Crying Over Spilled Margins
By Derek Lubecke
It
is a common and popular belief that the universe is meant to make some sort of
since, as if everything is much more simple than we currently understand it to
be. Unfortunately, those who believe this are wrong. Things happen. The act of
assigning labels and meaning to those things and their happening is simply the
method used by humans to cope with the complete and utter pointlessness of
existence, an example of this being the separation of science fiction and
fantasy. There’s nothing wrong with living in an arbitrarily fabricated
reality, after all, some believe naming to be the first job given to man in the
days of Genesis.
Taking
a step back from overreaching and empty statements regarding life the universe and everything, categorization
and labeling are areas us humans often get caught up on. In particular I want
to look into the classification of literary genres. How I see it the system
works very similarly to political parties; politicians or stories with similar
ideas group together to increase their influence and accessibility. Problems arise
when grey areas immerge; what happens to a book or politician without a
category? Most of the time these outcasts are moved to the “other” category and
ignored. In US politics the Republicans and Democrats dominate the political scene
and all others are cast aside and labeled “independent”. We come across our
problem when candidates such as Theodore Roosevelt and Vermin Supreme are both considered
independent. The same thing can happen in speculative fiction, the “other”
category of literature.
Speculative
fiction is basically the ghettoized fiction. Anything the weird people like to
read is put here, but, of course, the segregation of fiction does not stop
there. The label loving genre definers decided things need to be organized
further bringing forth the genres fantasy and science fiction.
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The task of
categorizing science fiction
and fantasy even troubles those under the sea.
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The difference between
fantasy and science fiction is almost as unclear as the specifications for
something to be considered speculative fiction. Some things just seem to be
fantasy things and others seem to be science fiction things. A robot living in
a dystopian future is classified as science fiction, and a unicorn in a magical
forest is classified as fantasy, but where do you put a story about a robot
unicorn living in a magical dystopian forest?
In
my opinion it is possible to logically define fantasy and science fiction as
types of literature, but the difference is not in their content, it is in the
mechanics of the world. In science fiction it shouldn’t matter if your
character is a unicorn or a robot, because the scientific nature that sets the
world apart from our own makes it science fiction. Look at DADES
for example, the world is very similar to our own, but the environmental and
technological differences that set it apart, radioactive destruction and
humanoid robots, could reasonably happen in our world. Fantasy varies from our
world very differently. The world the reader enters is not a variation of our
own, it is independently crafted, equipped with its own rules and limits. It
doesn’t matter that magic cannot work in the given world, and no justification
is needed to prove it possible. Fantasy takes place in an entirely different
place. What happens there happens exactly the way you read it. A good example
of this would be the series Full
Metal Alchemist; our laws of physics do not apply in their world, instead
all science is alchemy derived and follows the laws of equivalent exchange.
They are in a different world with different mechanics. If their world were
tailored to become a science fiction story, their alchemy would have to be
explained through some sort of technology that allows for equivalent exchange
within the properties of our world.
In
the end our use of labels and categories allows us to make sense of our world
and the fiction we read in it. Although the segregation of any genres can seem
insignificant, it can also allow for texts to be logically paired. Science
fiction and fantasy are similar in many ways, but augments can be made that
their fundamental world design set them apart.
Derek:
ReplyDeleteIt seems like, when you boil it down, your position is that finding ways to label what is science fiction and what is fantasy comes down to directing the reader's expectations... Or did you mean more than that? Is it also about providing writers a set of guidelines to inform their creative process or give them a sense of an artistic community or movement to which they can belong? Your use of images and current references, along with a thoughtful and none-too-formal discourse shows a solid understanding of blog style, but I wonder if the exact implication of "the labels are logical, if arbitrary" as a theory gets explored adequately.
Best,
TT