Science fiction as a manifestation of culture in America

Culture is broadly viewed as all the human activities that define us as a species. "Sturgeon's Law" ( that 90% of everything is inferior) is introduced to defend the study of fiction, and science fiction in particular, in higher education as a way of understanding ourselves better, and perhaps improving the world through the increased understanding of tomorrow's leaders. Several ways of reading particular works of science fiction are examined, like providing historical contexts for readers, close reading and structural analysis, and application of theories based on particular ideologies or from other disciplines in the social and political sciences (such as feminist theory, Marxist theory, psychological theory, etc.). A conclusion is drawn that for literary analysis, a hybrid methodology, one devised individually for each text, works best.