True Story, Bro: How Lucian of Samosata invented Science Fiction in Antiquity

[@OakandIV]

I have been fascinated by this story for a decade. Thanks for a great take on it. Amazing how often satire explores a genre first, and how many “modern” story tropes go back centuries or more.

[@AndDiracisHisProphet]

3:42 thank Kalliope that Lucian didn't fall into a logical trap here!

[@AndDiracisHisProphet]

Ok, sorry for the double post. maybe this helps with the algorithm :) Thank you very much for your video. I knew about Lucian's True Story, and parts of the plot, but only up until the whale part. So that was very interesting. I have a question: You say that Lucian inspired all these works, but how sure are we, that those authors actually have read him? And if not, does this rally count as "to inspire"? Also, did you know, that Johannes Kepler (yes, the astronomer) also wrote a scienc fiction, or proto-science fiction, story called "Somnium oder der Traum vom Mond". I haven't read it, but I would be really interested if you could cover it aswell....

[@The_Gothic_Bookshelf]

Thank you for watching! I am glad you appreciate the video 😊We cannot be 100% sure whether the authors I mentioned really read the True History and actually were inspired by it, but the academic literature I read in this regard mentioned it as rather probable (see for example "Lucian's Science Fiction Novel True Histories: Introduction & Commentary" by Aristoula Georgiadou and David Larmour) Thank you for mentioning the work of Johannes Kepler! It sounds very interesting, I will make sure to cover it when I get to the 17th century for sure! 😊

[@dbarker7794]

Wonderful. Thanks. Sounds like science fiction to me. Is this the same Lucien who wrote satires poking fun at various Christian sects?

[@The_Gothic_Bookshelf]

I think so, but I don't know for sure. According to Wikipedia he has written a cynic text "On Sacrifices" and a description of the cult of the Syrian Goddess Atargatis. Perhaps you can look into those if you're interested! :)