Message from space (science fiction)

"Message from space" is a type of "first contact" science fiction themes. Stories of this type involve receiving an interstellar message which reveals the existence of other intelligent life in the universe. Classic examples of this trope include: a television script and a novel A for Andromeda by Fred Hoyle and John Elliot, His Master's Voice by Stanislaw Lem, The Listeners by James E. Gunn and Carl Sagan's Contact.[1]

An early short story, A Message from Space (Joseph Schlossel, Weird Tales, March 1926) tells of an amateur who builds a ham TV set and suddenly sees an alien, The latter one realises it is being watched and tells its soap opera story. The verdict of Everett Franklin Bleiler: "original ideas, but clumsy handling".[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Science Fiction After 1900: From the Steam Man to the Stars, by Brooks Landon, p. 82
  2. ↑ "Science-fiction, the early years by Everett Franklin Bleiler, ISBN 0-87338-416-4, section "Schlosser, J."