Science Fiction Should Be Abolished
Mark Wallace wants to destroy science fiction so it can take its rightful place in the world of literature. Do you agree?
14 Jul 2011, 12:00
Does science fiction have a utopian future?
I say this as a fan, rather than an enemy. Science fiction as a genre should be abolished – so it can take its rightful place in the genre where it belongs: literature.
What good does it do to have a separate subset of literature called Science Fiction? To find it, you have to embark on a five-day hike to the dingy back corner of the basement of any given bookshop, nestled in between the manga cartoons and the alternative remedy guides and inevitably featuring someone with a long ponytail and an even longer leather trenchcoat.
For many potential readers, just the words “Science Fiction” conjure up images of overweight geeks dressed as Klingons on a wet Sunday in Watford and ill-fated attempts to make cat-people sexy (I’m looking at you, Avatar).
And of course both of these stereotypes are true, to an extent – but they are far from universally accurate. For every schlock penny dreadful there is a sensitive, emotive masterpiece exploring issues as deep and moving as any “normal” work of fiction. But due to this artificial genre divide they are sidelined.
As a result, some of the finest works in the English language have been parked in relative obscurity, neglected and even sneered at by mainstream readers and critics. An equivalent cultural crime would be sidelining the works of Jane Austen because some chick lit is absolute dross.
The problem is severe and embedded; Iain Banks, award-winning author of The Wasp Factory and one of The Times’ Top 50 post-war authors, had to write his science fiction novels as Iain M. Banks in order to avoid the perceived risk that his mainstream works would be tainted by association.
If unlike me you haven’t taken the plunge and sidled up to the sci-fi shelves you may still be unconvinced. Let me convince and convert you – read the following five novels, and then tell me that Science Fiction should not be reunited, East Germany-like, with literature.
The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks: An exploration of war and cultural divides, written in 1984, reflects the tensions and confusions of the Cold War. But in space.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick: Better known from its Harrison Ford film adaptation as Blade Runner, Androids is a study in personal identity. What does our humanity mean, and what is self-awareness? But with robots.
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller: Written in the 1950s, under the newly cast shadow of the atomic bomb, A Canticle for Leibowitz follows the conflict between scientific development and Catholic faith in the Dark Ages, the Renaissance and the modern age. But after a nuclear apocalypse.
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick: Dick continues the theme of playing with perception (as seen in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) by questioning the distinction between truth and falsehood. Why are antiques worth more than fakes if the fakes work better? Is American culture, built of mixed components from its immigrant communities, a real culture, and does it matter? But in an alternate reality where the Axis won World War II.
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman: Written on Haldeman’s return from fighting in Vietnam, The Forever War is one of the greatest accounts of the trauma suffered by war-weary veterans returning to an unappreciative and fundamentally changed homeland. But set in an interstellar war of the future.
Those “buts” shouldn’t matter – if someone can write a great novel set in the 19th century which is appreciated for its art and intelligence, why can’t someone write an equally great novel that is set in the 29th century? Science Fiction is literature – and for the good of readers and writers, the idea that it is a distinct genre should be abolished.
Comments (4)
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There is still a big difference.
In a modern-day or an historical novel, the environment does not have to be explained - it is the unobtrusive canvas on which the story is painted.
In a future, or fantasy, novel - the fact that Zorbo can grow a third nozzle becomes part of the story - the background becomes the foreground.
Of course, this allows sci-fi and fantasy to hide the "real" interactions in the background. You might read Thomas Covenant, and think it is all about magic, whereas it is really about pain, rape, and self-hatred. The real story is cleverly masked by the environment.
14/07/2011 13:41I'd also add Iain M. Banks' "Against a Dark Background" and Arthur C Clarke's "Rendezvous with Rama" to the must read list.
15/07/2011 09:17Thanks for the reccomendations, I particularly enjoyed Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks, and The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham, short but very enjoyable.
16/07/2011 19:05Fair points - the best of any genre is worth a read, but the odd thing about science fiction is that some of the best examples sneak into the fiction section in disguise. Ask the average reader if they enjoy sci-fi and the odds are they will say "no". Ask them if they read and enjoyed Kazuo Ishiguro's bestselling Never Let Me Go - which in my book is definitely science fiction, examining the moral consequences of human cloning - and you might get a different answer.
Having said all that, I imagine book shops simply group the genre together because there *is* a kind of person who will seek the section out and part with money for them, hence why the 'sci-fi' section is invariably also full of Terry Pratchett and epic fantasy. If it would sell more books in a high street store the genre would have been disbanded years ago.
19/07/2011 11:17