Novum
September 27, 2008
One common understanding of what makes a story “science fiction” is it involves the intrusion of some new invention, discovery or alien being into a world not unlike our own. How this intrusion modifies the “real world” forms the thrust of the story. After all, what is Martians existed? Of course, they’d leave their dying world and invade ours. Or what if we could travel faster than the speed of light? Of course, we’d travel to strange new worlds.
The invention, discovery or alien being that intrudes upon our world sometimes is referred to as a “novum”, which literally means “new thing”. SF author Brian Stableford coined the term.
The idea of a novum being key to science fiction existed long before Stableford established the term, however. In 1972, Darko Suvin after examining several decades of science fiction defined it as "a literary genre whose necessary and sufficient conditions are the presence and interaction of estrangement and cognition, and whose main formal device is an imaginative framework alternative to the author's empirical environment.” If the “author’s empirical environment” is literally the “real world”, then the introduction of something new is needed to create an alternative “imaginative framework.”
A novum alone doesn’t mean we have a science fictions story, however. After all, magic doesn’t exist in the real world, but infusing it in a story doesn’t mean we have a science fiction tale. Instead, the novum must be a possible extrapolation of today’s science. Quantum computers, for example, don’t exist but are possible given our current understanding of science. With a few advances and discoveries, quantum computing could be a very real part of our near future. Exploring how the introduction of the quantum computer alters the world gives us a science fiction story.
Visit my Web site about writing science fiction, Inventing Reality.
(c) 2008 Rob Bignell
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genre, novum, science fiction, setting
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Great science fiction authors
August 13, 2008
Famous science fiction television programs
August 9, 2008
Great science fiction movies
August 8, 2008
Looking for a good science fiction movie to watch? Try a classic from this list.
Visit my Web site about writing science fiction, Inventing Reality.
(c) 2008 Rob Bignell
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movies, science fiction
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Famous science fiction novels
August 7, 2008
Looking for a good science fiction novel to read? Try one of these classics.
Visit my Web site about writing science fiction, Inventing Reality.
(c) 2008 Rob Bignell
Tags:
novellas, novels, science fiction
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Answering criticisms of science fiction
July 13, 2008
You’ve heard it all before: You’re at a party or sitting with colleagues at others during lunch, and someone smirks when they discover you like to read and write science fiction.
Someone then dismisses science fiction as “unreal”. Another nods and adds “science fiction writers just make up a bunch of weird stuff”, that they “deal with stuff that doesn’t have anything to do with real life”. Someone else chimes in it’s because science fiction writers “can’t think of any stories to tell about real people”. Suddenly we feel like we’re the embarrassing uncle everyone avoids at family gatherings.
And if you’re not too thin skinned, you begin to wonder if science fiction should be taken seriously.
Yes, it should be taken seriously. If anything, we ought to pity those who just put down the genre.
They’re missing out on some great thought-provoking literature that often provides a good action-filled ride.
Granted, science fiction isn’t for everyone – and that’s okay. I’m no fan of the mystery genre, but I respect its authors for mastering the genre’s conventions and good storytelling techniques in general. And I certainly don’t look upon the lover of mysteries as a freak or put down the genre.
Science fiction probably will be met with a raised eyebrow for a long time to come. It’s a genre out at the edge of what is known, often exploring worlds that don’t yet exist, so on the surface it appears weird. In many cases, people just aren’t familiar with the genre and what it offers.
So here are some quick responses you can make to those at the party or lunch who’ve put down the genre you love to read and writer:
n Criticism: Science fiction is “unreal” - Response: As biologist and feminist scholar Donna Haraway says, “The boundary between science fiction and social reality is an optical illusion.” Science fiction largely is just an analogy for the philosophical and ethical issues we face as a society.
n Criticism: “Science fiction writers just make up a bunch of weird stuff” - Response: No one can make anything that isn’t as weird as real life. The exotic – dark matter, black holes and the quantum level of existence - appears to be the rule of the cosmos. And honestly, what could be more weird and absurd than modern civilization?
n Criticism: Science fiction writers “can’t think of any stories to tell about real people” - Response: Really? It is natural for people to speculate about the future of humanity and human culture; it is a real, natural manifestation of our intellect, of our curiosity, of our effort to improve our lives. As author James Gunn writes, “Mainstream fiction may seem more ‘real’ because it reflects the reality that most people deal with in their everyday existence: the social world and our interactions with it and our feelings about it. But is the evolution of humanity [one topic of concern for SF] less real because it is quotidian?”
Of course, once people know you’re a science fiction writer, many will tell you that you should be writing something else: something that will earn money, something that will earn you fame, something that will earn you “respect”.
Ignore them. Write what you love. You love science fiction. Write science fiction.
You Do It
Here’s a writing exercise to help you get started. Choose one of the following common proverbs, adages, or familiar phrases:
n “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
n “Saved by the bell.”
n “Bury the hatchet.”
n “He who pays the piper calls...
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getting started, science fiction, writing
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Science fiction vs. fantasy vs. horror
June 10, 2008
Go to the science fiction section of your local bookstore or tune into SciFi on cable and you’re likely to find novels and movies that aren’t exactly science fiction. Or at least it’s not what you think of as science fiction, though it’s quite similar.
That’s because some of the selections fit into the fantasy or horror genres. Because many science fiction readers enjoy these similar and related genres, they’re often grouped together for convenience and marketing purposes.
But you want to be a hard core science fiction writer. So how do you know when you’ve crossed the gray line into the fantasy or horror genres?
Science fiction novelist Orson Card Scott offers a good explanation: He suggests that if the story is set in a universe with the same rules as ours, it’s science fiction; if it doesn’t follow our rules, it’s not. “Fantasy is about what couldn’t be,” he writes.
Certainly the genre’s milieus are different. A milieu is the story’s “environment,” the totality in which the story’s action unfolds. Science fiction’s milieu is based on science. Fantasy is based on magic while horror is based on the supernatural and paranormal.
Because of this, science fiction stories obey the natural laws of our universe (even if something is beyond our current technology). Fantasy, however, establishes a new set of natural laws - that is, the author creates a set of certain rules that the magic obeys. Horror, meanwhile, inserts a set of supernatural laws into our universe.
Given this, science fiction stories contain biologically possible creatures. Fantasy stories are populated with mythical creatures and horror tales feature monsters that terrorize us.
In addition, science fiction tends to be more technical than its sister genres. Fantasy in turn is more mythical and fairy tale while horror is more lurid, relying on gothic elements.
Of course, there’s a lot of crossover, one of the causes of confusion among the three genres. “Aliens” essentially is a horror story in a science fiction setting (a spaceship in Earth’s future). The “X-Files” TV show regularly switched between monster of the week (horror) and alien invasion episodes (science fiction). “Frankenstein” the novel is more science fiction than horror (though the genre hadn’t even been invented at the time) while the “Frankenstein” Hollywood movies are more horror than science fiction.
To some extent, the gothic novel is one of the parents of science fiction, a combination of horror and adventure stories - with the gothic element replaced by something more scientific in origin, such as a robot or extraterrestrial. Science fiction author Brian Aldiss argued in “Billion Year Spree” that his favored genre generally derived its conventions from the gothic novel.
You Do It Write a 100-word piece, set in a science fiction milieu, that involves contact with a biologically possible extraterrestrial. Now rewrite the piece using a monster (such as a blob or giant ants) in place of the extraterrestrial. Then write a third piece in which a mythical creature (such as a unicorn or dragon) replaces both the monster and extraterrestrial. Reread the pieces. How does the style of the each piece change as you utilize a new creature?
Visit my Web site about writing science fiction, Inventing Reality. (c) 2008 Rob Bignell
Tags:
fantasy, genre, horror, science fiction
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What is science fiction?
June 2, 2008
“By ‘scientification’ I mean the Jules Verne, H.G. Wells and Edgar Allen Poe type of story – a charming romance intermingled with scientific fact and prophetic vision.”
– Hugo Gernsback, “Amazing stories”, April 1926
Now that you've decided to write science fiction, you face a big question: How exactly do you know if you're writing science fiction? It's a diverse genre, so giving a definition that is all-encompassing is no easy task.
At its core, science fiction is a literature of “What if?” The writer imagines a setting - a possible future, an alternate history, an altered past - that is based on an extrapolation of science as we know it today. In doing so, science fiction evokes a sense of wonder among its readers or changes our views by showing us the universe in an unexpected way. It's where "science meets literature."
Consider "Star Trek: The Original Series". It poses questions such as, "What if space travel between the stars were possible?", "What if a man could be split into his 'good' and 'evil' halves?"; "What if an alternative universe existed in which the Roman Empire never fell?" In this sense, science fiction is thought model in which author and reader explores our world via "other worlds".
Sometimes the genre is referred to as “speculative fiction”, but this is more inclusive term that includes fantasy, science fiction’s older sister. In addition, among some of the genre’s devotees, “sci-fi”, “SF” and “science fiction” all have varying definitions, often disparaging of a certain type of story.
Click here for some famous quotations about what is science fiction.
Your Do It
Create a list of “what if” questions that could be the kernels of future stories. One way to do this is to randomly pick a fiction book then opening to any page into its middle, start reading just the first sentences at the top of each page. For example, in opening a collection of Frederic Brown’s short stories, I read the line “He found the Cole Observatory in a state resembling a madhouse.” Now begin thinking of this line as a “what if” question: What if something occurred that would send an observatory into a frenzy. What if the astronomers spotted an asteroid on collision course with Earth? What if they spotted an alien spacecraft orbiting Jupiter? What if they noticed a nearby star no longer was there?
Visit my Web site about writing science fiction, Inventing Reality.
(c) 2008 Rob Bignell
Tags:
science fiction, writing
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Why write science fiction?
May 25, 2008
With a million other things to do in the world – let alone dozens of other types of stories that you could pen – why write science fiction? There are plenty of reasons. Perhaps the most obvious of them is an enjoyment of writing:
n Joy of creating - Writing science fiction involves creating whole new worlds rather than using the often mundane one in which we live. Imagining our future, a distant exoworld or an alien civilization is a game far more sophisticated than golfing or solving crossword puzzles.
n Living your dreams and visions - If you're the imaginative type, writing can give tangibility to your far-out thoughts about living on a space colony or traveling back in time to the Age of the Dinosaurs.
n Joy of learning - Quality science fiction is based on science fact. So you've got to get those facts right, and that involves researching, exploring and self-education, all of which are enjoyable activities in themselves.
n Creative freedom - In science fiction, the boundaries are virtually nonexistent. You can write about any subject. The same can't be said for other genres.
n Escape burdens of life - The act of writing, particularly when it's science fiction for lovers of the genre, is like going to a place where you feel “safe.” Some people meditate, others take walks. Writers sit at a keyboard.
n Catharsis - As with painting or creating music, the art of writing allows people to express those ideas that have no other way of being expressed. With science fiction, those ideas often are at the very edge of what can be expressed.
n Companionship and kinship - Writing science fiction can open you to a whole community of writers, readers, editors and critics who share your passions and views. As Scifan editor Jim Harris wrote, “Reading science fiction for most of my life has been like being at a dinner party and always just listening to the other people talk. To write a science fiction story would be like formulating a reply to all those years of listening.”
Beyond personal enjoyment, mastery of a craft is another good reason to write science fiction. Such mastery can help fulfill your need to write. You write because you “need” to write; it is an urge that drive you on, like the need Sir Edmund Hillary had to reach Mt. Everest’s summit. Why did Sir Edmund climb Mt. Everest? “Because it was there.” Why do you write? Because you have stories to tell.
Those who write science fiction also can change and influence the world:
n Social commentary - Science fiction isn't really about fending off aliens with zap guns. At its best, as SF author and critic Alexei Panshin wrote, “…its attraction lies … in the unique opportunity it offers for placing familiar things in unfamiliar contexts, and unfamiliar things in familiar contexts, thereby yielding fresh insights and perspective.”
n Express and share your love of science and our natural universe - Good science fiction often demonstrates (usually subtly) a child-like wonder and awe at the world and universe around us.
n Interest kids in science - Science textbooks can be dry, but a good science fiction tale isn't. Many of today's scientists and engineers were inspired to those careers because they read H.G. Wells or watched "Star Trek" as children.
n Shape and redirect scientific thought - Science today is influenced by the science fiction that scientists read as kids. As physicist and co-founder of string field theory Michio Kaku said of science fiction, “For us it’s more than just fantasy. It’s like, what if? What if we can become a scientist to prove this thing is possible? It’s a challenge.”
n Shape and influence the genre as...
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science fiction, writing
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