Editing New Wave (science fiction) (section)

===Influences and predecessors===
Though the New Wave began during the 1960s, some of its tenets can be found in [[H. L. Gold]]'s editorship of ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction|Galaxy]]'', which began publication in 1950. [[James Gunn (author)|James Gunn]] described Gold's emphasis as being "not on the adventurer, the inventor, the engineer, or the scientist, but on the average citizen,"<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gunn|first=James E.|title=Alternate worlds : the illustrated history of science fiction|publisher=Prentice-Hall|year=1975|isbn=978-1-4766-7353-0|location=New Jersey|chapter=Alternate Worlds: 1949–1965|oclc=1045641028}}</ref> and according to SF historian David Kyle, Gold's work would result in the New Wave.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kyle|first=David A.|title=A pictorial history of science fiction|publisher=Tiger Books International|year=1986|isbn=0-600-50294-5|oclc=15522165|orig-date=1976}}</ref><sup>:119-120</sup>

The New Wave was partly a rejection of the [[Golden Age of Science Fiction]]. [[Algis Budrys]] in 1965 wrote of the "recurrent strain in 'Golden Age' science fiction of the 1940s—- the implication that sheer technological accomplishment would solve all the problems, hooray, and that all the problems were what they seemed to be on the surface".<ref name="budrys196508">{{Cite magazine
 |last=Budrys
 |first=Algis
 |date=August 1965
 |title=Galaxy Bookshelf
 |url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v23n06_1965-08#page/n185/mode/2up
 |magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction
 |pages=186–194
}}</ref> The New Wave was not defined as a development from the science fiction which came before it, but initially reacted against it. New Wave writers did not operate as an organized group, but some of them felt the tropes of the pulp magazine and [[Golden Age of Science Fiction|Golden Age]] periods had become over-used, and should be abandoned: [[J. G. Ballard]] stated in 1962 that "science fiction should turn its back on space, on interstellar travel, extra-terrestrial life forms, (and) galactic wars",<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ballard |first=J. G. |date=1996 |orig-date=1962 |chapter=Which way to inner space? |title=A user's guide to the millennium: essays and reviews |location=London |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-00-748420-1 |oclc=604713425}}</ref> and Brian Aldiss said in ''[[Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction]]'' that "the props of SF are few: rocket ships, telepathy, robots, time travel...like coins, they become debased by over-circulation."<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Aldiss |first1=Brian |last2=Wingrove |first2=David |date=1986|title=Trillion year spree: The history of science fiction |publisher=Little, Brown Book Group Limited |isbn=9780722133019 |language=en |oclc=812942029}}</ref> [[Harry Harrison (writer)|Harry Harrison]] summarised the period by saying "old barriers were coming down, pulp taboos were being forgotten, new themes and new manners of writing were being explored".<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Aldiss |first1=Brian W. |last2=Harrison |first2=Harry |date=1980 |title=Decade the 1950s |location=New York |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=978-0-312-18987-7 |language=en|oclc=5564828}}</ref>

New Wave writers began to use non-science fiction literary themes, such as the example of beat writer [[William S. Burroughs]]—New Wave authors [[Philip José Farmer]] and [[Barrington J. Bayley]] wrote pastiches of his work (''The Jungle Rot Kid on the Nod'' and ''The Four Colour Problem'', respectively), while J. G. Ballard published an admiring essay in an issue of ''New Worlds''.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Title: Mythmaker of the 20th Century|url=https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1645085|access-date=2022-12-29|website=isfdb.org}}</ref> Burroughs' use of experimentation such as the [[cut-up technique]] and his use of science fiction tropes in new manners proved the extent to which prose fiction could seem revolutionary, and some New Wave writers sought to emulate this style.

[[Ursula K. Le Guin]], one of the newer writers to be published during the 1960s, describes the transition to the New Wave era thus:

{{blockquote|Without in the least dismissing or belittling earlier writers and work, I think it is fair to say that science fiction changed around 1960, and that the change tended toward an increase in the number of writers and readers, the breadth of subject, the depth of treatment, the sophistication of language and technique, and the political and literary consciousness of the writing. The sixties in science fiction were an exciting period for both established and new writers and readers. All the doors seemed to be opening.<ref>Le Guin, Ursula K. "Introduction". In Ursula K. Le Guin and Brian Attebery (eds.), ''The Norton Book of Science Fiction'' (New York: W. W. Norton, 1993)</ref>{{rp|18}} }}

Other writers and works seen as preluding or transitioning to the New Wave include [[Ray Bradbury]]'s ''[[The Martian Chronicles]],'' [[Walter M. Miller Jr.|Walter M. Miller]]'s 1959 ''[[A Canticle for Leibowitz]],'' [[Cyril M. Kornbluth]] and [[Frederik Pohl]]'s anti-hyper-consumerist ''[[The Space Merchants]]'' (1952), [[Kurt Vonnegut]]'s mocking ''[[Player Piano (novel)|Player Piano]]'' (1952) and ''[[The Sirens of Titan]]'' (1959), [[Theodore Sturgeon]]'s humanist ''[[More Than Human]]'' (1953) and the hermaphrodite society of ''[[Venus Plus X]]'' (1960), and [[Philip José Farmer]]'s human-extraterrestrial sexual encounters in ''The Lovers'' (1952) and ''Strange Relations'' (1960).<ref name=":5" />