The Science of Fiction and the Fiction of Science

Frank McConnell (1942–1999) was a professor of English at Northwestern University and the University of California, Santa Barbara. He wrote a regular column on the media for Commonweal magazine, and his voluminous body of work included four detective novels and a number of academic books. Gary Westfahl retired from the University of California, Riverside, is an adjunct professor at the University of La Verne. He earned the Science Fiction Research Association’s Pilgrim Award for his lifetime contributions to science fiction and fantasy scholarship and is the author, editor, or coeditor of more than 20 books about science fiction and fantasy.

Table of Contents



Acknowledgments     

Foreword by Neil Gaiman     

Introduction by Gary Westfahl     



I. Frank McConnell B.C.E. (Before Coming to Eaton)     

1. Born in Fire: The Ontology of the Monster     

2. Song of Innocence: The Creature from the Black Lagoon     

3. H.G. Wells: Utopia and Doomsday     

4. Realist of the Fantastic: H.G. Wells about/in/on the Movies     



II. Slouching Toward Bedlam: The Early Eaton Essays     

5. Sturgeon’s Law: First Corollary     

6. Boring Dates: Reflections on the Apocalypse Game     

7. Frames in Search of a Genre     

8. From Astarte to Barbie and Beyond: The Serious History of Dolls     

9. The Playing Fields of Eden     

10. It’s Only a Paper Moon: Fantasy and the Professors     

11. “Turn That Shit Down!” Or, How to Market an Underground     



III. Gnostic Lunch: The Later Eaton Essays     

12. Alimentary, My Dear Watson: Food and Eating in Scientific and Mystery Fiction     

13. You Bet Your Life: Death and the Storyteller     

14. Seven Types of Chopped Liver: My Adventures in the Genre Wars     

15. The Missionary Physician, from Asclepius to Kervorkian     

16. The Science of Fiction and the Fiction of Science: A Storytelling Animal in an Inhospitable World     



Epilogue: Memories of Frank     

Paul Alkon     

Gregory Benford     

Harold Bloom     

Sheila Finch     

Carl Freedman     

Howard V. Hendrix     

Bruce Kawin     

Joseph D. Miller     

Eric S. Rabkin     

Mark Rose     

George Slusser     



Chapter Notes     

A Bibliography of the Works of Frank McConnell     

A Bibliography of Primary and Secondary Works Cited in the Text     

Index