Rant: Science Fiction as a Genre
I'm probably going to regret posting this, but in my defense, I typed this up while at work when I was rather bored, and after I finished reading Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. The guy has the best name ever, by the way. :)
Cut, because if you know me, you know I like to ramble. :) And for those of you who DON'T read SF, trust me when I say this essay might hold some interest for you as well, cause I talk about the mainstream and literary genres. :)
The other day, while reading one of my Asimov’s issues, I came across a story that struck me in a peculiar way. This story, like other books and tales I’ve read, was science fiction, but I was hard-pressed to label it as science fiction. And I started asking myself why. If something is clearly science fiction in concept, then why does my brain have a hard time accepting it as such?
I realized that the technology and/or concepts in this piece weren’t that far off from where we are today, and that the focus of these stories weren’t so much the said concepts or technologies, but rather how humanity interacts in a world with said things in them.
Clear as mud? My conclusion, in a nutshell, was this: this story/book/tale/whatever is written as though someone from that very moment and time were writing it as a tale of mainstream fiction, or better, as a piece of non-fiction.
Still confused?
Let’s put it this way: take any mainstream or literary tale. Say a character uses an iPod. Something many people use and take for granted today, but that is a prominent part of our lifestyles. Now say that piece of fiction where a character uses a iPod, was actually published fifteen years ago. Twenty years ago. It wouldn’t be science fiction because the focus isn’t on the technology, and likely, it was a believable progression of where technology was heading. But would the literary readers of the time recognize this? No, they’d see that little detail of an iPod and think, “Well, that’s just not realistic,” while genre readers would smile knowingly and nod, and then ask for some real SF plot.
This is not a debate about literary readers versus science fiction readers. Nor is it a debate about which is better. Rather, it’s an observation about the state of fiction and writing: once upon a time ago, the future felt distant, unattainable except through the grand tales of science fiction writers. And while we still have (and need) such tales in today’s society, face the facts: the future is here. The future is immediate. In a world of wireless communication, of iPods, of cloning and stem-cell research, how can any person, science fiction reader or not, look at such advances or similar advances as something impossible?
What am I saying? Mainstream writers, literary writers, have a rich playing field. Because this future is so immediate, it’s easier to jump to conclusions, to write tales in their own voices using concepts that SF writers have been mining for years. If a literary book is about the cure for cancer, does that make it science fiction? Unless aliens come out of the sky and give us the cure (or some other unlikely scenario), most likely not. It’s speculative. More important, it’s fiction. It’s fiction because the possibility is at hand.
These days, technology is a result of science. Medicine is a result of science. So much of our daily lives are a result of science. Like I said before, the future is here and not far off.
Forgive this post, because it’s all over the place and my thoughts are trying to reach the same conclusion from a bunch of different sources. It boils down, in some ways, to the fact that it’s getting more and more passé and naïve to say “I don’t like science fiction.” Because science fiction is more than Star Wars and Star Trek. It’s more than space battles and aliens, more than time travel and parallel dimensions, more than clone armies and robots.
It’s 1984. Brave New World. A Hand Maid’s Tale. It’s about humanity and how we live in the face of current scientific, technological, social, and political movements.
It’s Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go. You won’t find that, or many other science-fictional books of this sort, on the SF shelves, not by a long shot.
And it’s not a bad thing. Like I keep saying, the future is here, it’s accessible, it’s worth exploring in the current face of humanity. Any time you read a book or a story with a piece of technology or a medical breakthrough or genetic revolution that feels foreign to your current world but yet also eerily possible, it’s not just science fiction: it’s fiction of the future. It’s the biographies people who live in that world might tell. And that, when you think about it, is wonderful and chilling.
I’m not trying to make a blanket statement about what science fiction should be, or what it’s becoming. There will always be spaceships and battles among the stars, but the battles here at home, between ourselves and the increasingly changing face of science, those are immediate stories that demand attention. Because it may very well be our future, and I don’t say this with an ominous ring to my voice or with the presumption that SF should tell the future. It shouldn’t. But anyone paying any attention to any aspect of this world shouldn’t have a hard time extrapolating. Not at all.
No matter what kind of fiction you prefer to write and read, there’s room for everyone. And as much as I understand genre lines (from both sides of the fence), I also realize that when it comes to science and technology, it’s becoming more and more pointless to divide the science from the fiction. Because we live in an age of technology, and it’s easy to see a time where the stereotypical science fiction that people love to hate (I’m looking at you, booksnob) will considered pure fantasy, where as science fiction that’s closer to home won’t be considered science fiction at all. Just fiction, where people won’t think twice about where the story belongs. Rather, what’ll be important is what the story is and what it means to us as the human race.
And it’s not to say there won’t be a time in the future where human-like robots are the norm, or where clones are a part of everyday life, or where having lunch with an alien on some kind of satellite won’t be considered fantasy. But I want to say there’s a huge difference in what science fiction is and what it’s perceived to be. In truth, there’s something for everyone, and I grow tired of people trying to pigeon hole the genre to fit their own needs.
I'm so going to get into trouble for this, won't I? :)
Cut, because if you know me, you know I like to ramble. :) And for those of you who DON'T read SF, trust me when I say this essay might hold some interest for you as well, cause I talk about the mainstream and literary genres. :)
The other day, while reading one of my Asimov’s issues, I came across a story that struck me in a peculiar way. This story, like other books and tales I’ve read, was science fiction, but I was hard-pressed to label it as science fiction. And I started asking myself why. If something is clearly science fiction in concept, then why does my brain have a hard time accepting it as such?
I realized that the technology and/or concepts in this piece weren’t that far off from where we are today, and that the focus of these stories weren’t so much the said concepts or technologies, but rather how humanity interacts in a world with said things in them.
Clear as mud? My conclusion, in a nutshell, was this: this story/book/tale/whatever is written as though someone from that very moment and time were writing it as a tale of mainstream fiction, or better, as a piece of non-fiction.
Still confused?
Let’s put it this way: take any mainstream or literary tale. Say a character uses an iPod. Something many people use and take for granted today, but that is a prominent part of our lifestyles. Now say that piece of fiction where a character uses a iPod, was actually published fifteen years ago. Twenty years ago. It wouldn’t be science fiction because the focus isn’t on the technology, and likely, it was a believable progression of where technology was heading. But would the literary readers of the time recognize this? No, they’d see that little detail of an iPod and think, “Well, that’s just not realistic,” while genre readers would smile knowingly and nod, and then ask for some real SF plot.
This is not a debate about literary readers versus science fiction readers. Nor is it a debate about which is better. Rather, it’s an observation about the state of fiction and writing: once upon a time ago, the future felt distant, unattainable except through the grand tales of science fiction writers. And while we still have (and need) such tales in today’s society, face the facts: the future is here. The future is immediate. In a world of wireless communication, of iPods, of cloning and stem-cell research, how can any person, science fiction reader or not, look at such advances or similar advances as something impossible?
What am I saying? Mainstream writers, literary writers, have a rich playing field. Because this future is so immediate, it’s easier to jump to conclusions, to write tales in their own voices using concepts that SF writers have been mining for years. If a literary book is about the cure for cancer, does that make it science fiction? Unless aliens come out of the sky and give us the cure (or some other unlikely scenario), most likely not. It’s speculative. More important, it’s fiction. It’s fiction because the possibility is at hand.
These days, technology is a result of science. Medicine is a result of science. So much of our daily lives are a result of science. Like I said before, the future is here and not far off.
Forgive this post, because it’s all over the place and my thoughts are trying to reach the same conclusion from a bunch of different sources. It boils down, in some ways, to the fact that it’s getting more and more passé and naïve to say “I don’t like science fiction.” Because science fiction is more than Star Wars and Star Trek. It’s more than space battles and aliens, more than time travel and parallel dimensions, more than clone armies and robots.
It’s 1984. Brave New World. A Hand Maid’s Tale. It’s about humanity and how we live in the face of current scientific, technological, social, and political movements.
It’s Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go. You won’t find that, or many other science-fictional books of this sort, on the SF shelves, not by a long shot.
And it’s not a bad thing. Like I keep saying, the future is here, it’s accessible, it’s worth exploring in the current face of humanity. Any time you read a book or a story with a piece of technology or a medical breakthrough or genetic revolution that feels foreign to your current world but yet also eerily possible, it’s not just science fiction: it’s fiction of the future. It’s the biographies people who live in that world might tell. And that, when you think about it, is wonderful and chilling.
I’m not trying to make a blanket statement about what science fiction should be, or what it’s becoming. There will always be spaceships and battles among the stars, but the battles here at home, between ourselves and the increasingly changing face of science, those are immediate stories that demand attention. Because it may very well be our future, and I don’t say this with an ominous ring to my voice or with the presumption that SF should tell the future. It shouldn’t. But anyone paying any attention to any aspect of this world shouldn’t have a hard time extrapolating. Not at all.
No matter what kind of fiction you prefer to write and read, there’s room for everyone. And as much as I understand genre lines (from both sides of the fence), I also realize that when it comes to science and technology, it’s becoming more and more pointless to divide the science from the fiction. Because we live in an age of technology, and it’s easy to see a time where the stereotypical science fiction that people love to hate (I’m looking at you, booksnob) will considered pure fantasy, where as science fiction that’s closer to home won’t be considered science fiction at all. Just fiction, where people won’t think twice about where the story belongs. Rather, what’ll be important is what the story is and what it means to us as the human race.
And it’s not to say there won’t be a time in the future where human-like robots are the norm, or where clones are a part of everyday life, or where having lunch with an alien on some kind of satellite won’t be considered fantasy. But I want to say there’s a huge difference in what science fiction is and what it’s perceived to be. In truth, there’s something for everyone, and I grow tired of people trying to pigeon hole the genre to fit their own needs.
I'm so going to get into trouble for this, won't I? :)