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By the Light of the Moon: Science Fiction's 17th-Century Roots - Page 2

© Christopher B. Jones

Godwin, and even Kepler.

But are these stories really science fiction? Well, that depends on how you define the term "science fiction." Many believe that SF stories must contain travel through space in rockets or huge ships, or must contain activities on far-off planets involving high technology and aliens. Is that a fair assessment?

While many SF stories do contain these elements, they are not essential to the genre. In its basic definition, SF discusses the human condition and extrapolates from current scientific knowledge possible future paths for human society, including social problems and their solutions. If these stories are not SF, then they are forerunners—or "proto-SF"—at the very least. To the people of the seventeenth century, they must have seemed as incredible and far fetched as tales such as Stargate and Back to the Future do to us today.

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED
It's amazing how much language varies with time. Say these words to anyone today and they immediately know that you are referring to the famous Apollo 11 moon landing of July 20, 1969. But say the same words to someone from the 17th century, and they'd look around for one of our feathered friends. Spaceship? What's that?

So how did people get to the moon in an age that had no rockets, no lunar landers, no starships zipping around at Warp 9? It was really quite easy—and inexpensive. All one really needed was a bird, an angel, of some kind of supernatural force to make the short trip to Luna. It was a much easier time, when Congressional hearings and budget slashing never factored in to the weekend celestial fun.

One of the best examples of early SF is Bishop Francis Godwin's 1638 book The Man in the Moone: or A Discourse of a Voyage Thither by Domingo Gonsales. In this story the main character sets off on a sea voyage that takes him first to St. Helena, and then to Teneriffe where he has to escape cannibals. Following a shipwreck he is rescued and carried away by 25 gansas (geese) who fly him away to the moon.

Once there, Gonsales finds a world inhabited by giants. These moon men are very long-lived, recover quickly from any kind of injury—even decapitation,

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