"Sir, there is a Mr. Herbert George Wells from London waiting for you in the reception room!" On this day, while Monet was struggling to write, Casey suddenly came up and reported.

Hearing this name, Monet was stunned for a moment, and then asked Casey with some excitement: "Are you sure you heard it right, is it Mr. Herbert George Wells?" ”

Casey was a little frightened by Monet's appearance, and quietly took a half step back and replied timidly: "That's right, it's Herbert George Wells!" ”

But before she could finish speaking, Casey found that Monet had actually rushed past her like a gust of wind, in fact, it was no wonder that Monet was so excited, because any sci-fi fan would probably be like this if he learned that he would have the opportunity to meet Wells himself.

Although Wells was not as out-of-the-circle as the French science fiction writer Jules Verne of his time, in fact his contribution to science fiction creation was greater than Verne's, because "aliens", "time machines", "stealth", "dystopia", "interstellar wars", which are widely used in science fiction even now, were pioneered by Wells. (It's like Conan Doyle, who is the most well-known writer of mystery novels, but Poe invented the common routines of mystery novels such as "murder in a closed room", "easy chair detective", "code trickery", and "detective is murderer"...... ）

Wells was also a well-known historian (Compendium of World History), sociologist, politician (a prominent member of the Fabian Society), a journalist (who interviewed Roosevelt and Stalin), and a good friend of George Bernard Shaw and Churchill.

So as soon as he entered the living room, Monet took the initiative to greet him: "Hello Mr. Wells! ”

"Hello Mr. Monet, I came to visit suddenly, I don't know if it disturbed your work!" Wells replied politely.

"It's my pleasure to have you here, normally, I should be visiting you!"

"Mr. Monet, you are so polite, in fact, I am here today mainly to discuss with you your recently published novel "Little Jack Wanders the Future", to be honest, I like this story very much, and I am shocked and impressed by your wild imagination in it!" Wells praised.

But then he changed the conversation and said, "But I still have some different opinions, I don't know if you can accept it!" ”

"Speak!" Monet gestured.

"I don't think your 'Little Jack Wanders the Future' shouldn't be science fiction strictly speaking! Because in the text, you don't explain the scientific principles of these technological products and the connection to the existing technology, such as the telephone used by Jack Jr. that you wrote about in the article. Although the name is also called a telephone, it has almost no connection with the telephone used today except for the name and the ability to talk, and perhaps in a hundred years there will really be such a communication tool, but with the current technology, this is simply not possible!

So I think your little Jack is a fantasy novel, but it shouldn't be science fiction, and since your novel is so successful right now, it's easy to mislead readers, so I hope you will make it clear in the next issue about the nature of the novel! In fact, I myself have made such mistakes, so I don't want a very talented young man like you, Monsieur Monet, to follow my old path! Wells said with a serious expression.

Hearing this, Monet understood why Wells came to visit him, it turned out that it was not because he was sympathetic, but because people were afraid that he would "tarnish" the name of science fiction, because in the eyes of others, this "Little Jack Wanders the Future" is not science fiction at all.

Of course, Wells did this for Monet's good, because his work was criticized like this, and it involved a very important issue of the direction of science fiction, not to mention 1888, when science fiction was just emerging, and even in 2021, this issue is very controversial.

That is the "hard science fiction" and "soft science fiction" controversy, simply put, the so-called hard science fiction is scientific, to use existing science and technology for derivation and fantasy, not out of thin air; Soft sci-fi is the opposite. In the circle, soft science fiction is at the bottom of the chain of contempt, and many soft science fiction works are considered by hard science fiction lovers to be science fiction novels at all! However, outside the circle, soft science fiction is more popular than hard science fiction, because the story is strong and boring scientific data elaboration and derivation content is less or even none, which is more friendly to readers outside the circle......

Although Monet is extremely confident that many of the things in Little Jack A Journey to the Future that seem unimaginable now will actually be achievable in a hundred years, the problem is that he simply can't explain the principle or explain it with existing technology, such as smartphones.

So I had to explain: "Mr. Wells, in fact, in my opinion, the current science fiction seems too simple, and some science fiction novels are actually more like popular science works or thesis reports, so it can completely enrich the category of science fiction, that is, to dilute the content of scientific theories, take the development of science and technology as the background, and focus on the storyline and characters, I call such science fiction soft science fiction, which can attract more readers and creators into the world of science fiction. Although it is impossible for all readers to like hardcore science fiction, there will always be some, so that over time, more and more readers will like science fiction, which can really promote the development of science fiction.

And no one says that science fiction has to be written like Mr. Verne, right? Is science fiction only about technology, not about human nature? For example, if we assume that one day London is divided into three spaces according to social class, and then a middle-aged man at the bottom has to take an adventure in order for his daughter to receive a better education, so that she can rise to the second dimension, that is, to rise a level, and end up in tragedy, isn't this a science fiction story? ”

Hearing Monet's explanation, Wells was very shocked: "Mr. Monet, although your story outline is brief, I feel that if you write it, it must be a very wonderful story, is this your next science fiction novel?" ”