Feature: Conceptual Fiction

Conceptual Fiction is a regular feature, contributed by Ted Gioia, focusing on major works of fantasy, science fiction, magical realism and alternate history. Here you will find Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Ursula K. Le Guin, Robert Heinlein, Philip K. Dick, Audrey Niffenegger, Ray Bradbury, and dozens of other creative writers with a conceptual bent. These books are celebrated in recognition that literary experimentation with ways of conceptualizing reality has been as important as experimentation with language in creating fiction of lasting value. Dismissing these books as genre or escapist works has created a blind-spot in literary studies that this feature aims, in some small part, to rectify.

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Ted Gioia

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• Conceptual Fiction: Nightwings by Robert Silverberg

  A fire had destroyed Robert Silverberg's home, and to raise money quickly he churned out a masterwork of conceptual fiction.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Mar 19, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

  Of all the dystopian novels of the post-WWII years, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 may be the most relevant to our current situation.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Feb 19, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

  The most accurate prediction in Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man was its visionary anticipation of head-to-toe tattoos.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Feb 17, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

  In Neil Gaiman's 'American Gods,' the pagan deities decide that they deserve a little more respect in the New World.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Feb 11, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: Crash by J.G. Ballard

  You may find yourself aroused by J.G. Ballard's Crash. If so, you should keep off the roads until you get better.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Feb 05, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

  The Red Planet, in Ray Bradbury’s 'The Martian Chronicles' is very much like Ohio... but with better weather.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Jan 31, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells

  Today Dr. Moreau would take his biotech company public on the NASDAQ, but in Victorian times he was a dangerous villain.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Jan 09, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.

  A recent controversy in the blogosphere brings Walter M. Miller, Jr.'s 1959 novel 'A Canticle for Leibowitz' back into the limelight.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Jan 04, 2009

• Conceptual Fiction: Dune by Frank Herbert

  Frank Herbert's Dune was rejected by countless publishers, yet became a cherished sci-fi classic. How does it stack up today?

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Dec 18, 2008

• Conceptual Fiction: The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov

  The young Isaac Asimov tried to chronicle hundreds of years of future galactic history in three pulp fiction novels. Should we care?

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Dec 10, 2008

• Conceptual Fiction: The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

  In The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick imagines a universe in which the United States lost World War II.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Dec 05, 2008