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New Wave Science Fiction Considered As A Popular Religious Phenomenon: A Definition And An Example, John Rothfork

American Studies ETDs

In the latter part of the 1960's the status of science fiction in America changed. Suddenly it ceased to be characterized as an insignificant formula-fiction. Its new importance rested on the seldom stated fact that it served a parareligious function during a decade when the common man discovered the "death of God." This was also the decade of Gemini and Apollo which saw the fulfillment of President Kennedy's promise to land a man on the moon and return him safely to earth. Thus science fact and fiction complemented each other to offer the common man a paradigm and ritual absorbing …