Note on this edition: this is an electronic version of the 1999 book ...

206Demonic Texts and Textual Demonsan imaginative framework alternative to the author’s empirical environment[…]. 3Suvin aims to take SF seriously, and in doing so, he makes it an emphaticallycognitocentric genre, and positions “cognition” as something opposedto myth or metaphysical dimension. 4 The reality does not correspondto the definition, and so Suvin is forced to discard ninety percent of thegenre as “sheer confectionery” (as both intellectually and politically trivial). 5The weight put on the factual and intellectual aspects of science fiction hasplayed an important role in the self-definition of SF; claims of plausibility,scientific “thought-experiment” and extrapolation have figured in the writingsof proponents (the declarations by Hugo Gernsback and John W.Campbell, Jr., central “pulp” editors, are characteristic examples). 6 The needfor separating science fiction from its “other” – the irrational, dreamy “fantasies”with nothing but entertainment value – is obvious, even if in practicemany SF writers and readers deal continuously with fantasy as well as withscience fiction. Furthermore, it could be argued that a reading of SF thatdoes not take into account its symbolic and mythical dimensions is fundamentallyinadequate.The Faustian subtext is often very strong in science fiction; in his dealingswith forbidden knowledge, the typical SF innovator becomes a deeplyambivalent figure. The demonic connotations of scientific enterprise surfaceearly in the genre, and gain new forms and interpretations in “cyberpunk”and other contemporary SF. The commercial success of modern science fictionwas preceded by the popularity of two important predecessors, JulesVerne and H.G. Wells. Verne captured the imagination and fascination ofhis audience with the prospects of modern technology, whereas Wells developedsweeping visions of an (often threatening) future. Well’s War of theWorlds (1898) with its blood-sucking Martians provided a formula for numerouspopular SF stories. The monstrosity of space aliens became a given,the amount of self-awareness and self-reflection in this connection a variable.Already in 1956 film, Forbidden Planet (directed by Fred M. Wilcox)the terrors of outer space are produced by the human mind, as the “monstersfrom the id,” creations of subconscious mind and alien technology,start attacking the expedition. The majority of pulp SF had, nevertheless,more concrete and external sources for evil.Rosemary Jackson’s theory of progressive “internalisation” of fears asgenerated by self has its validity in science fiction as in fantasy. This processis not, however, a linear development; as seen above, in the context of horror,Blatty’s The Exorcist, among many others, resists the internalisation of3Ibid., 7-8. Italics in the original.4 Ibid., 4-7. To Suvin, the “real” SF is dismantling myths, and operating as a criticaland political analogy of the possibilities and threats inherent in a writer’s own time andsociety (ibid., 75-6).5 Ibid., 36.6See, e.g. Broderick 1995, 4-8.