Starboard Vineyard Tours 18: New Maps of Hell: A Survey of Science Fiction, Amis

This month, we read Kingsley Amis's provocatively titled New Maps of Hell (1960) - in which Amis sets forth a his account of the nature and hopes of science fiction at the end of what's often called the Golden Age. New Maps has been often referenced in works we've read so far, and ends up something of an eccentric snapshot of a moment in the genre, a commentary on the state of the genre through Amis's very particular concerns. These include the “comic inferno”, the power and danger of advertising, and the anti-conformist streak in SF, as well as an extended analogy between SF and jazz. Overall, it's an odd book, one that had us asking if Amis even really liked science fiction - or maybe whether he liked that he liked it or not.Topics: SF history, Golden Age, pulpNext episode, we will be reading Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right (2024) by Jordan S. Carroll.