Emma Sloan: "This Distinction is Irrational"

This Distinction is Irrational

by Emma Sloan

Which is a more useful, π or 3.1415? π is much more precise and a more interesting quantity to try to understand for its own sake. However, for practical purposes, giving five significant figures is enough to fairly accurately calculate anything that uses π as a constant. When considering subgenres of speculative fiction, fantasy novels would be more likely to accept the irrational and work with the approximation to create an interesting plot, whereas science fiction is more likely to delve into the issue, making a plot out of the details of the irrational and determining exactly how and why it works.

Even when fantasy novels explain the magic, the core element is something that no one tries to explain. In Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn, various magical characters analyze magic entirely for practical purposes. The analyses form a sort of guide for how to be a better magic user, with entries like, “real magic can never be made by offering up someone else’s liver. You must tear out your own, and not expect to get it back.” While this sort of description would be useful for a character within a magical world, it does not at all explain why these steps lead to magical occurrences. Other fantasy novels go into more detail of why the magic works, but they still at some point default to the reasons being the inexplicable nature of the items or creatures involved.

In contrast, science fiction novels provide mechanisms for odd occurrences, even those that seem to be magical. Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light explains the workings of what at first appear to be a magic wand, not as an infodump or instructional guide but through various characters’ interactions with the wand, like how a scientist would investigate it. A character can turn it off through “electrodirection,” so it clearly runs on electricity. This testing along with observation that when the wand is used, “the Universal Fire will leap forward with a blinding brilliance, obliterating matter and dispersing energies which lie in its path,” provides a pretty good idea of how the wand works. This science fictional version of magic contrasts nicely with the common fantasy trope of building modern technology through magic. For example, in Patrick Rothfuss’ The Kingkiller Chronicles, characters build “sympathy lamps,” functioning as light bulbs but using magic. Fantasy creates something readers could explain by inexplicable means, while science fiction tries to explain the seemingly inexplicable.

When faced with an unknown quantity, science fiction  tries to determine what makes it different. Phillip Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? spends the majority of the book exploring the distinction between humans and an advanced class of androids that looks just like humans. While the characters know that androids have a separate legal status and place in society, they still investigate the physical, mental, and emotional differences between the two species. Androids are detected primarily through two different tests, one of which exploits their slightly different nervous system, the other which tests “Empathic response. In a variety of social situations. Mostly having to do with animals.” A combination of various social situations and these tests gives a clear picture of exactly what androids are, even though such things as how androids actually work are never explained.

In fantasy novels, the difference between species, whether they are very similar or very different, is mentioned and accepted. For example, in The Last Unicorn, it’s noted that witches weep sand. However, this comment is merely touched upon. The reader never knows whether witches are a separate species or modified humans, much less the precise characteristics of a witch except as they affect other characters. Fantasy often relies on separate species, but these species are often described roughly in a way that is centered around fantastical tropes, rather than having the biology be elaborately explained. To generalize, fantasy’s approach to the unknown quantity is to accept that it is strange and work with the strangeness. Fantasy mechanisms are the engineer to science fiction’s scientist, building on the unknown rather than investigating it.