Article: The Mechanics of Wonder: The Creation of the Idea of Science Fiction.(Review)

Gary Westfahl. The Mechanics of Wonder: The Creation of the Idea of Science Fiction. Liverpool: Liverpool UP, 1998. 344 pp. $49.95 (cloth); $28.95 (paper).

THE MECHANICS OF WONDER is an important book for anyone who deals with the history of science fiction or the description, history, and/or historiography of genres. Still, Mechanics should come with a warning: CAUTION! You are entering a Battle of the Books, a culture-skirmish between Old World and New World claims to SF, between different approaches to scholarship, and on broader politics.

For SF scholars, The Mechanics of Wonder can be summed up quickly. Gary Westfahl holds that the genre of science ...

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