Why do we write? Well, that's a highly personal question for
which each person needs to look inside him or herself to find
the answer, but I would guess that, in many cases, it is a way
to set aside "everyday" life for a while and retreat into a
setting of your own creation. After all, when you're writing a
story, you don't describe all the routine things people do
everyday, because the reader doesn't need or want to hear about
all that, as it is a regular part of life. Characters in stories
have to use the restroom just like normal people, but how often
have you read about them doing it? As a writer, you don't relate
every moment in the day; only aspects of your characters' lives
that are interesting and pertinent to the story.
As another example, television shows often dramatize certain
professions. One example I can think of is the now-cancelled
"Boston Public." Winslow High School had an awful lot of
problems - several every week, in fact. Anybody who watched and
interpreted this show as a documentary of the American school
system missed the point and should have gotten their information
elsewhere. We didn't spend an hour watching teachers grade
papers or give lectures, because who would be interested in
that?
But, returning to the matter at hand, we want to forget about
our "normal" lives for a while and create our own tale, and this
is especially true of the fantasy genre. You don't have to be
writing about Hobbits and hobgoblins or dungeons and dragons for
your work to be considered fantasy. If your story takes place in
a fictional world, then that is obviously fantasy, but if you
are writing about our otherwise "real" world, then anything that
is outside of our typical understanding of the way things are -
or, in the past, were - supposed to be can be considered
fantasy.
As a starting point in discussing science fiction, I think it
might be beneficial to begin with a dictionary definition.
According to Dictionary.Com, science fiction is "a literary or
cinematic genre in which fantasy, typically based on speculative
scientific discoveries or developments, environmental changes,
space travel, or life on other planets, forms part of the plot
or background," which means that science fiction is a sub-genre
of fantasy. It is merely a type of fantasy that has become very
popular, and therefore deserves its own designation. Stories
with magic and mysticism in the past or present are what I will
henceforth refer to as "fantasy" stories, even though, as I have
said, that label encapsulates much more.
The idea of the "good old days" doesn't just exist in the minds
of groups of elderly men sitting around tables in small town
cafés, reminiscing about the way things used to be; that
sentiment is present in people of nearly all ages. We long to
return to the days of our youth, to a simpler time, to an age of
innocence when we thought anything was possible. We want to
think that there's something more magical to life.
Of course, when looking back on the past, we tend to focus on
the good over the bad. We have a romantic view of medieval
Europe, full of its knights, wizards, and princesses, so we
often overlook the numerous hardships that accompanied living in
those times. A fantasy story can provide all the escape that we
yearn for while still keeping us safe from marauding Mongolian
hordes and the Bubonic Plague.
Since science fiction stories involve elements such as
"speculative scientific discoveries or developments,
environmental changes, space travel, or life on other planets,"
it is almost certain that they would take place in the present
or future, so one can easily understand why science fiction is a
popular alternative to typical fantasy. Even though science
fiction, like fantasy, brings us out of our usual world, science
fiction will often not be far from reality, especially in the
case of "hard" science fiction. If the story involves some kind
of discovery or change, then the plot would probably be centered
on the ramifications involved with it. As we know, some
scientific discoveries can pose ethical and moral dilemmas -
cloning is a classic example. In some science fiction stories,
like 1984, we view a dystopian civilization, and by
seeing how such a society developed, we can hopefully learn how
to keep the fiction from ever crossing over to fact. Other
science fiction stories, meanwhile, paint a portrait of a
utopian society, and we could possibly learn from their
examples. It should be noted, however, that the words "utopia"
and "dystopia" are highly subjective. One person's dream could
be another person's nightmare. In any case, science fiction may
be fantasy, but it is often anything but irrelevant to our
current lives, for it shows how the decisions we make now could
affect our future.
This isn't to say that fantasy is more trivial than science
fiction, though. Some tales use fantasy as an allegorical tool
to comment on issues that strike very close to home.
Gulliver's Travels is a prime example. Gulliver is
traveling to exotic lands and having adventures, but at the same
time, Jonathan Swift is delivering a scathing commentary on
human society. In the first quarter of the story, Gulliver finds
himself in the land of Lilliput, which is at war with Blefuscu
over the correct way to eat a boiled egg. This war between
islands of six-inch-tall people is a satire of small, petty,
trivial European rivalries, such as that between Britain and
France. In the second quarter, he is in Brobdingnag, a land
where giants reduce European society and its accomplishments to
the point of insignificance. In the third quarter, he winds up
on the flying island of Laputa, as well as several other places,
and this part of the story satirizes academia and science.
Finally, Swift ridicules the entire human race in the fourth
quarter, which takes us to the land of the Houyhnhnms, a race of
intelligent, noble, and peaceful equine (horse-like) creatures
who rule over the uncivilized "Yahoos," who are essentially no
different than humans. By writing this satire in the guise of a
fantasy story, Swift was able to attack society without directly
stating his views. Besides, as one may hear in the writing
world, it's often better to show than just tell.
So far, I have discussed fantasy and science fiction separately,
but they are not mutually exclusive. In Star Wars, for
example, we see light sabers. They are the stuff of science
fiction but are also clearly reminiscent of the metal swords of
ancient and medieval times. If you're thinking in practical
terms, light sabers would be no match for guns - which is why
you don't see people fighting with swords today - but that would
be missing their intention. Light sabers remind us of the days
of more "honorable" and traditional warfare, before the time of
long-range nuclear missiles and machine guns, when opponents
would duel each other face to face and the outcome of the battle
would come down to pure individual skill. Combining elements
from both fantasy and science fiction demonstrates our desire to
move into the future while still holding onto the past.
In my preceding discussion of science fiction and fantasy, I
made many broad generalizations, but the thing that makes
"speculative fiction" so great is that there are so many
different ideas and such a vast assortment of stories that it's
utterly impossible to fully analyze these genres as a whole.
Anything your imagination can dream of is valid. Just about the
only things that need to be believable are the characters. With
fantasy, the sky is the limit, and with science fiction, the
Universe is the limit. I guess that means science fiction has no
limit, then.
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