from the premises provided by the present to create a world of future possibility. The difference between science fiction and realistic fiction, on one hand, and fantasy, on the other, is one of degree.
Franklin recognizes the need to justify the label of science fiction for some of Hawthorne's works. Hawthorne frequently employed supernatural and supranatural elements in his fiction. A prominent feature of his work is the ambiguity implicit in the inclusion of speculative or fantastic elements within fiction that might otherwise be classed quite properly as realistic. In The Marble Faun, for example, an ancient faun recapitulates history. The action of "Young Goodman Brown" can assume explanation in terms consistent with each of the four types of fiction. In general, when Hawthorne invokes the miraculous, he does so without explanation that depends upon the impossible, a choice that would place some his work in the realm of fantasy. Without stretching the definition of science fiction to the point of meaninglessness, many instances in which Hawthorne employs the fantastic or the speculative cannot be called science fiction, either. Franklin makes the strong claim, however, that much of Hawthorne's work can not only be identified as science fiction, "but actually itself defines that mode" (Franklin 5).
Hawthorne's science fiction, Franklin asserts, seems fantastic, but it actually conforms closely to methods central to science fiction writing. In the main, it is based upon the careful extension either of material presented as scientific fact, or of contemporary technology. The technological achievement present during the middle of the nineteenth century sometimes seemed to be miracles, and men of science to be miracle workers. For that reason, perhaps, Hawthorne's extrapolations sometimes contain an element of magic.
Furthermore, some claims accepted as scientific in the 1830's and 1840's turned ...