Out of This World

Out of This World: Science Fiction But Not As You Know It, was an exhibition recently held at the British Library, looking at the historical origins of science fiction - A review of it, by Wired, suggests they nailed that down to 170AD! I unfortunately only heard of it a couple of weeks after the exhibition closed, thanks to a review of the accompanying book I found on Grasping for the Wind. The exhibition and book were/are split into six thematic sections: Alien Worlds, Time and Parallel Worlds, Virtual Worlds, Future Worlds, The End of the World, and The Perfect World. Reflecting the exhibition the book is richly illustrated, and also goes to some effort to expand its exploration of the subject to include sources outside the usual english language male dominated world of sci-fi. It sounds really interesting, and is certainly being added to my to-read list, so I mention it here imagining you might feel the same - Have a read of those aforementioned reviews and I’m sure you'll agree.