Grace Duan: "We Are One"

We Are One

By Grace Duan

I have never personally read the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The only exposure I have had with the story was watching a high school production of the musical and an Arthur episode featuring a song sung by a 3^rd grade anthropomorphic bear genius. (It’s quite catchy, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiB4dMwDFtg). Still, like much of the rest of the unread public, I am aware with the core concept of the classic: that existence is often multifaceted.

            A key point that is often missed in the original story of Jekyll and Hyde is that there is no Mr. Hyde. They are the same man acting on different urges and expressing himself through different actions. I would say that the relationship between fantasy and science fiction is similar: they are one and the same as well, just two embodiments of speculative fiction. While fantasy is often recognizable by talking animals and mystical creatures and science fiction is marked by futuristic technologies and dystopian societies, they are fundamentally based on the human imagination of what could exist. In “Toward a Definition of Science Fiction,” James Gunn makes the distinction that “fantasy creates its own world and its own laws; science fiction accepts the real world and its laws”. In both cases, we learn about our own world through those speculative worlds.

If these genres were people, science fiction would be a social introvert and fantasy would be a shy extrovert. While these descriptions appear to be oxymoronic and contradictory, they fairly accurately describe the big picture they present to the reader. Science fiction practices abeyance, holding back on information as an introvert would, and it emphasizes the implications of the society on the individual. Fantasy, on the other hand, is accessible, as an extrovert is, but takes time to understand. It tends to focus on the impact individuals on the rest of the world. While science fiction likes to stay within the rules of the familiar world, fantasy likes to stray into impossibilities. Where science fiction has a pessimistic attitude and a pervading fear of the unknown, fantasy embraces the unfamiliar with positive feelings of hopefulness and longing.

Philip Martin explains in “Fantasy and Belief” that “fantasy looks inward, not to the rules of social or personal behavior but into our beliefs. In fantasy, wonder and wishes overcome knowledge and explanation”. In contrast, the popular view of science fiction is that it creates worlds with practical, mathematical, and logical explanations. This, however, is not always the case. Even if we consider elements of science fiction as realistically “possible”, we may not understand exactly how they work and whether they are, in fact, possible. In this sense, science fiction is very much like fantasy itself. The British science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke makes a valid point: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Look at Roger Zelazny’s novel Lord of Light as an example. In the story, the elite group of people had adopted the personas of the Hindu pantheon through advanced technology. They take on the powers of the divine and rule over the rest of society who believe in the legitimacy of their power. The mystery and ambiguity behind the source of their power is

equivalent to magic. Zelazny never explains the mechanisms of the technology… and there may be no acceptable explanation. Then, is this story really soft science fiction? Or is it borderline fantasy?

The creator of this depiction of Jekyll and Hyde challenges the viewer: “You have to decide which is which.” Just like deciding for ourselves which face is Jekyll and which is Hyde, we must also answer this question on our own: Can we really draw the line between these two facets of speculative fiction, or are their differences so vague that they are interchangeable and equal?I believe that the answer lies in the way fantasy and science fiction affects each individual reader. For me, science fiction evokes questions values of humanity and society. Fantasy makes me more aware of my own values and sense of self. That is where I draw the line between the two… But it must be noted that it is not a boundary line. The distinction is not terribly important, as it all boils down to the lessons we learn about ourselves and our world through the exploration of different ones.