Science, Fiction, and the <I>Fin-de-Siècle</I> Periodical Press

Abstract

In this revisionary study, Will Tattersdill argues against the reductive &amp;apos;two cultures&amp;apos; model of intellectual discourse by exploring the cultural interactions between literature and science embodied in late nineteenth-century periodical literature, tracing the emergence of the new genre that would become known as &amp;apos;science fiction&amp;apos;. He examines a range of fictional and non-fictional fin-de-siècle writing around distinct scientific themes: Martian communication, future prediction, X-rays, and polar exploration. Every chapter explores a major work of H. G. Wells, but also presents a wealth of exciting new material drawn from a variety of late Victorian periodicals. Arguing that the publications in which they appeared, as well as the stories themselves, played a crucial part in the development of science fiction, Tattersdill uses the form of the general interest magazine as a way of understanding the relationship between the arts and the sciences, and the creation of a new literary genre.

(Re)encountering monsters: animals in early-twentieth-century weird fiction

“…Tattersdill argues that the blank uncharted spaces of the Arctic combined with its unique astronomical perspective made the Pole sf's gateway to the stars at the fin de siècle, and that sf inevitably took its colonial tendencies with it when it left the planet. 42 The stories I've examined here suggest that this argument can be extended to the unknowableness of the deep sea and the upper atmosphere -as well as to the weird. Lovecraft's Cthulhu is an obvious example of another awesome weird tentacled abcanny monstrous form, implicated in a struggle for domination and which can only be fled and left to its oceanic resting place.…”

“…Arctic whale hunt positions him as 'face to face (or, rather, eye to eye) with a genuinely alien consciousness, one with strong resemblances to various imagined aliens in later works of science fiction'. 40 It has strong resemblances to Winterstraw's encounter with the dazed cuttle-fish in Boats of the 'Glen Carrig', too, but shimmers more faintly through 'The Horror of the Heights' (Doyle's emphasis in his 1890s accounts is on the 'exciting work' of the whale hunt and especially the kill). 41 It is, in fact, Will A.…”

Authority and medical expertise: Arthur Conan Doyle inThe Idler

“…Nonetheless, a feature of fin-de-siècle mass-market periodicals was ‘to hold apparently contradictory discourses in suspension’ ( Tattersdill 2016 , 19) and, when we examine Conan Doyle’s presentation of Koch in the Review of Reviews , we find a variety of contrasting voices. The sketch is sandwiched between the aforementioned anonymous reflection on Koch (which connects his work to that of infamous quack Count Mattei) 1 and Koch’s own defence of his decision to maintain secrecy around his discovery.…”

“…3. This conception of periodicals draws on Tattersdill (2016) discussion in his introduction to Science, Fiction, and the Periodical Press .…”