The definition of “science fiction” has been the subject of much of the scholarship about science fiction, as I discovered two years ago in Cox’s speculative fiction section of the Honors English seminar. At the beginning of the course, Professor Cox told us that throughout the semester, the texts we would read, both fictional and academic, would not make that definition any easier to understand, but would instead continually complicate our definition of science fiction. In our Social/Science/Fiction class, we have started out with definitions already complex, based not necessarily in content and context, but in what science fiction does and how it makes us think. From my perspective, this type of definition is a good way to start the class. Even if we don’t have any sort of firm boundaries as to what science fiction is and is not (pretty much impossible anyway), our discussion allows us to understand what we mean, at least in class, when we discuss science fiction.
For myself, much of what we discussed are not things I generally think about when reading or viewing a work of science fiction, but that does not mean that they are not working below the surface. I don’t read books and watch movies to come to a greater understanding of society’s problems or to glean warnings about the future-should-we-continue-on-our-current-path. I read and watch because I enjoy stories that take me out of the world I know, which is why I also enjoy fantasy. However, despite me not looking specifically to find the applications to today’s societies, they cannot fail to enter my consciousness. One thing I do read for is to examine relationships, which we discussed as being a part of science fiction. I think one thing I particularly enjoy in SFF is seeing which types of relationships remain the same from our society to the fictional society, how authors chose to change or leave unchanging concepts like friendship, love and the motives that guide people’s actions toward each other. In this, I think our class will not disappoint. In looking at the crossovers between social science and science fiction, we will certainly examine the specific interactions between characters and what they mean in order to better understand what different works have to say about society.
1 comment:
A lot of sci-fi works present idealized visions of alien-human relationships, where alien physiology is basically a bumpier model that usually comes in fluorescent, and they are therefore able to live among humans interchangeably. It's easy to appreciate these presentations as analogs of what we experience in our daily lives. But what about an alien that is so different as to be completely incompatible with us? Do you still draw a lesson from those aliens, are do they serve only as cannon fodder for our willing space marines? Or does disinterest in larger issues extend to disinterest in all things so utterly non-human?
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