A Defense of Fiction
I have had an epiphany that I'm sure others have already had. But I would like to share this one with you, anyway.
The question of "What use does literature serve?" isn't a new one. Back in 1579, Sir Philip Sidney wrote "In Defense of Poesy", an argument for the virtue of fictional literature. Because pre-dating that time, it was seen simply as fluffy entertainment, of no real value in and of itself.
My, how things have changed.
Still, if you're not working on "high" art, you sometimes find yourself having to justify the relevancy of what you're working on. Sometimes, "entertaining" simply isn't enough. I remember going rounds in high school with a friend of mine over this, especially since I was working in a fantasy novel at the time, and he was challenging me as to why he should take it seriously.
I don't know if I ever really produced an answer that satisfied him. Or that satisfied me, for that matter.
I saw a poster in high school that always resonated with me. It said, roughly paraphrased: "I read to see that I am not alone. And I write to show others that they are not alone." At the time, I was a properly angsty, emo teenager and I instantly realized why I had been drawn to so many of the books I had been reading, that as I read through them, the author shared something with me and, somehow, made me feel not alone.
As a writer, I feel I have acquitted myself well on that score, at least concerning 1001Insomniac Nights . (Which if you're not reading it, you SHOULD.) And when I write fantasy, I hope that I am giving my readers a reflection of the world, that I am giving them something to think about. I don't know if I succeed, although simply telling a good yarn is usually satisfactory.
My epiphany, however, concerns science-fiction.
Now, this is one genre that, since high-school and reading Fahrenheit 451, I realized would never need to justify itself. Science-fiction is modern prophecy, a warning. "If you continue on this path, this is where you will end up." The whole cyberpunk sub-genre is a critique of 80's culture. Go back and read Brave New World and see if you don't feel a shiver go down your spine when you realize just how close we are to becoming that hedonistic, self-centered, amoral world.
But even on top of that, there is the inspirational factor, and that was my epiphany. Science-fiction points to the sky and asks you, "Why not?" It paints a future of interstellar travel and other life and challenges you, challenges the whole human race, to make that future a reality. And really, that's all the justification it needs. If Star Trek pseudo-science makes a child interested in interplanetary travel, if that child is then drawn to sciences in school, and if that child then grows up and figures out how to construct a nuclear-fusion based engine that gets us to near light-speed and a probe to Alpha Centauri in six-years, hasn't it justified itself? And with the Constellation program now cut, this inspiration just became even more important.
Of course, can't this inspiration be found in all genres? That's the crux of Sidney's argument - that fiction can inspire a person to virtue. Human advancement and development has always been pushed by inspiration. And if a fantasy can inspire a person to seek to make the world a better place, this isn't that justification enough?
Cross-posted (as always) to 1001 Insomniac Nights.
The question of "What use does literature serve?" isn't a new one. Back in 1579, Sir Philip Sidney wrote "In Defense of Poesy", an argument for the virtue of fictional literature. Because pre-dating that time, it was seen simply as fluffy entertainment, of no real value in and of itself.
My, how things have changed.
Still, if you're not working on "high" art, you sometimes find yourself having to justify the relevancy of what you're working on. Sometimes, "entertaining" simply isn't enough. I remember going rounds in high school with a friend of mine over this, especially since I was working in a fantasy novel at the time, and he was challenging me as to why he should take it seriously.
I don't know if I ever really produced an answer that satisfied him. Or that satisfied me, for that matter.
I saw a poster in high school that always resonated with me. It said, roughly paraphrased: "I read to see that I am not alone. And I write to show others that they are not alone." At the time, I was a properly angsty, emo teenager and I instantly realized why I had been drawn to so many of the books I had been reading, that as I read through them, the author shared something with me and, somehow, made me feel not alone.
As a writer, I feel I have acquitted myself well on that score, at least concerning 1001Insomniac Nights . (Which if you're not reading it, you SHOULD.) And when I write fantasy, I hope that I am giving my readers a reflection of the world, that I am giving them something to think about. I don't know if I succeed, although simply telling a good yarn is usually satisfactory.
My epiphany, however, concerns science-fiction.
Now, this is one genre that, since high-school and reading Fahrenheit 451, I realized would never need to justify itself. Science-fiction is modern prophecy, a warning. "If you continue on this path, this is where you will end up." The whole cyberpunk sub-genre is a critique of 80's culture. Go back and read Brave New World and see if you don't feel a shiver go down your spine when you realize just how close we are to becoming that hedonistic, self-centered, amoral world.
But even on top of that, there is the inspirational factor, and that was my epiphany. Science-fiction points to the sky and asks you, "Why not?" It paints a future of interstellar travel and other life and challenges you, challenges the whole human race, to make that future a reality. And really, that's all the justification it needs. If Star Trek pseudo-science makes a child interested in interplanetary travel, if that child is then drawn to sciences in school, and if that child then grows up and figures out how to construct a nuclear-fusion based engine that gets us to near light-speed and a probe to Alpha Centauri in six-years, hasn't it justified itself? And with the Constellation program now cut, this inspiration just became even more important.
Of course, can't this inspiration be found in all genres? That's the crux of Sidney's argument - that fiction can inspire a person to virtue. Human advancement and development has always been pushed by inspiration. And if a fantasy can inspire a person to seek to make the world a better place, this isn't that justification enough?
Cross-posted (as always) to 1001 Insomniac Nights.