1. The Genre Evolution Project Doing the Research of the Future Becky Adams, Jon Bakos, Caitlin Light, Ross Smith New Material © 2005

2. What We Believe Innovations in literature are not merely caused by randomness, or sporadic acts of genius. Cultural phenomena do not occur in a vacuum. The culture can change because of literature, and literature can change because of the culture.

3. Founding Fathers Two professors at the University of Michigan wanted a way to test these beliefs: Dr. Eric Rabkin Dr. Carl Simon

4. Hypothesis Cultural phenomena evolve in the same way as do biological systems...... that is, as complex adaptive systems. But what are CASs?

5. Hypothesis Defined Nonadaptive System: Simple Adaptive System: Complex Adaptive System: VERY Complex Adaptive System: Meat Grinder Radio Thermostat Biosphere The GEP studies literature as if it were evolving in the same way as a biosphere CAS: whole adapts to parts, parts adapt to whole Each gives the other feedback, promoting change

6. Putting the Genre in GEP In order to test its hypothesis, the GEP needed an object to study. We chose… The American Science Fiction Short Story Operationally Defined as… Any story appearing in a self-described science fiction magazine published in the United States. Stories under 12,000 words No serials

7. Operationally Defined? Rather than using the content of the stories to tell if they are sci-fi, we use the context. If the magazine tells us the story is science fiction, we take them at their word. This allows us to see what the aspects of literature the culture considers to be science fiction, and to see if these change over time.

8. Quantitative Study Traditional recipe for literary criticism: –Old man in room –Pen and paper This is all well and good, but what if you want more than just an informed opinion? GEP attempts to study literature quantitatively, using a set of well-defined fields and values for its analysis.

9. Why Science Fiction? Dr. Rabkin’s area of expertise We like it We have a sensible operational definition: (beginning April, 1926, with Amazing) fiction that appeared in American SF magazines Adequately complex also…. We have excellent contextual data, such as:

10. Contextual SF Data – precise dating – wide variations in format – observable advertising content – letters to the editor – letters from the editor – Astounding’s “Analytical Laboratory” – circulation figures SF was born to be studied!

11. So How Does it Happen? University of Michigan affiliation Undergraduate and graduate students Weekly Meetings Collaborative effort! Sibling groups: –Michigan State University –Texas A&M University –University of Trento, Italy

12. So We’re Gathering Data… But How? Group members are put into reading pairs. Each pair reads a magazine per week. Using pairs helps improve the reliability of our data by giving readers a chance to discuss and compare. Objective reading! Pair results are then entered into an online Access database, and checked over one more time to ensure that nothing is left blank/erroneous.

13. Fields and Values What we use to code a story Extremely detailed list Over 30 fields, up to 19 values each Many fields have evolved down through the years

14. Some GEP Fields Genre Content - The element in the story that would make most readers recognize the story as Science Fiction and without which the story might not be generally considered to be science fiction by ordinary readers. Genre Form - The basic form, or skeleton, on which the story is built. Dominant Science - The science whose workings are central to creating the narrative world and/or dramatic problem(s).

15. Some GEP Fields Character Count / Dimensionality  Good example of a field that evolved: 1. Counting Char. 2. Defining Dimension 3. Invention of “1D” Char. 4. Instances “1D” Char. 5. Organization of Instances 6. Defining a Scene 7. Scene Boundaries

16. The Databases Our project uses 3 databases that are linked together:  Text database detailing information from the stories, including every incarnation of a story.  Author database with biographical information  Context database that includes data about the magazines, and also anthologies. We have an additional magazine covers project that’s examining that aspect of context.

17. Why an Access Database? Access is a relational database, which means we can have fields whose values depend on other fields. We can also examine several fields at a time by creating queries within Access. If you want to study stories from the 1950’s, written only by women, with alien protagonists and sad endings, you can!

18. Getting Good Data ICR  Inter-Coder Reliability –Agreement between researchers on codings –Keystone of our credibility –Many of our methods serve to increase ICR: »group meetings »pair discussion »layout of instrument GEP data collection is complicated – ICR is very important!

19. Some GEP Publications “Age, Sex, and Evolution in the Science Fiction Marketplace” »Eric S. Rabkin & Carl P. Simon “The Medical Lessons of Science Fiction” »Eric S. Rabkin “Who Really Shaped American Science Fiction?” »Eric S. Rabkin, James Mitchell, & Carl P. Simon

20. “Age, Sex, and Evolution in the Science Fiction Marketplace” Looking at: » Author Sex » Word Count » Main Character Sex » Genre Content » Main Character Age we discovered…

21. Differences by Sex Women: –Shorter stories –Main char. gender = 50/50 split –Female characters in male roles –Younger main char. Men: –Longer stories –Main char. gender = 90% male –Male characters in male roles –Older main char. Though Genre Contents in published stories were the same for men and women, stories differ in many ways:

22. Author Sex v Story Length

23. Auth Sex v Main Char Sex

24. Similarities No rapid growth of female authors (to coincide with growth of feminist movement) in the 1960’s The number of women in SF has increased slowly but steadily since the 1920’s, and our data show no decline or boom.

25. Auth Sex v Decade

26. “The Medical Lessons of Science Fiction” Only 41 stories with Dominant Science “Medicine” out of 1094 stories that had a Dominant Science. –Expected distribution, if all sciences coded equally? 61 Medicine only 2/3 of expected result!

27. Okay, 41 Stories. Reprints? Reprints indicate a story’s cultural “fitness” the same way reproduction indicates an organism’s biological success. Only 5 of 41 stories coded “Medicine” reprinted: “Flowers for Algernon”19 “Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand”17 “The Planners” 8 “The Last Flight of Dr. Ain” 7 “The Miracle of the Broom Closet” 2 What do these stories have in common?

28. Similarities 3 of the 5 written by women All but last deal with society in which physician is very strong, almost godlike, and confirm society’s fearful attitudes about that power. Conclusion?

29. Conclusion Medicine “…is a matter that science fiction typically does not want to address, but when it does, it is disproportionately women who show us the way, who make clear that the only good doctor is the doctor who puts his…or her…welfare after that of the patient. The SF exploration of medicine, in Keyes and Wiener and Wilhelm and Sheldon, makes us feel that we are misspending our funds by supporting such people.” “If one were to read science fiction about medicine out of one’s common humanity, it would put one on guard. If one were to read it as a physician, one would draw one clear lesson: learn humility and service or society will abandon you…the future of medicine, science fiction tells us, will be molded not only by the minds of doctors but by their characters.”

30. “Who Really Shaped American Science Fiction?” After taking over Amazing, John W. Campbell announced his intent to increase the depth of science fiction’s characters. This was to nullify the criticism that SF was solely interested in ideas and technology, rather than people. The commonly held belief is that he succeeded. The GEP wanted to test this claim.

31. The Study Examined: »Number of 3D characters in SF overall during Campbell’s career »Number of 3D characters in Amazing during Campbell’s career We left a 2 year gap between the date Campbell took over the magazine and the date we used to begin our study »Accommodate for editorial backlog

32. % 3D Chars v Decade

33. Conclusions? Not only did number of 3D characters not increase under Campbell, they actually decreased slightly overall! No more 3D characters overall No more 3D characters in Amazing Campbell didn’t influence the evolution of SF in the way everyone thought!

34. The GEP Online Ann Arbor: www.umich.edu/~genreevo East Lansing: www.msu.edu/~edisonsw/

35. Well, if that’s all of that… …it’s coding time!

36. The GEP Online Ann Arbor: www.umich.edu/~genreevo East Lansing: www.msu.edu/~edisonsw/