Guest Post: Science Fiction is Ridiculous by David Goodberg
Originally published at Grasping for the Wind. Please leave any comments there.
Orson Scott card said the difference between science fiction and fantasy is that fantasy is not real while science fiction can be real. Therefore, he would categorize dragons, ghosts, elves, witches, and carefully drawn out invented societies on distant planets as fantasy, and space exploration and super computers as science fiction.
While this is a solid definition, it is bland and needs to go further. Scott has also said that time travel is fantasy because it can’t happen. While it does happen (only in mere seconds as proven by over 30 GPS satellites orbiting Earth needing to be re-calculated every day because they become off-sync with Earth’s clock), we simply don’t know if it can or can’t to the next degree because we aren’t there yet. And who’s to judge this as a definition? Does it matter?
Science Fiction is not the use of future technology as it is so commonly defined. This can prove as boring. If you were told the film My Dinner With Andre actually took place on a distant planet and all characters were robots, would that make it science fiction? No, it would still be a boring drama. (Boring to be interpreted at will). The mere fact that a story takes place in a space ship or a time in the future doesn’t make it science fiction, it just makes it a comedy or drama set in the future or in the environment of better gizmos. Science Fiction is a statement. It’s a satire. It needs to be ridiculous.
The beauty of science fiction is that it can take something mundane and boring and turn it into something wonderful. It takes ordinary events and themes and places them into extreme environments to enable an outside perspective and thus, create an entertaining commentary and new twist on the familiar. And the more extreme the better. Without the ridiculous, you just have science drama and not science fiction.
David Goodberg has a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Master of Science in Education from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Through his work as a painter, photographer, filmmaker and writer, Goodberg uses the theories and possibilities of time travel to delve into our most basic daily routines. Born and raised in the Midwest, he resides in Los Angeles, California, where he continues to write and develop film and book projects. Visit him online at www.selectedshortsthebook.com, and enjoy the special animated short below.
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