Pandemics, epidemics, viruses, plagues, and disease: Comparative frequency analysis of a cultural pathology reflected in science fiction magazines from 1926 to 2015

Science fiction includes many dystopian narratives, often featuring epidemics, pandemics, plagues, viruses, and disease. As science fiction has grown in popularity and prevalence it appeals to an increasingly broad demographic, is employed in research communication and education, and as a genre it is frequently argued that it reflects contemporary cultural interests and concerns. To identify the relevance of science fiction as an indicator of popular trends relating to the pathologies of disease, a word frequency comparison of selected key words found in the Google Books 2012 English Corpus has been made to a representative corpus of science fiction magazines dating between 1926 and 2015. Selected issues were reviewed to identify concepts, situations, and outcomes that could readily be measured against real-world examples from current and recent pandemics. The findings indicate that science fiction does appear to mirror and magnify contemporary literary trends, and provides potentially revealing correlations to real-world historical events. In this regard, science fiction might be regarded as a form of ‘cultural pathology’ of popular interests related to the spread and impact of disease that may be valuable in gauging the degree to which society is engaged with these topics at any specific time.