Inventing Reality: A Guide to Writing Science Fiction
Evils of duality
When developing a storyline about a main character overcoming a problem, some writers fall into the trap of creating an adversary who personifies evil. In doing so, the theme and plot of the story is reduced to the level of good guys vs. bad guys.
This oversimplification is known as “evils of duality”, which is when the theme is presented as a simple dichotomy of ideas.
We’ve all seen and read such stories; they dominate science fiction television shows and motion pictures. The theme has a number of variations, including empire vs. resistance (“Star Wars IV: A New Hope”), spacers vs. earthers (rip-offs off Isaac Asimov’s “The Caves of Steel”) and us vs. them (the television show “The Invaders”).
While such reductionism can make great action-adventure stories, it also robs the tales of potential richness. Consider “Star Trek: The Original Series” episode “Balance of Terror” in which a Romulan ship makes surprise raids on Federation outposts to test new weapons. Rather than remaining a submarine story set in space with the good Captain Kirk vs. the villainous Romulan commander, the episode aims for something higher. We learn that the Romulan commander is torn between his sense of duty and his disgust with his government that it is seeking another war. The Romulan commander must deal with a subordinate who has blind loyalty to the government and the potential loss of his ship and its crewmembers. We learn much about the nature of war and its effect on people thanks to this approach.Of course, characters can think in such dualistic terms, and they do in “Balance of Terror”. The Romulan commander has his subordinate, and Captain Kirk has a bigoted navigator. This usually is a sign of those minor characters’ narrow thinking, however, and is used for dramatic tension as he main characters deal with the story’s deeper issues.
In any case, your story’s universe should be broader than your character’s thinking. Real life is a series of clear black and white issues. There’s lots of fuzzy gray. As a writer, it’s your job to explore that unclear gray. Your readers will appreciate it.
You Do It
Go back to the piece you wrote for the “Narrator” entry about your hero defending Earth from alien invasion. Now expand on the story by developing a member of the alien invasion force who has a personal conflict with what he is doing. Write at least a 100-word scene in which this alien character must decide if he will participate in the invasion or not.
(c) 2008 Rob Bignell