Techniques of Persuasion and Presentation

Abstract

The increasing difficulty of communication between scientist and layman has been realised, perhaps with undue emphasis, in a generation familiar with the concept of ‘two cultures’ for, despite the growing popularity of science fiction as a genre in its own right, the number of scientific writers who can communicate with a general audience remains remarkably small. Hence it is not surprising that the majority of science fiction readers are those who have had some scientific training. Kingsley Amis writes that:

Science fiction interests do not coincide with those of ordinary fiction, though on occasion the two sets will overlap very considerably. The sense of curiosity involved, for instance, is different in each case; Science Fiction’s is more intellectual … and it will not always appeal to, though it need not actually deny, the human warmth which we are right to look for in ordinary literature.¹