I have taken an honors English class before with a focus on sci-fi and there we discussed to great extent what sci-fi is or what it isn’t and got to read a variety of scholarly essays on the matter. The thing that I carried away from that and what was reaffirmed today in class is that good sci-fi (not the trash that any literary genre has) is not just some exciting story or shallow but in fact often explores many intricate and important social issues. And as we discussed it does so in a unique way by allowing the reader to look at an issue from more of a distance and an outsider point of view. What I find odd is that there are many sci-fi books and movies that I have walked away from and was like WOW we have the same stuff going on in our world and I wish we could handle that issue the way they did in the book, or I hope we don’t end up like race in that book, or other things of that nature. Basically I believe you can learn a lot from quality fiction books, and sci-fi is no exception but a large number of people think that sci-fi is just about cool futuristic guns and killing aliens that often look bug like or other ridiculous clichés.
So I guess the main point I would like to hear your input about besides the stuff I just said is that after the discussion a thought that stayed with me is how people seem to have issues with listening to or understanding some truths if they are presented to them in their true form, but if they are disguised as fiction well then it is more bearable and they may even pay attention. There was another time in my life where that same thought crossed my mind and that was at a book reading by Chuck Palahniuk (author of Fight Club for those of you that don’t know) I have read a number of his novels and they tend to have very weird and ridiculous stories and plot lines (not sci-fi although he does have a chapter in one book that is very sci-fi). But at the reading when asked where he comes up with his crazy ideas he said: well when I start to write a story I tell everyone I know what the subject matter is and ask them to bring me stories they have about it or have heard about it. And then the stuff people tell me and stuff I have experienced or heard I often incorporate into my books, so many things that you see in my books that have been labeled fiction actually have a lot of truth to them, but in today’s world people don’t believe truth so you have to disguise it as fiction. He also gave an example, if you are curious I can post it as well.
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2 comments:
It does seem odd that people can't handle truths, to quote A Few Good Men, if they are simple presented as such. Good fiction that disguises these truths can lull someone into a state of belief it seems. Maybe it's a matter of pride, and if it's fictionalized then someone can sort of write it off which can't be done with simple presentation. It seems more clever if it's fictionalized as well. I'm not sure if I have a reason why fiction works better, but it just does. Sorry if this didn't help...at all.
~ Jen
>>large number of people think that sci-fi is just about cool futuristic guns and killing aliens that often look bug like or other ridiculous clichés.<<
I liked what you were saying here Lena, but I might want to disagree slightly. I feel as though the specific attributes you listed have two sides - they can make a crappy science fiction happen, by having mindless violence. Thats unfortunate, but it happens.
The other option, however, is that the humans killing the bugs (lets take Starship Troopers for example) has a deeper implication: that beings of different races can sometimes kill each other without trying to understand each other (put more clearly, the ethnic wars and genocides on this Earth function in a similar way). The cool futuristic guns &c. ARE cool looking, and that means they served their function - they are helping take the audience away from the very real issue of racial tensions and violence into another world, with lasers and spaceships and so forth, in order to remove the viewers from any inclination they might have to connect what they're seeing in the real world.
I hope that proves useful in some manner.
-Mike
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