History Main / NewWaveScienceFiction

Also contributing to the decline of the New Wave trend was the maturation of hard science fiction away from the formulaic and restrictive [[Creator/JohnWCampbell Campbellian]] formula. Authors such as Creator/LarryNiven and Creator/ArthurCClarke returned the "sense of wonder" and adventure while also updating the science and introducing new modern sensibilities by discarding Campbell's [[HumansAreSpecial "human chauvinism"]], ValuesDissonance, and other elements that date a lot of Golden Age science fiction.[[note]]Campbell, himself, was problematic as he was unfortunately, not progressive in his views towards non-Whites.[[/note]] The same also occurred for SpaceOpera, which was given another lease on life by the success of the first ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'' film in 1977. More complex and polished writing and characterization, along with again updated sensibilities, breathed new life into a sub-genre which was for decades almost a DeadHorseTrope.

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: At its most experimental, the New Wave definitely delved into this territory.

* Creator/KurtVonnegutJr's two seminal novels ''Literature/SlaughterhouseFive'' and ''Literature/CatsCradle'' are prime examples of this genre, utilising the UnreliableNarrator, fragmented narratives and surreal imagery synonymous with New Wave fiction.

* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs: Mostly played straight, although given the time period associated with the New Wave (TheSixties and TheSeventies), one can't be blamed for assuming otherwise. The authors were mostly still square, middle-aged White men, with a few women in the mix. Also, the New Wave was not really [[ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs that sort of weird]]. The purpose of the New Wave was a deliberate and conscious move to make the science fiction genre more respectable from a literary, academic, and intellectual standpoint. It was different and experimental, and there was some MindScrew, self-indulgent excessiveness and incomprehensibility, but there wasn't much of of the type of weirdness that only comes from drugs.

Much like the Youth Movement, the New Wave gradually faded away as its members got older and/or found that ''really'' experimental writing had a very limited market. The cohorts of writers and readers most associated with this movement were either {{Beatnik}} generation or baby boomers engrossed in the counterculture of TheSixties. Both lost relevance by the end of TheSeventies. As most movements do, it also faced a backlash from a new generation of writers who brought back scientific accuracy, action and adventure (this in particular was aided and abetted by publishers after ''Franchise/StarWars'' became a mega-hit, as they felt works in the same style would sell better), or both; often matching the literary chops of the by-now venerable New Wave writers, who started to be seen as pretentious intellectual lightweights at best, {{Bourgeois Bohemian}}s at worst. It ''did'' have a major lasting impact on the field, though -- opening up science fiction to all sorts of new ideas and styles, many of which are still common today -- and it left in its wake several works that are still very highly regarded. However, it soon disappeared as a distinct movement, to be replaced with the {{Cyberpunk}} controversies of [[TheEighties the 1980s]].

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The New Wave authors wanted to make their characters contemporary and this often involved transposing then current trends and lifestyles into the future. They include anything from obvious hippie counterculture expys, to FreeLove and drugs (often the same drugs as the present), or quasi-beatnik slang. This would have made the stories and characters relatable to readers who were of a certain age but not so much anyone born after 1964.

->''"They call it the New Thing. The people who call it that mostly don't like it, and the only general agreements they seem to have are that Ballard is its Demon and I am its prophetess--and that it is what is wrong with Tom Disch, and with British s-f in general. … The American counterpart is less cohesive as a "school" or "movement": it has had no single publication in which to concentrate its development, and was, in fact, till recently, all but excluded from the regular s-f magazines. But for the same reasons, it is more diffuse and perhaps more widespread."''
-->-- Judith Merril, ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'', 1967

New Wave Science Fiction was a literary movement of [[TheSixties the 1960s]] and 1970s; a rejection of the simplistic action-adventure stories of the "Golden Age" in favor of more [[LitFic literary]] and [[PostModernism experimental]] forms of SF and Fantasy, with more emphasis on writing and creativity, and less on "hard" science, and, well, plot.

The Sixties were a turbulent time (to put it mildly), and the SF community in those days was a [[SciFiGhetto small and relatively insular one]], so the New Wave became massively controversial within that community. The New Wave was strongly associated with the Youth Movement of the sixties, and was regarded with much the same distrust and fear by older and more conservative types.

Two anthologies, ''England Swings SF'', edited by Judith Merril, and ''Literature/DangerousVisions'' by Creator/HarlanEllison, helped crystalize the movement. ''Literature/DangerousVisions'', in particular, which called for "stories that could not be published elsewhere or had never been written in the face of almost certain censorship by SF editors," helped make what had been a primarily British movement into an international one.

Much like the Youth Movement, the New Wave gradually faded away as its members got older and/or found that ''really'' experimental writing had a very limited market. The cohorts of writers and readers most associated with this movement were either {{Beatnik}} generation or BabyBoomers engrossed in the counterculture of TheSixties. Both lost relevance by the end of TheSeventies. As most movements do, it also faced a backlash from a new generation of writers who brought back scientific accuracy, action and adventure (this in particular was aided and abetted by publishers after ''Franchise/StarWars'' became a mega-hit, as they felt works in the same style would sell better), or both; often matching the literary chops of the by-now venerable New Wave writers, who started to be seen as pretentious intellectual lightweights at best, BourgeoisBohemian at worst. It ''did'' have a major lasting impact on the field, though, opening up science fiction to all sorts of new ideas and styles, many of which are still common today. And it left in its wake several works that are still very highly regarded. But as a distinct movement, it soon disappeared, to be replaced with the {{Cyberpunk}} controversies of the eighties.

Also contributing to the decline of the New Wave trend was the maturation of hard science fiction away from the formulaic and restrictive [[Creator/JohnWCampbell Campbellian]] formula. Authors such as Creator/LarryNiven and Creator/ArthurCClarke returned the "sense of wonder" and adventure while also updating the science and introducing new modern sensibilities by discarding Campbell's [[HumansAreSpecial "human chauvinism"]], ValuesDissonance, and other elements that date a lot of Golden Age science fiction[[note]]Campbell, himself, was problematic as he was unfortunately, not progressive in his views towards non-Whites[[/note]]. The same also occurred for SpaceOpera which was given another lease on life by the success of the first ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'' film in 1977. More complex and polished writing and characterization along with again updated sensibilities breathed new life into a sub-genre which was for decades almost a DeadHorseTrope.

The ideas of the British New Wave were to some extent continued in early issues of ''Magazine/{{Interzone}}'' in the 1980s. The NewWeird movement has been suggested by some as a partial rebirth of the New Wave.

And for the record, Creator/PhilipKDick was never particularly associated with or identified with the New Wave--his brand of weirdness was unique.

* AndIMustScream: Named, in fact, for a classic New Wave work.
* {{Antihero}}: As a rejection of the classic ScienceHero of older SF.

* InnerMonologue: In the style of Creator/FranzKafka, many stories lacked action and were chiefly the protagonists internal struggles and emotional state.

* PostModernism: Applying this to SF was basically the ''point''.

* StarfishAlien: When it even featured aliens, they were usually the incomprehensible, starfish type, because that left room for experimental styles of writing.
* StrawCharacter: Very common in these works especially due to the tendency for the authors to preach AnAesop.
* TotallyRadical: With respect to some of the dialogue in certain works, the attempts by then middle aged authors to try to appeal to 60s or 70s era youth were sometimes laughable if not cringy. It is also worth noting that most of the authors while contemporary to the countercultures of their day, were not necessarily participants. They may have marginally known someone who was, but they themselves were simply too old to be a plausible participant in something which had as one of its tenets: "Don't trust anybody over 30".

* UnreliableNarrator: In comparison to the square, clean cut and professional scientist or SpaceCadet protagonists of the Golden Age
* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs: Mostly played straight, although given the time period associated with the New Wave (TheSixties and TheSeventies), one can't be blamed for assuming otherwise. The authors were mostly still square, middle aged White men, but with a few women in the mix now. Also, the New Wave was [[ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs not really that sort of weird]]. The purpose of the New Wave was a deliberate and conscious move to make the science fiction genre more respectable from a literary, academic, and intellectual standpoint. It was different and experimental, and there was some MindScrew, self indulgent excessiveness and incomprehensibility, but there wasn't much of of the type of weirdness that only comes from drugs.

* While Creator/AnthonyBurgess was not among the New Wave authors, ''Literature/AClockworkOrange'' could definitely be classified as a New Wave work, with its dystopian setting, antihero protaganist, and experimental narrative featuring a ton of [[{{Conlang}} near future]] [[{{Newspeak}} slang]] invented by Burgess.

* Paul Kantner of the Music/JeffersonAirplane was a huge SF fan, and his solo album ''Music/BlowsAgainstTheEmpire'' was loosely based on a classic SF novel, Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/MethuselahsChildren'', but the protagonists were replaced by a rag-tag band of hippies in search of free love and free music, and the musical experimentation on the album, especially the section where the GenerationShip launches, made it a favorite among New Wave fans. It was nominated for a UsefulNotes/HugoAward for Best Dramatic Presentation (a category normally reserved for movies), where it came in second to "No Award"--a sign of how strong the controversy was at the time.
* '' Music/{{Hawkwind}}'' was another band frequently inspired by science fiction, especially the New Wave--in fact, Creator/MichaelMoorcock was, for a while, a member of the band.

* ''J. G. Ballard'' was one of the mainstays of ''New Worlds'' magazine, and one whose deliberately surreal post-apocalyptic epics came under strong criticism by the old guard for their lack of realism.

* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs: Mostly played straight, although given the time period associated with the New Wave (TheSixties and TheSeventies), one can't be blamed for assuming otherwise. The authors were mostly still square, middle aged White men, but with a few women in the mix now. Also, the New Wave was [[ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs not really that sort of weird]]. The purpose of the New Wave was a deliberate and conscious move to make the science fiction genre more respectable from a literary, academic, and intellectual standpoint. It was different and experimental, and there was some MindScrew, self indulgent excessiveness and incomprehensibility, but there wasn't a whole of of the type of weirdness that only comes from drugs.

Also contributing to the decline of the New Wave trend was the maturation of hard science fiction away from the formulaic and restrictive [[Creator/JohnWCampbell Campbellian]] formula. Authors such as Creator/LarryNiven and Creator/ArthurCClarke returned the "sense of wonder" and adventure while also updating the science and introducing new modern sensibilities by discarding Campbell's [[HumansAreSpecial "human chauvinism"]], ValuesDissonance, and other elements that date a lot of Golden Age science fiction. The same also occurred for SpaceOpera which was given another lease on life by the success of the first ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'' film in 1977. More complex and polished writing and characterization along with again updated sensibilities breathed new life into a sub-genre which was for decades almost a DeadHorseTrope.

* InnerMonologue: Many stories lacked action and were chiefly the protagonists internal struggles and emotional state. They tended to borrow the style of Creator/Franz Kafka where more is told than shown.

* Creator/FrankHerbert occupied a weird space in the New Wave, inasmuch as he never had all that much to do with other authors. He was also a bit on the straight laced, conservative side politically, having no love for the counterculture or interest in psychedelic drugs. He did however, dabble in Zen Buddhism, albeit a heavily Westernized version that was popular at the time. Ironically, he did get fame amongst Music/IronMaiden fans due to their track "To Tame a Land",[[note]]Perhaps a real life example of BrokenPedestal as Maiden was such big fans that they called Herbert to get permission to name the track "Dune" and include a spoken excerpt from the novel, only to be reportedly told by his agent of his intense dislike for hard rock and especially bands like Iron Maiden[[/note]]. It may be that the image of ''Literature/{{Dune}}'' as trippy and psychedelic is due more to the eccentric styles the film adaptation by Creator/DavidLynch and failed film attempt by Creator/AlejandroJodorowsky than to the work itself which discusses ideas in a very sober, intellectual manner. Nonetheless, his works are generally recognized to have drunk from the same well as Le Guin and Dick.

* Creator/FrankHerbert occupied a weird space in the New Wave, inasmuch as he never had all that much to do with other authors. He was also a bit on the straight laced, conservative side politically despite his reported delving into Zen Buddhism, albeit a heavily Westernized version that was popular at the time. He also had no time for the counterculture or it's interest in psychedelic drugs. Ironically, he did get fame amongst Music/IronMaiden fans due to their track "To Tame a Land",[[note]]Perhaps a real life example of BrokenPedestal as Maiden was such big fans that they called Herbert to get permission to name the track "Dune" and include a spoken excerpt from the novel, only to be reportedly told by his agent of his intense dislike for hard rock and especially bands like Iron Maiden[[/note]]. It may be that the image of ''Literature/{{Dune}}'' as trippy and psychedelic is due more to the eccentric styles the film adaptation by Creator/DavidLynch and failed film attempt by Creator/AlejandroJodorowsky than to the work itself which discusses ideas in a very sober, intellectual manner. Nonetheless, his works are generally recognized to have drunk from the same well as Le Guin and Dick.

* Creator/FrankHerbert occupied a weird space in the New Wave, inasmuch as he never had all that much to do with other authors. He was also a bit on the conservative side politically despite his reported delving into Zen Buddhism, albeit a heavily Westernized version that was popular at the time. Ironically, he did get fame amongst Music/IronMaiden fans due to their track "To Tame a Land",[[note]]Perhaps a real life example of BrokenPedestal as Maiden was such big fans that they called Herbert to get permission to name the track "Dune" and include a spoken excerpt from the novel, only to be reportedly told by his agent of his intense dislike for hard rock and especially bands like Iron Maiden[[/note]]. Nonetheless, his works are generally recognized to have drunk from the same well as Le Guin and Dick.

* Although Creator/RogerZelazny firmly denied any direct association with the New Wave, his novel ''Literature/CreaturesOfLightAndDarkness'' was very much in the New Wave style. In fact, Zelazny had created it as a pure experiment, with no intent of trying to publish it, until his friend, New Wave writer Creator/SamuelRDelany insisted that he had to.

* Creator/FrankHerbert occupied a weird space in the New Wave, inasmuch as he never had all that much to do with other authors. He was also a bit on the conservative side politically. Ironically, he did get fame amongst Music/IronMaiden fans due to their track "To Tame a Land",[[note]]Perhaps a real life example of BrokenPedestal as Maiden was such big fans that they called Herbert to get permission to name the track "Dune" and include a spoken excerpt from the novel, only to be reportedly told by his agent of his intense dislike for hard rock and especially bands like Iron Maiden[[/note]]. Nonetheless, his works are generally recognized to have drunk from the same well as Le Guin and Dick.

* Creator/FrankHerbert occupied a weird space in the New Wave, inasmuch as he never had all that much to do with other authors, but his works are generally recognized to have drunk from the same well as Le Guin and Dick.

* TotallyRadical: With respect to some of the dialogue in certain works, the attempts by then middle aged authors to try to appeal to 60s or 70s era youth were sometimes laughable if not cringy. It is also worth noting that most of the authors while contemporary to the countercultures of their day, were not necessarily participants. They may have marginally known someone who was, but they themselves were simply too old to be a plausible participant in the 60s counterculture which had as one of its tenets "Don't trust anybody over 30".

* TotallyRadical: With respect to some of the dialogue in certain works, the attempts by then middle aged authors to try to appeal to 60s or 70s era youth were sometimes laughable if not cringy. It is also worth noting that most of the authors while contemporary to the countercultures of their day, were not necessarily participants. They may have marginally known someone who was. Most of them were simply too old to be a legit part of the 60s counterculture which had as one of its tenets "Don't trust anybody over 30".

Much like the Youth Movement, the New Wave gradually faded away as its members got older and/or found that ''really'' experimental writing had a very limited market. The cohorts of writers and readers most associated with this movement were either {{Beatnik}} generation or BabyBoomers engrossed in the counterculture of TheSixties. Both lost relevance by the end of TheSeventies. As most movements do, it also faced a backlash from a new generation of writers who brought back scientific accuracy, action and adventure (this in particular was aided and abetted by publishers after ''Franchise/StarWars'' became a mega-hit, as they felt works in the same style would sell better), or both; often matching the literary chops of the by-now venerable New Wave writers, who started to be seen as pretentious intellectual lightweights. It ''did'' have a major lasting impact on the field, though, opening up science fiction to all sorts of new ideas and styles, many of which are still common today. And it left in its wake several works that are still very highly regarded. But as a distinct movement, it soon disappeared, to be replaced with the {{Cyberpunk}} controversies of the eighties.

Much like the Youth Movement, the New Wave gradually faded away as its members got older and/or found that ''really'' experimental writing had a very limited market. The cohorts of writers and readers most associated with this movement were either {{Beatnik}} generation or BabyBoomers. As most movements do, it also faced a backlash from a new generation of writers who brought back scientific accuracy, action and adventure (this in particular was aided and abetted by publishers after ''Franchise/StarWars'' became a mega-hit, as they felt works in the same style would sell better), or both; often matching the literary chops of the by-now venerable New Wave writers, who started to be seen as pretentious intellectual lightweights. It ''did'' have a major lasting impact on the field, though, opening up science fiction to all sorts of new ideas and styles, many of which are still common today. And it left in its wake several works that are still very highly regarded. But as a distinct movement, it soon disappeared, to be replaced with the {{Cyberpunk}} controversies of the eighties.

Much like the Youth Movement, the New Wave gradually faded away as its members got older and/or found that ''really'' experimental writing had a very limited market. As most movements do, it also faced a backlash from a new generation of writers who brought back scientific accuracy, action and adventure (this in particular was aided and abetted by publishers after ''Franchise/StarWars'' became a mega-hit, as they felt works in the same style would sell better), or both; often matching the literary chops of the by-now venerable New Wave writers, who started to be seen as pretentious intellectual lightweights. It ''did'' have a major lasting impact on the field, though, opening up science fiction to all sorts of new ideas and styles, many of which are still common today. And it left in its wake several works that are still very highly regarded. But as a distinct movement, it soon disappeared, to be replaced with the {{Cyberpunk}} controversies of the eighties.

New Wave Science Fiction was a literary movement of [[TheSixties the 1960s]] and 1970s; a rejection of the simplistic action-adventure stories of the "Golden Age" in favor of more [[LitFic literary]] and [[PostModernism experimental]] forms of SF and Fantasy, with more emphasis on writing and creativity, and less on [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness "hard"]] science, and, well, plot.

Much like the Youth Movement, the New Wave gradually faded away as its members got older and/or found that ''really'' experimental writing had a very limited market. As most movements do, it also faced a backlash from a new generation of writers who brought back scientific accuracy, action and adventure (this in particular was aided and abetted by publishers after ''Franchise/StarWars'' became a mega-hit, as they felt works in the same style would sell better), or both; often matching the literary chops of the by-now venerable New Wave writers, who started to be seen as pretentious intellectual lighweights. It ''did'' have a major lasting impact on the field, though, opening up science fiction to all sorts of new ideas and styles, many of which are still common today. And it left in its wake several works that are still very highly regarded. But as a distinct movement, it soon disappeared, to be replaced with the {{Cyberpunk}} controversies of the eighties.