I might guess that the 1950's will be called the Cold War decade. Not that this conflict is anywhere near over, of course, but it seems to be slowly settling down into a state of uneasy co-existance. Khrushchev is certainly preferable to Stalin, and with the fall of the late Joseph McCarthy maybe both blocs can act a little more sanely.
The 1960's? The Freedom Decade is a good choice, and certainly one we can all hope for. I suspect the struggle for freedom around the world is going to be a long and slow one. I might also suggest the Space Decade, for obvious reasons. (Certainly a Space Race is better than an Arms Race!)
With the co-operation between the two sides during the recent International Geophysical Year, is it too much to hope that someday astronauts and cosmonauts will work together?
Science Fiction in the near future is going to have to deal with space travel in a more realistic way, obviously. Once we know what it's like to walk on the Moon, for example, stories about the Moon are going to have to take that into account.
Aside from that, the direction that "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction" has taken seems to indicate that what we might call "literary" science fiction and fantasy is going to have a certain vogue. We've already seen a rise in satiric SF, particularly in "Galaxy," so that seems certain to continue to be an important part of the field.
"The Twilight Zone," as simple as many of its concepts are to the reader of SF/F, shows us that serious speculative fiction can exist in the visual media. (It's certainly more sophisticated than, say, "Captain Video.")
(Of course, there's a certain part of me that still gets a kick out of terrible movies like last year's "The Wasp Woman" or "The Killer Shrews," to name just a couple.)
Predictions
I might guess that the 1950's will be called the Cold War decade. Not that this conflict is anywhere near over, of course, but it seems to be slowly settling down into a state of uneasy co-existance. Khrushchev is certainly preferable to Stalin, and with the fall of the late Joseph McCarthy maybe both blocs can act a little more sanely.
The 1960's? The Freedom Decade is a good choice, and certainly one we can all hope for. I suspect the struggle for freedom around the world is going to be a long and slow one. I might also suggest the Space Decade, for obvious reasons. (Certainly a Space Race is better than an Arms Race!)
With the co-operation between the two sides during the recent International Geophysical Year, is it too much to hope that someday astronauts and cosmonauts will work together?
Science Fiction in the near future is going to have to deal with space travel in a more realistic way, obviously. Once we know what it's like to walk on the Moon, for example, stories about the Moon are going to have to take that into account.
Aside from that, the direction that "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction" has taken seems to indicate that what we might call "literary" science fiction and fantasy is going to have a certain vogue. We've already seen a rise in satiric SF, particularly in "Galaxy," so that seems certain to continue to be an important part of the field.
"The Twilight Zone," as simple as many of its concepts are to the reader of SF/F, shows us that serious speculative fiction can exist in the visual media. (It's certainly more sophisticated than, say, "Captain Video.")
(Of course, there's a certain part of me that still gets a kick out of terrible movies like last year's "The Wasp Woman" or "The Killer Shrews," to name just a couple.)