people, who occupied almost all natural niches. This plot inspired many science fiction writers, who formed a special subgenre dedicated to the evolution of people.

The concepts of the "seed of life" and the progression of descendants began to appear in the literature from about the thirties. The first can be seen sporadically even in Interstellar in 2014. The second is much less common, but, for example, the twentieth journey from the Star Diaries of Iyon the Quiet is a direct parody of this idea.

The two-billion-year history of mankind from The Last and First People is a squeeze of almost all the science fiction of those years, with a huge number of its own innovations and a unique display of the spiritual throwings of people of the future.

Only one book attempted to tackle the grand history of the future in those days, Alfred Döblin's 1924 Mountains, Seas and Giants. The novel, written in the style of modernism, told twenty-seven centuries of the history of mankind in the future.

Döbin described the destruction of Eastern Europe, the assimilation of Europeans and migrants from Africa and the Middle East, the regression of the constructed dystopia, genetic engineering, synthetic food, the melting of the ice of Greenland, with the subsequent resettlement of all criminals there and the revival of the ancient monsters that were once frozen into those ices. Due to its modernist style, the book was very challenging for the reader. Stapledon's "Last and First Men" turned out to be much easier to understand, larger and with a much better scientific base.

After the thirties, there were also attempts to describe the entire history of the future of mankind, but in terms of scale they could not come close to The Last and First People. The same “City” by Simak cannot be compared either in terms of the scale of history or in the number of fantastic concepts used. And because Stapledon had to create a sequel himself, even more ambitious.

"Star Maker" (1937)

One evening, an ordinary English writer was able to separate his mind from his body by the effort of thought. He immediately took advantage of this by traveling through space and time. Visiting other planets, the hero eventually connected with other similar travelers in flight.

The first alien civilization seen by the narrator was similar to the human one. In addition to a slightly different appearance, the “other people” had less developed vision and hearing, but better smell and taste. The development of radio technology allowed the race to create transmitters that broadcast a mixture of taste and aroma themes throughout the planet, immersing them in various illusory visions - in some ways an analogue of virtual space.

Most of the other aliens looked a little like earthlings. Intelligent nautiloids were described that covered the surface of all the oceans of the planet. Swarms of insects and flocks of birds forming a single mind, the role of individuals in which is akin to cells in the body. Half-animal, half-plant, who have gone into eternal meditation on a planet that has lost its atmosphere. A race of echinoderms who came to artificial insemination and died from the fact that women preferred only one type of man. Symbiotic species of ichthyoids and arachnoids: the first ones left in the oceans home planet, and the second went to conquer space, telepathically referring to much more intelligent ichthyoids. The book even described intelligent planets.

Most intelligent species died without mastering the technology space travel. But still, several races managed to build galactic empires, traveling through the Milky Way, changing the course of their luminaries. The era of warring empires ended with an all-galactic federation that united the planets and stars (they also possessed intelligence) by telepathic communication. As a result, intelligent life set out to reach out to God and learn from him the meaning of life.

Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, regularly reread The Last and First Men and The Star Maker for inspiration

The Star Maker is also written more in the form of a futurological essay inspired by the philosophy of the cosmists. The ideas of the novel are rather controversial, and arguments about the nature of God are contradictory. Despite all this, Stapledon's titanic work once again inspired science fiction writers, who used it as an encyclopedia of plots. Such a variety of alien cultures has never before been collected on the pages of one book. As well as so many events of galactic significance.

As a result, the concepts of the Starmaker were one of the main sources of inspiration for Brian Aldiss, Arthur C. Clarke, Stanislaw Lem and Vernor Vinge.

Freeman Dyson himself took the idea of ​​the Dyson sphere from the "Star Maker"

Unfortunately, the work of Olaf Stapledon actively inspired new writers for only a few decades. scientific picture the world of the thirties became obsolete. Literary critics did not recognize Stapledon's books because of the spoiled reputation of science fiction (the last author who wrote mainly science fiction, who managed to become famous before the creation of the "fantastic ghetto" was Karel Capek), and philosophers did not take his works seriously for being too literary.

In the end, everyone had to be reminded of who Olaf Stapledon was. In the West, Brian Aldiss and Arthur Clarke were the most active in this. In Eastern Europe in the seventies, Stanislaw Lem wrote that all modern science fiction is one big regression compared to Stapledon's books. In Latin America, Borges promoted reprints of the author's work.

American science fiction often feeds on the crumbs pecked out of Stapledon's work: indeed, a kind of "echo", a kind of "continuation" of his work can be found in it. But if science fiction goes beyond the scope of this book, it is not in the direction of the philosophy of man; Is it worth it to expand on the meaning of such restraint?

In any field, students are required to remember the masters in order to surpass them. Compared to this book, written almost forty years ago, all science fiction is one continuous regression. She did not enter into controversy with this work, did not engage in its praise, did not try to either continue it or surpass it; referenced with quiet satisfaction by Brian Aldiss, this work should be a reproach to the conscience of anyone who reinforces the cultural weight of science fiction.

I think that the problem is serious enough to think about it. Fiction grew in millions of pages after Stapledon, but neither the bioevolutionary in his axiological understanding, nor the socioevolutionary motive was pushed to the height of ontological problems and solutions.

Stanislav Lem

"Science Fiction and Futurology". Book two. 1972

In 2001, Olaf Stapledon was the first to posthumously receive the Cordwainer Smith Award for outstanding services to the genre, underestimated in his time. In 2014, he was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. In the 21st century, Western science fiction writers finally remembered the man who gave the genre just a colossal number of stories.

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Fiction (from other Greek φανταστική - the art of imagination, fantasy) is a genre and creative method in fiction, cinema, visual and other forms of art, characterized by the use of a fantastic assumption, an "element of the extraordinary", a violation of the boundaries of reality, accepted conventions. Contemporary fiction includes genres such as science fiction, fantasy, horror, magical realism and many others.

Origins of fiction

The origins of science fiction are in the post-mythological folklore consciousness, primarily in a fairy tale.

Fantasy stands out as a special kind artistic creativity as folklore forms move away from practical tasks mythological understanding of reality (the oldest cosmogonic myths are essentially non-fantastic). Primitive world outlook collides with new ideas about reality, mythical and real plans are mixed, and this mixture is purely fantastic. Fiction, in the words of Olga Freidenberg, is “the first offspring of realism”: hallmark The invasion of realism into myth is the appearance of "fantastic creatures" (deities combining animal and human features, centaurs, etc.). The primary genres of fantasy, utopia and fantasy travel, were also the oldest forms of storytelling as such, most notably in Homer's Odyssey. The plot, images and incidents of the Odyssey are the beginning of all literary Western European fiction.

However, the collision of mimesis with myth, which produces the effect of fantasy, has so far had an involuntary character. The first one who deliberately pushes them together, and, therefore, the first conscious science fiction writer, is Aristophanes.

Fiction in ancient literature

In the era of Hellenism, Hekatey of Abdera, Eugemer, Yambul combined the genres of fantastic travel and utopia in their works.

In Roman times, the moment of socio-political utopia, characteristic of Hellenistic pseudo-travels, had already weathered; only a series of fantastic adventures remained in different parts the globe and beyond - on the moon, connected with the theme of a love story. This type includes "The Incredible Adventures Beyond Thule" by Antony Diogenes.

In many ways, the continuation of the tradition of a fantastic journey is the novel of Pseudo-Callisthenes "The History of Alexander the Great", where the hero finds himself in the realm of giants, dwarfs, cannibals, freaks, in an area with strange nature, with unusual animals and plants. Much space is devoted to the wonders of India and its "naked sages", the Brahmins. Not forgotten is the mythological prototype of all these fabulous wanderings, visiting the country of the blessed.

Fantasy in medieval literature

In the period of the early Middle Ages, approximately from the 5th to the 11th century, if not rejection, then, according to at least, the suppression of the miraculous, the foundations of the fantastic. In the XII-XIII centuries, according to Jacques Le Goff, "there is a genuine invasion of the miraculous into scientific culture." At this time, one after another, the so-called "books of miracles" (Gervasius of Tilbury, Marco Polo, Raymond Lull, John Mandeville, etc.) appeared, reviving the genre of paradoxography.

Fiction in the Renaissance

The development of fiction during the Renaissance is completed by M. Cervantes' Don Quixote, a parody of the fantasy of knightly adventures and at the same time the beginning of a realistic novel, and F. Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel, which uses the profane language of a chivalric novel to develop a humanistic utopia and humanistic satire. In Rabelais, we find (the chapters on Theleme Abbey) one of the first examples of the fantastic development of the utopian genre, although it is primordially uncharacteristic: after all, among the founders of the genre, T. Mora (1516) and T. Campanella (1602), utopia gravitates towards a didactic treatise and only in “ New Atlantis” by F. Bacon is a sci-fi fantasy game. An example of a more traditional combination of fantasy with a dream of a fabulous realm of justice is Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Fiction in the 17th and 18th centuries

By the end of the 17th century, Mannerism and Baroque, for which fantasy was a constant background, additional artistic plan(at the same time, an aestheticization of the perception of fantasy took place, the loss of a living sense of the miraculous), was replaced by classicism, which is inherently alien to fantasy: its appeal to myth is completely rationalistic.

French "tragic stories" of the 17th century draw material from the chronicles and depict fatal passions, murders and cruelties, demonic possession, etc. These are the distant predecessors of the works of the Marquis de Sade the novelist and the "black novel" in general, combining paradoxographic tradition with narrative fiction . Infernal themes in a pious frame (the story of the struggle with terrible passions on the path of serving God) appear in the novels of Bishop Jean-Pierre Camus.

Fantasy in Romanticism

For romantics, duality turns into a split personality, leading to a poetically beneficial "sacred madness." “Refuge in the realm of fantasy” was sought by all romantics: among the “Yenese” fantasizing, that is, the aspiration of the imagination into the transcendent world of myths and legends, was put forward as an initiation to higher insight, as a life program - relatively prosperous (due to romantic irony) in L. Tick , pathetic and tragic in Novalis, whose "Heinrich von Ofterdingen" is an example of a renewed fantastic allegory, comprehended in the spirit of the search for an unattainable and incomprehensible ideal spiritual world.

Romantic fiction was synthesized by the work of E. T. A. Hoffmann: here both the Gothic novel ("Devil's Elixir") literary tale(“Lord of the Fleas”, “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”), and enchanting phantasmagoria (“Princess Brambilla”), and a realistic story with a fantastic background (“The Choice of a Bride”, “The Golden Pot”).

Fantasy in realism

In the era of realism, fantasy again found itself on the periphery of literature, although it was often used for satirical and utopian purposes (as in Dostoevsky's stories "Bobok" and "Dream funny man"). At the same time, science fiction proper was born, which in the work of the epigone of romanticism J. Verne (“Five weeks in a balloon”, “Journey to the center of the Earth”, “From the Earth to the Moon”, “Twenty thousand leagues under the sea”, “Mysterious island”, “Robur the Conqueror”) and the outstanding realist G. Wells is fundamentally separated from the general fantastic tradition; she paints the real world, transformed by science (for worse or for better) and opening up in a new way to the gaze of the researcher. (True, the development of space fantasy leads to the discovery of new worlds, which inevitably somehow correlate with the traditional fairy tale, but this is a passing moment.)

More about the genre

The question of singling out fantasy as an independent concept arose as a result of the development of science fiction in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. literature, strongly associated with scientific and technological progress. The plot of science fiction works was based on scientific discoveries, inventions, technical foresights… Herbert Wells and Jules Verne became the acknowledged authorities of science fiction of those decades. Until the middle of the 20th century. fantasy kept a little apart from the rest of literature: it was too closely connected with science. Theorists literary process this gave grounds to assert that science fiction is a completely special kind of literature, existing according to the rules inherent only to it, and setting itself special tasks.

Subsequently, this opinion was shaken. The statement of the famous American science fiction writer Ray Bradbury is characteristic: "Fiction is literature." In other words, there are no significant barriers. In the second half of the 20th century old theories gradually receded under the onslaught of changes that took place in science fiction.

Firstly, the concept of "fantasy" began to include not only "science fiction" proper, i.e. works that go back basically to the samples of Jule Verne and Wells production. Under the same roof were texts related to "horror" (horror literature), mysticism and fantasy (magical, magical fantasy).

Secondly, significant changes have also taken place in science fiction: the “new wave” of American science fiction writers and the “fourth wave” in the USSR (1950–1980s of the 20th century) led an active struggle to destroy the boundaries of the “ghetto” of science fiction, to merge it with literature. "mainstream", the destruction of the unspoken taboos that dominated the classic science fiction of the old style. A number of trends in "non-fantastic" literature somehow acquired a pro-fantastic sound, borrowed the entourage of science fiction. Romantic literature, literary fairy tale (E. Schwartz), phantasmagoria (A. Green), esoteric novel (P. Coelho, V. Pelevin), many texts that lie in the tradition of postmodernism (for example, Mantissa Fowles), are recognized among science fiction writers as “their ” or “almost their own”, i.e. borderline, lying in a wide band, which is covered by the spheres of influence of both the literature of the "main stream" and science fiction.

At the end of the 20th and the first years of the 21st centuries. the destruction of the concepts of “fantasy” and “science fiction” familiar to science fiction literature is growing. A lot of theories have been created, one way or another, fixing strictly defined boundaries for these types of fiction. But for the general reader, everything was clear from the surroundings: fantasy is where witchcraft, swords and elves are; science fiction is where robots, starships and blasters are.

Gradually, “science fantasy” appeared, i.e. "scientific fantasy" that perfectly connected witchcraft with starships, and swords with robots. A special kind of science fiction was born - "alternative history", later replenished with "cryptohistory". And there, and there, science fiction writers use both the usual entourage of science fiction and fantasy, and even combine them into an indissoluble whole. Directions have arisen in which it does not really matter at all to belong to science fiction or fantasy. In Anglo-American literature, this is primarily cyberpunk, and in Russian literature it is turborealism and "sacred fantasy".

As a result, a situation has arisen where the concepts of science fiction and fantasy, which previously firmly divided science fiction literature in two, have been blurred to the limit.

Fantasy - genres and subgenres

It is known that fiction can be divided into different areas: fantasy and science fiction, hard science fiction, space fiction, combat and humorous, love and social, mysticism and horror.

Perhaps these genres, or as they are also called, subtypes of science fiction, are by far the most famous in their circles. Let's try to characterize each of them separately.

Science Fiction (SF)

So, science fiction is a genre of literature and film industry that describes events taking place in the real world and differs from historical reality in some significant way.

These differences can be technological, scientific, social, historical, and any other, but not magical, otherwise the whole idea of ​​the concept of "science fiction" is lost. In other words, science fiction reflects the influence scientific and technological progress to everyday life and habitual life person. Among the popular plots of the works of this genre are flights to unknown planets, the invention of robots, the discovery of new forms of life, the invention of the latest weapons, and so on.

Among admirers of this genre, the following works are popular: "I, Robot" (Azeik Asimov), "Pandora's Star" (Peter Hamilton), "Attempt to Escape" (Boris and Arkady Strugatsky), "Red Mars" (Kim Stanley Robinson) and many other great books.

The film industry has also produced many sci-fi films. Among the first foreign films, the film by Georges Milies "Journey to the Moon" was released. It was filmed in 1902 and is truly considered the most popular film that was shown on the big screens.

You can also note other paintings in the genre of "science fiction": "District No. 9" (USA), "The Matrix" (USA), the legendary "Aliens" (USA). However, there are films that have become, so to speak, classics of the genre.

Among them: "Metropolis" (Fritz Lang, Germany), filmed in 1925, struck with its idea and vision of the future of mankind.

Another film masterpiece that has become a classic is 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, USA), released in 1968. This picture tells about extraterrestrial civilizations and very much resembles rather scientific material about aliens and their lives - for the audience of the distant 1968, this is really something new, fantastic, that they had never seen or heard before. Of course, you can not ignore and " star Wars.

Hard science fiction, as a subgenre of sci-fi

Science fiction has a so-called sub-genre or subspecies called "hard science fiction". Solid science fiction differs from traditional science fiction in that during the narrative, scientific facts and laws are not distorted.

That is, we can say that the basis of this subgenre is the natural scientific knowledge base and the whole plot is described around a certain scientific idea, even if it is fantastic. The storyline in such works is always simple and logical, based on several scientific assumptions - a time machine, ultra-high-speed travel in space, extrasensory perception, and so on.

Space fiction, another sub-genre of sci-fi

space fantasy is a subgenre of science fiction. Its distinctive feature is that the main plot unfolds in outer space or on various planets in solar system or beyond.

There is a division of space fiction into types: planetary novel, space opera, space odyssey. Let's talk about each type in more detail.

1. Space odyssey. So, the Space Odyssey is a storyline in which the actions take place most often on space ships (ships) and the heroes need to complete a global mission, the outcome of which depends on the fate of a person.
2. planetary romance. The planetary novel is much simpler in terms of the type of development of events and the complexity of the plot. Basically, all the action is limited to one particular planet, which is inhabited by exotic animals, people. A lot of works in this kind of genre are dedicated to the distant future in which people move between worlds on spaceship and this is normal, some of the early works of space fiction describe simpler plots with less realistic modes of movement. However, the goal and main theme of the planetary novel is the same for all works - the adventures of heroes on a particular planet.
3. Space Opera. Space opera is an equally interesting subspecies of science fiction. Its main idea is the maturing and growth of the conflict between the heroes with the use of powerful high-tech weapons of the future to conquer the Galaxy or liberate the planet from space aliens, humanoids and other space creatures. The characters in this cosmic conflict are heroic. The main difference between space opera and science fiction is that there is an almost complete rejection of the scientific basis of the plot.

Among the works of space fiction that deserve attention are the following: Paradise Lost, The Absolute Enemy (Andrey Livadny), Steel Rat Saves the World (Harry Harrison), Star Kings, Return to the Stars (Edmond Hamilton ), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams) and other great books.

And now let's note some bright films in the space fantasy genre. Of course, you can't bypass everything. famous movie"Armageddon" (Michael Bay, USA, 1998); blew up the whole world "Avatar" (James Cameron, USA, 2009), which is distinguished by unusual special effects, vivid images, rich and unusual nature of an unknown planet; "Starship Troopers" (Paul Verhoeven, USA, 1997), also a popular film in its time, although many film fans today are ready to revise this picture more than once; It is impossible not to note all the parts (episodes) of George Lucas' Star Wars, in my opinion, this masterpiece of science fiction will be popular and interesting to the viewer at all times.

Fighting fiction

Combat fiction is a type (subgenre) of fiction that describes military operations taking place in the distant or not so distant future, and all actions take place using super-powerful robots and the latest weapons unknown to man today.

This genre is quite young, its origin can be attributed to the middle of the 20th century during the height of the Vietnam War. Moreover, I note that combat fiction became popular and the number of works and films increased, in direct proportion to the growth of conflicts in the world.

Among the popular authors-representatives of this genre are: Joe Haldeman "Infinite War"; Harry Harrison "Steel Rat", "Bill - Hero of the Galaxy"; domestic authors Alexander Zorich "Tomorrow War", Oleg Markelov "Adequacy", Igor Pol "Guardian Angel 320" and other wonderful authors.

A lot of films have been made in the genre of "combat fiction" "Frozen Soldiers" (Canada, 2014), "Edge of Tomorrow" (USA, 2014), Star Trek: Retribution (USA, 2013).

humorous fiction

Humorous fiction is a genre in which the presentation of unusual and fantastic events takes place in a humorous form.

Humorous fiction has been known since antiquity and is developing in our time. Among the representatives of humorous fiction in literature, the most striking are our beloved Strugatsky Brothers "Monday begins on Saturday", Kir Bulychev "Miracles in Guslyar", as well as foreign authors of humorous fiction Prudchett Terry David John "I'll put on midnight", Bester Alfred "Will you wait? ", Bisson Terry Ballantine "They are made of meat."

Love fiction

Love fiction, romantic adventure works.

This type of fantasy includes love stories with fictional characters, magical countries that do not exist, the presence in the description of wonderful amulets with unusual properties, and, of course, all these stories have a happy ending.

Of course, you can not get around the films made in the genre. Here are a few of them: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (USA, 2008), "The Time Traveler's Wife" (USA, 2009), "She" (USA, 2014).

social fiction

Social fiction is a type of science fiction literature that focuses on the relationships between people in society.

The emphasis is on the creation of fantastic motives in order to show the development of social relations in unrealistic conditions.

The following works were written in this genre: The Strugatsky Brothers "The Doomed City", "The Bull's Hour" by I. Efremov, H. Wells "The Time Machine", "451 degrees Fahrenheit" by Ray Bradbury. Cinema also has films in the genre of social fiction in its piggy bank: The Matrix (USA, Australia, 1999), Dark City (USA, Australia, 1998), Youth (USA, 2014).

As you can see, science fiction is such a versatile genre that anyone can choose what suits him in spirit, in nature, will give you the opportunity to plunge into the magical, unusual, terrible, tragic, high-tech world of the future and the inexplicable for us - ordinary people.

How is fantasy different from science fiction?

The word "fantasy" came to us from the Greek language, where "phantastike" means "the art of imagining". "Fantasy" comes from the English "phantasy" (tracing paper from the Greek "phantasia"). Literal translation- “imagination, imagination”. The words art and imagination are key here. Art implies certain patterns and rules for the construction of the genre, and the imagination is limitless, the flight of fantasy does not obey the laws.

Science fiction is a form of reflection of the surrounding world, in which a logically incompatible picture of the Universe is created on the basis of real ideas about it. Fantasy is a type of science fiction, a type of fantastic art that depicts fictional events in worlds whose existence cannot be logically explained. The basis of fantasy is a mystical, irrational beginning.

The fantasy world is a kind of assumption. The author sends his reader on a journey through time and space. After all, the basis of the genre is the free flight of fantasy. The location of this world is not specified in any way. Its physical laws cannot be explained by the realities of our world. Magic and magic are the norm of the described world. The "miracles" of fantasy operate according to their own system, like the laws of nature.

Heroes of modern science fiction, as a rule, oppose the whole society. They can fight a mega-corporation or a totalitarian state that controls the life of society. Fantasy is based on the antithesis of good and evil, harmony and chaos. The hero goes on a long journey, seeking truth and justice. Often the plot of the plot is some kind of incident that awakened the forces of evil. The hero is confronted or helped by mythical fictitious creatures, which can conditionally be united into certain "races" (elves, orcs, dwarves, trolls, etc.). A classic example The fantasy genre is recognized as "The Lord of the Rings" by J. R. R. Tolkien.

conclusions

1. The word "fantasy" is translated as "the art of imagining", and "fantasy" - "representation", "imagination".
2. A characteristic feature of works of fiction is the presence of a fantastic assumption: what would the world be like under certain conditions. The fantasy author describes an alternate reality that is not connected to the existing reality. The laws of the fantasy world are presented as a given, without any explanation. The existence of magic and mythical races is the norm.
3. In fantasy works, as a rule, there is a conflict between the norms imposed on society and the protagonist's desire for freedom. That is, the heroes defend their dissimilarity. In fantasy works, the main conflict is connected with the confrontation between light and dark forces.

Cinematic fiction

Film fiction is a direction and genre of artistic cinematography, which can be characterized by an increased level of conventionality. The images, events and surroundings of science fiction films are often deliberately removed from everyday reality - this can be done both to achieve specific artistic goals, which are more convenient for the filmmakers to achieve with the help of science fiction than with the help of realistic cinema, or simply for the entertainment of the viewer (the latter is typical primarily for genre films). movie).

The nature of the convention depends on the specific direction or genre - science fiction, fantasy, horror film, phantasmagoria - but all of them can be broadly understood as cinematic fiction. There is also a narrower view of sci-fi as a mass purely commercial genre of cinema; according to this view, for example, "A Space Odyssey 2001" is not a fantasy film. This article uses broad understanding cinematic fiction, which allows you to give a more complete picture of the subject.

The evolution of cinematic fiction has largely followed the evolution of the much more dynamic fantasy literature. However, cinematography from the very beginning possessed the property of visuality, which written literature is practically devoid of. The moving image is perceived by the viewer as authentic, existing here and now, and the feeling of authenticity does not depend on how fantastic the action unfolding on the screen is. This property of the viewer's perception of cinema acquired special significance after the advent of special effects.

Film fiction actively uses the mythology of the technical era. Mythology is part of science fiction films.

Task 18. Punctuation marks in a complex sentence "No. 1

Form start

1. In a rare spruce forest (1) in front of the estate, three motorcycles (2) were rushing about in the grass, machine guns (3) of which (4) hurriedly beat somewhere up.

2. D The oroga ran in a recess (1) on both sides (2) of which (3) rose sandy slopes with pines.

3. Here began the old count's park (1) in dense greenery (2) of which (3) beautiful dachas, flower beds, greenhouses and fountains were scattered.

4. H Adya turned her head, saw a silk curtain (1) and a window (2) through (3) which (4) was already turning blue in winter twilight.

5. Rose (1) the first mentions (2) of which (3) date back to the 5th century BC. (4) described in ancient Indian legends.

6. Login sat in Anatoly Petrovich Andozersky's office (1) whose decoration (2) (3) denounced vain claims to taste and originality

7. A shallow swampy lake (1) along the shore (2) of which (3) we made our way (4) was still white among the trees.

8. For a long time we were driving along a narrow path (1) two or three tracks (2) of which (3) we slightly cut the green virgin soil of a luxurious meadow

9. Hours (1) of painful expectation (2) during (3) of which (4) Mishka unsuccessfully tried to forget all his troubles (5) seemed to drag on for an eternity.

10. A little further away a dense cloud (1) hovered in the depths (2) of which (3) red sparks lit up and went out.

Task 18. Punctuation marks in a complex sentence "No. 2

Form start

Place punctuation marks: indicate all the numbers in the place of which commas should be in the sentence. Write down the sequence of numbers without spaces, commas and other additional characters.

In the treasury of Russian art (1), one of the most honorable places (2) belongs to I.I. Shishkin (3) whose name (4) (5) is associated with the history of the domestic landscape of the second half of the 19th century.

When painting silk (1), a special coloring composition is applied to the fabric in the form of a closed contour (2) within (3) of which (4) the product is painted with special paints (5) in accordance with the sketch (6).

The scientific interests of S.M. Bondi (1) were formed while still studying at Petrograd University (2) after graduation (3) from which (4) he was left at the department.

Zhuravlev rushed to the gun (1) near (2) of which (3) a batteryman with a broken arm was swarming.

AT XVIII century (1) at the European imperial palaces (2) there were orchestral and choir chapels (3) to lead (4) which (5) outstanding musicians were invited.

The sons of Johann Sebastian Bach (1) and other musicians he brought up (2) from among (3) of which (4) many serious professionals (5) came out testify to the talent of Bach as a teacher.

The fashion for German resorts (1) was explained by the desire for Eden (2) whose outlines (3) (4) appeared in the landscapes of the Rhine valley.

Raskolnikov (1) more to his heart Sennaya Square(2) in the vicinity (3) of which (4) the poor people drag out a miserable existence.

9. Now a young bright green forest (1) was growing towards us, above the peaks (2) of which (3) the chalk cliffs were already disappearing.

10. Fiction (1) many forms (2) of which (3) can be found even in Gogol's "everyday" works (4) pervades all the writer's work.

KEYS

№ tasks

1 option

Option 2

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2

3

4

5

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2 5

7

1 4

8

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10

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End of form

Most notably in The Odyssey by Homer. The plot, images and incidents of the Odyssey are the beginning of all literary Western European fiction.

However, the collision of mimesis with myth, which produces the effect of fantasy, has so far had an involuntary character. The first one who deliberately pushes them together, and, therefore, the first conscious science fiction writer, is Aristophanes.

Fiction in ancient literature

In many ways, the continuation of the tradition of a fantastic journey is the novel of Pseudo-Callisthenes "The History of Alexander the Great", where the hero finds himself in the realm of giants, dwarfs, cannibals, freaks, in an area with strange nature, with unusual animals and plants. Much space is devoted to the wonders of India and its "naked sages," the Brahmins. Not forgotten is the mythological prototype of all these fabulous wanderings, visiting the country of the blessed.

Fiction is archaic in the novel of metamorphoses (the non-preserved Metamorphoses by Lucius of Patra, Lucius, or the Ass, by Pseudo-Lucian, Metamorphoses, or the Golden Ass, by Apuleius). The latter is a "fantastic narrative, where the story of the soul is dressed in the form of a story about the history of the body."

Fantasy in medieval literature

In the period of the early Middle Ages, approximately from the 5th to the 11th century, if not rejection, then at least the suppression of the miraculous, the basis of the fantastic, occurs. In the XII-XIII centuries, according to Jacques Le Goff, "there is a genuine invasion of the miraculous into scientific culture." At this time, one after another, the so-called "books of miracles" (Gervasius of Tilbury, Marco Polo, Raymond Lull, John Mandeville, etc.) appear, reviving the genre of paradoxography.

Fiction in the Renaissance

The development of fiction during the Renaissance is completed by Don Quixote by M. Cervantes - a parody of the fantasy of knightly adventures and at the same time the beginning of a realistic novel, and Gargantua and Pantagruel by F. Rabelais, using the profane language of a chivalric novel to develop a humanistic utopia and humanistic satire. In Rabelais we find (chapter "Theleme Abbey") one of the first examples of the fantastic development of the utopian genre, although it is primordially uncharacteristic: after all, among the founders of the genre T. Mora () and T. Campanella () utopia gravitates towards a didactic treatise and only in the "New Atlantis” by F. Bacon is a sci-fi fantasy game. An example of a more traditional combination of fantasy with the dream of a fabulous realm of justice is W. Shakespeare's The Tempest.

To a lesser extent than ancient mythology and folklore, religious mythological images of the Bible stimulated fantasy. The largest works of Christian fiction - Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained by J. Milton - are based on the Apocrypha. This, however, does not detract from the fact that the works of European fantasy of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, as a rule, have a secondary, ethical Christian coloring or represent a play of fantastic images in the spirit of Christian apocryphal demonology. Outside of fantasy are the lives of the saints, where miracles are fundamentally singled out as extraordinary events. Nevertheless, the Christian-mythological consciousness contributes to the flourishing of a special genre - fantasy of visions. Starting with the Apocalypse of John the Theologian, “visions” or “revelations” become a full-fledged literary genre: different aspects of it are represented by “The Vision of Peter the Plowman” () by W. Langland and “The Divine Comedy” by Dante. The idea of ​​"revelation", in contrast to life, is the opposition of earthly reality to another, supernatural plane of existence.

The poetics of religious "revelation" defines W. Blake's visionary fiction: his grandiose "prophetic" images are the latest pinnacle of the genre.

Fiction in the 17th and 18th centuries

Fantasy in Romanticism

For romantics, duality turns into a split personality, leading to a poetically beneficial "sacred madness." “Refuge in the realm of fantasy” was sought by all romantics: among the “Enets” fantasizing, that is, the aspiration of the imagination into the transcendent world of myths and legends, was put forward as an introduction to higher insight, as a life program - relatively prosperous (due to romantic irony) in L. Tick , pathetic and tragic in Novalis, whose "Heinrich von Ofterdingen" is an example of a renewed fantastic allegory, comprehended in the spirit of the search for an unattainable and incomprehensible ideal spiritual world. The Heidelberg school used fantasy as a source of plots that gave additional interest to earthly events (for example, “Isabella of Egypt” by L. A. Arnim is a fantastic arrangement of a love episode from the life of Charles V). Such a pragmatic approach to F. proved to be especially promising.

In an effort to enrich the resources of fantasy, the German romantics turned to its primary sources - they collected and processed fairy tales and legends ("Peter Lebrecht's Folk Tales", in Tiek's processing, "Children's and Family Tales", -, and "German Traditions", -, brothers I. and V. Grimm). This contributed to the formation of the literary fairy tale genre in all European literatures, which remains the leading genre in children's fiction to this day. Its classic example is the fairy tales of H. K. Andersen.

Romantic fiction was synthesized by the work of E. T. A. Hoffmann: here is a gothic novel (“The Devil's Elixir”), and a literary fairy tale (“Lord of the Fleas”, “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”), and an enchanting phantasmagoria (“Princess Brambilla”), and a realistic story with a fantastic background (“The Choice of the Bride”, “Golden Pot”).

An attempt to heal the attraction to fantasy as to the "abyss of the other world" is represented by Goethe's Faust; using the traditional fantasy motif of selling the soul to the devil, the poet discovers the futility of the wandering of the spirit in the realms of the fantastic and affirms earthly life that transforms the world as the final value (i.e., the utopian ideal is excluded from the realm of fantasy and projected into the future).

In Russia, romantic fiction is represented in the works of V. A. Zhukovsky, V. F. Odoevsky, A. Pogorelsky, A. F. Veltman. A.S. Pushkin (“Ruslan and Lyudmila”, where the epic-fairy-tale flavor of fantasy is especially important) and N.V. Gogol, whose fantastic images are organically merged into the folk-poetic ideal picture of Ukraine (“Terrible Revenge”, “ Viy"). His St. Petersburg fiction (“The Nose”, “Portrait”, “Nevsky Prospekt”), extremely economical and “escheat”, is differently conditioned by the general picture of reality, the condensed image of which naturally gives rise to fantastic images (as in Pushkin’s The Queen of Spades or in "The Double" by F. M. Dostoevsky).

The Gothic tradition of fantasy is developed by E. Poe (“The Fall of the House of Eschers”, “The Well and the Pendulum”). However, he also anticipated (“The Story of Arthur Gordon Pym”, “The Fall into the Maelstrom”) the emergence of a new branch of fiction - science fiction

Fantasy in realism

The revival of interest in fantasy at the end of the 19th century

Interest in fantasy as such revived towards the end of the 19th century. neo-romantics (R. L. Stevenson), decadents (M. Schwob, F. Sologub), symbolists (M. Maeterlinck, A. A. Blok), expressionists (G. Meyrink), surrealists (G. Kazak, E. Kreider ). The development of children's literature gives rise to a new look of the fantasy world - the toy world: L. Carroll, K. Collodi, A. Milne; A. N. Tolstoy ("The Golden Key"), N. N. Nosov, K. Chukovsky. An imaginary, partly fairy-tale world is created with the involvement of motives and images of Western adventure literature A. Green.

Fiction in the 20th century

Fiction in the 21st century

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, classic science fiction began to lose popularity to fantasy, steampunk, urban fantasy, and mystery thrillers. Harry Potter by Joanne Rowling has a wide commercial success, in Russia - Watches by Sergei Lukyanenko, books by Nick Perumov. In Russia, the books of Vasily Golovachev are popular, which the author writes every year, there are also many authors writing in the genre of combat and / or Russian-patriotic fiction (Zorich).

Genres of fantasy

AT this moment There are three main genres of fiction - science fiction, fantasy, horror. The main fantasy genres of the past are fantasy travel and utopia.

Other forms of fiction

The stylistic and genre forms of fantasy - the grotesque and extravaganza - have become a traditional auxiliary means of satire: from M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin ("The History of a City") to V.V. Mayakovsky ("Bedbug" and "Bath"). Non-genre varieties of 20th-century fantasy literature are fantastic realism, magical realism.

science fiction writers

Notes

1. Lotman Yu. On the principles of fiction // Uchen. app. Tart. state university - 1970. -Issue. 284. - (Tr. on sign systems: [T.] 5), p. 285-287; also Roger Caillois. Into the depths of the fantastic / Per. from fr. Natalia Kislova. - St. Petersburg, 2006, especially p. 110-111.

2. The main role in the transition of mythology into folklore was played by the emergence of a realistic worldview in the form of concepts. Concepts weathered from the myth its concrete and direct meanings. This laid the foundation for folklore, which carefully reproduced the entire heritage of mythology, understood, however, by a realistic worldview. On this basis, one solidified in the form of a traditional form, another became fantastic, the third was transformed.

   (Olga Freidenberg, Myth and Literature of Antiquity. M., 1998, p. 17.

3. It is not necessary to understand this special, original plan either in the form of something fantastic or in the form of historically real. Fantasy is born late, and I will talk about it in my place. The chthonic plan of the primitive myth is real, but has nothing to do with fantasy.

   (Ibid., p. 38)

4. Yes, the wider the field of vision becomes early society The more and more his consciousness loses its former character of myth-making, the stronger the elements of realism invade this consciousness and come into conflict with the habitual, long-established mythical images. From this meeting of two ideological methods, from their unconscious struggle, a kind of amalgam is obtained. mythical image with realistic observation, resulting in fantasy.

   (Ibid., p. 112)

5. In fantastic images, an animal can have individual human features, and a person can have animal ones. A fantastic creature is a mixture of creatures. In Egypt, the gods retained the most ancient form - animal or semi-animal; in Babylon - fantastic; the Greeks have a later humanoid form, and in Rome there are many pre-personal, amorphous gods. The tribal society imagines the characters that inhabit the world in the form of monsters, giants, dwarfs, bizarre animals, birds and fish. These fantastic creatures are partly from one breed, partly from another, but they no longer do without the appearance of a person. It is curious that all of them, in addition to this mixture, also have the nature of metal, wood, stone, and certainly have the nature of the cosmos - light, fire, water, earth. Such are all the mythological faces, covered with a human appearance and human habits, but completely anti-real, fantastic in essence, like a giant with one eye on his forehead, Polyphemus, or the metal servants of Hephaestus, or some kind of Psyche, the cliff-women of Scylla and Charybdis and hundreds of others. . It is difficult to say who they are in appearance, gods or people, animals or elements, animate or inanimate objects. They are all together, but separately they are neither. It would be more scientific to call these fantastic creatures polymorphic. Needless to say, the fantastic appearance is accompanied by the fantastic relations of mythological persons, the fantastic face of the whole surrounding reality.

   (Ibid., pp. 112-113)

6. The genetic connections of the story with distant departures and looking at bizarre "miracles", with wonder, made themselves felt in the fact that the oldest narratives spoke of going to non-existent overseas lands, to fantastic inhabitants. The wonders of the “otherworldly” country, the “underground earth” (χθων), turned into stories about distant and unusual countries, about utopian kingdoms, about unprecedented fields and gardens located in “nowhere”. Such are the narratives of ancient logography; there is no time in them, the action does not develop in them. But such are the narratives in the epic, such are the varieties of utopian narratives in the form of narrations-mirages.

   (Ibid., p. 278)

7. Their beginning has come down to us in the Odyssey. The nature of this poem in form is everydayistic (full compliance with the everyday plan of ekphrasis and detailed comparisons of the Iliad!), in content it is magical. We call it "fabulous". The Odyssey contains elements that would be found in the average comedy: a fake character, ghostly cities and inhabitants, impostors, deceivers, a Phaeacian mirage that "looks" similar to reality, visions that are visionary "pictures". The magic of the "Odyssey" is "miracles", a ghostly and imitating reality of the subjective world, as it began to appear to man: mythism took on the character of "image" (είκών) of reality in the new consciousness of people, that which is "similar", "similar" to it. Travels to distant overseas countries, ghostly people and cities, wonderful adventures, the spell of sorceresses, fantastic creatures - all this reveals itself in later "true stories" and in "images" of wonderful countries and wonderful pictures, wonderful visions of the folk theater.

   (Ibid.)

8. The fantastic nature of the character and situations is inherent in ancient comedy because it deliberately confuses the mythological image with the concept.<...>There is nothing fantastic in the fact that the Homeric Achaeans are likened to wasps, but the Aristophanean Athenians, likened to wasps or in the form of wasps, look fantastic, grotesque. Why? Because in Homer even in tragedy there is no conceptual and everyday background, but in ancient comedy it is emphasized, and everything that clearly does not correspond to it contributes to fantasy or laughter.

   (Ibid., pp. 370-371)
9. Polyakova S.V. "Metamorphoses" or "Golden Ass" by Apuleius. M., 1988, p. 54.
10. Jacques Le Goff. medieval world imaginary. M., 2001, p. 45