I discovered 1950's Science Fiction short stories relatively late in life after wanders in the if only world of comparative religion and a much earlier childhood fascination with stories of Hans Christian Anderson such as "The Emperors New Clothes" and "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" the latter convincing me it was about a lot more then it appeared to be on a casual read.
The Sci-Fi tales, or parables as many of the stories could best be described, generally managed to get their intelligently emotional ideas across with a minimum of plot filler or word count payment considerations.
A perfect example of this is Fredrick's Browns one page wonder "Answer" [see "Conceptual Breakthrough" link vi below]
Even today its pay off conclusion sets the mind considering an unthinkable scenario that may not be as impossible to achieve as it first seems. Maybe its a future memory rather then a present dream.
After a while I started to notice many of the "conceptual breakthrough" stories that unexpectedly stayed in my long term memory were published within a couple of years of each other. Eventually this had me speculating about the possibility that there was some kind of science fiction theme grid operating in the creative planes and I made a few speculations as to its characteristics by borrowing from older religions and philosophies.
This then is the result of my brain storming. It's more observation then revelation and obviously capable of expansion and incorporation in a wider scenario but at least its a start ...
The current cycle appears to have started in April 1926 and will end in Dec 2025
19 Parts in 63 month clusters.
I've given detail of six Sci Fi short stories that appear to me to have a consistent theme for part six and will attempt speculation for underlying themes of the parts with which I am not familiar.
01 April 1926 - June 1931
02 July 1931 - Sept 1936
03 Oct 1936 - Dec 1941
04 Jan 1942 - March 1947
05 April 1947 - June 1952
06 July 1952 - Sept 1957
"Conceptual Breakthrough" theme Definition
ii Snowball Effect [katherine mansfield] sept 52 snowball effect link
iii Noise Level [raymond t jones] dec 52 noise level link
iv Wall Around The World theodore cogswell] sept 53 wall around the world article wikipedia
v Answer [fredrick brown] sept 54 answer link
vi The Last Question [issac asimov] Nov 1956 last question link
vii Omnilingual [h beam piper] feb 57 omnilingual link
07 Oct 1957 - Dec 1962
08 April 1963 - June 1968
09 July 1968 - Sept 1973
10 Oct 1973 - Dec 1978
11 April 1978 - June 1983
12 July 1984 - Sept 1989
13 Oct 1989 - Dec 1994
14 April 1994 - June 1999
15 July 1999 - Sept 2004
16 Oct 2005 - Dec 2010
17 April 2010 - June 2015
18 July 2015 - Sept 2020
19 Oct 2020 - Dec 2025
[new cycle]
Extra:
A Scientist Rises [Desmond Winter Hall]
published Astounding Magazine November 1932
