Talk:Sense of wonder

Notability/original research
This article does not seem to meet the standards of notability/OR. The fact that it is entirely devoted to a series of distinct, unsustained definitions suggests to me that while the term 'sense of wonder' is used in discourse about science fiction, there is no strong or compelling evidence that it is a notably coherent concept (Notability), or at least it has not received sustained treatment in a reliable source as such (OR). That is, either the term is not notable because the people who are cited as using it only mention it in passing (unlike, for example, the concept of 'the sublime'), or the article is original research because it is what asserts the coherent importance of the term. I am tagging for notability, and would appreciate any thoughts on this and on possible proposal for deletion. --Quadalpha (talk) 04:28, 15 December 2011 (UTC)


 * I've deleted the notability notice with the comment "Deleted notability notice: pace Quadalpha's contention on the talk page, the extensive, sourced discussion of the concept in sci-fi criticism shows that it is a notable concept.  An AfD discussion is the right place to contend notability" -- 95.91.247.189 (talk) 09:04, 9 March 2016 (UTC)


 * I concur with the OR judgement. Certainly a "sense of wonder" can be seen in science fiction, but there's no evidence that this term and certainly not the concept was invented by sci-fi. See Sublime_(literary) and Numinous for synonyms.
 * Kortoso (talk) 21:22, 7 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia can't be taken seriously as long as we have ridiculous encyclopedia entries such as this. Please let me know if it comes up for deletion discussion. Eric talk 00:38, 20 July 2020 (UTC)

Towards making this article more encyclopediac
I've changed the lead paragraph so that it does not explicitly tie the concept to sci-fi, created a definitions section to house the explicit definitions and put the rest of the old definitions and origins section into a less encyclopediac connections to sci-fi section. To continue the task of making the article more encyclopediac, we need to keep reworking that section. -- 95.91.247.189 (talk) 10:00, 9 March 2016 (UTC)
 * I've now removed the { {essay}} tag. 95.91.213.147 (talk) 06:46, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

Merge with Wonder (emotion)
The sense of wonder has been historically (and currently) more important to philosophy and science than to science fiction. While this article is less notable, it could be merged with Wonder (emotion). Dpleibovitz (talk) 21:14, 28 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Strong support I came here to make the same suggestion.  Is there a difference between an emotion and the sense of that emotion?  Besides that, the combined article will be better than either is by itself right now. PopSci (talk) 19:54, 1 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Please see my revised opinion below. Thanks. PopSci (talk) 04:33, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

Merge with Science fiction
This article is about an aspect of science fiction. If we merge it there more people will see it and it will add needed content there. A sense of wonder, or the emotion of wonder, can be generated by science itself, by nature, by human achievements (the Egyptian pyramids for instance), by religion and myth, by other fiction, as well as by science fiction. Wonder (emotion) should deal with the general concept. PopSci (talk) 04:32, 7 November 2017 (UTC)
 * I put a brief mention and a link in the Science fiction article. This one is too big and no clear way to trim it down.  So just leave it as it is.PopSci (talk) 02:08, 8 November 2017 (UTC)
 * No, this is a big concept (has entry in SF Encyclopedia and like: ) that should be stand alone. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 02:50, 8 September 2021 (UTC)

Examples of the 'casual' use of the term in science fiction criticism
This entire section was just a WP:QUOTEFARM, moving here. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 02:50, 8 September 2021 (UTC)


 * "Most science fiction writers wish to make their readers feel the thrill, the sense of wonder, that so marked SF's youth that the genre still claims it as a sort of trademark, even though it is scarcely to be found today." Tom Easton. Analog Science Fiction & Fact. New York: May 2000. Vol. 120, Iss.5; page. 134
 * "The backstory. Two previous Mars expeditions have failed. ... An American crew perished further south, leaving an empty base ... and return vehicle, the Dulcinea. ... Now it's the turn of the international free-lancers ...The landing is successful, right on target and just a few minute' stroll from the Dulcinea. Sense of wonder oozes from the pages as the crew steps onto the Martian surface." Tom Easton. Analog Science Fiction & Fact. New York: Jan 2001. Vol. 121, Iss. 1; page. 135
 * "I first read Thrust Into Space by Maxwell W. Hunter II 30 years ago when I was around 11 or 12. At a time when I was just discovering real science fiction, and first reading the works of Heinlein, Asimov, and Clarke, this book evoked for me exactly the same " sense of wonder" as did the works of that great trinity." Jeffrey D Kooistra. Analog Science Fiction & Fact. New York: Jul/Aug 2002. Vol. 122, Iss. 7/8; page. 128
 * "The story is also far less melodramatic than it might have been if published during the 1950s. Included are brief discussions of mathematical and other scientific problems that evoke a kind of old-fashioned sense of wonder about the universe without disrupting the flow of the story." Don D'Ammassa. Analog Science Fiction & Fact. New York: May 2009. Vol. 129, Iss. 5; page.101
 * David E. Nye brings a keen eye to the history of technology in the United States. I used his American Technological Sublime in classes for years. I may well use his latest ... too. ... The thesis of the earlier book was—in extreme brief—that in America technological wonders—from railroads to the nuclear bomb—evoked the same emotional response as natural wonders such as the Grand Canyon. This response was the blend of awe and terror and wonder that had long been called "the sublime." There was, to me, a clear connection to the sfnal "sense of wonder" that helped explain why twentieth-century science fiction was predominantly American." Tom Easton. Analog Science Fiction & Fact. New York: Jun 2005. Vol. 125, Iss. 6; pg. 136
 * "The sense of wonder that marks the SF sensibility is hard to teach and certainly cannot be dictated or overlain on a soul that lacks it. It must come from within, and when it does, all the wonders of the universe are within reach." Tom Easton. Analog Science Fiction & Fact. New York: Dec 1998. Vol. 118, Iss. 12; pg. 133
 * "...if we take note of Kubrick's (and Clarke's) film 2001: A Space Odyssey, a powerful meditation on the relations of the sublime and the banal. To get into space we seem to have needed to suspend the imagination and sense of wonder that was a very important part of what made us want to get into space in the first place. Sober precise technicians were called for." Christopher Palmer. 'Big Dumb Objects in Science Fiction: Sublimity, Banality, and Modernity,' Extrapolation. Kent: Spring 2006.Vol. 47, Iss. 1; page. 103
 * "He [ Stephen Baxter ] thinks it's critical for NASA and other space agencies to reestablish the sense of wonder by sending poets, philosophers, and science fiction writers into space, but he ..." Richard A. Lovett. Analog Science Fiction & Fact. New York: Apr 2006. Vol. 126, Iss. 4; page. 89
 * "The best writers observe things. Sometimes these are details about the universe. Sometimes they are grand visions that instill the sense of wonder about which science fiction fans wax lyrical. Other times, the observations take the form of details about people or the lives we live: overlooked realities that ring true as they float across the page before us." Richard A Lovett. Analog Science Fiction & Fact. New York: Jan/Feb 2010. Vol. 130, Iss. 1/2; page. 56
 * "It was that vision of exciting new technologies and the bright tomorrows they might create that gave us the "sense of wonder" veteran fans lament with such nostalgia. It made us the unhonored prophets of a new faith, lonely pioneers in a world of critical unbelievers bewildered by the term "science fiction. " Fellow fans were rare, and we found one another with feelings of instant kinship." Jack Williamson. 'Recollections of Analog,' Analog Science Fiction & Fact. New York: Jan 2000. Vol. 120, Iss. 1; page. 94

Senses of wonder
Idk 2A00:23C8:6782:9000:55F3:95EB:73F6:3E13 (talk) 18:01, 3 May 2022 (UTC)