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Hilbert Schenck
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 Hilbert Schenck is a retired professor of ocean engineering whose work in science fiction has
characteristically been about the interactions of humanity with weather and with the oceans. His stories are as
influenced by the books of Edward Rowe Snow, the popular chronicler of the New England seacoast (where most
of his stories are set), as by the hard sf tradition. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction characterizes his
stories thusly: "their intensities are fluent, grounded and scientifically competent." Their closest relative in
emotional range is the fiction of James Tiptree, Jr. They began appearing in the late 1970s; his first novel,
At the Eye of the Ocean (1980) and story collection,
Wave Rider (1980), marked out his territory, which was further
explored in subsequent novels such as A Rose For
Armageddon (1982) and Chronosequence (1988). His novella
"Steam Bird" (1982) is an alternate universe hard sf story which is an amusing portrayal of the world of fandom
(in this case, of steam engine buffs).
This particular story is both historically accurate and wildly imaginative. There really was such
an hurricane, and the late 19th century New England seacoast has several heroic rescues of legendary and
improbable bravery, including the story of Chase as reported by Snow. What does science do when faced with
the impossible? It waits for new data. What does hard sf do? It invents; in this case, alien observers, who
make it all a bit more plausible. Something like it happened -- but it was too implausible without the fiction. For
one with the hard science fiction attitude.
This is one of the most striking tricks in sf literature. What it accomplishes, of course, is to substitute
a rational sf explanation for the explanation that would certainly have been more acceptable in the late
19th century than mere coincidental success against great statistical odds -- teleological intervention. For
some unusual happenings become quite implausible without the explanation of divine intervention, and the
substitution of a science fictional rationale affirms the scientific world-view cleverly here. Thus science
supplants superstition, and the allegory underlying hard science fiction is affirmed once again. It is an interesting case
of the replacement principle at work. Schenck is underrated as one of the most accomplished writers of the
hard sf affect.
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The Ascent of Wonder copyright © 1994 by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. | ||
Cramer: On Science & Science Fiction || Hartwell: Hard Science Fiction
David G. Hartwell || Kathryn Cramer || About Tor Books || Ordering Info
Interactive Intoduction to THE ASCENT OF WONDER copyright © 1995-1997 by Kathryn Cramer.