Divya Jasthi: "So Close Yet So Far Away"

So Close Yet So Far Away

By

Divya Jasthi

 From http://cdn.quotesgram.com/thumb/14/85/1982461297-close-but-so-far-away-1.png

                                                                                     

            Often times when I read science fiction or fantasy I find myself in the same situation as these dogs. The treat seems so close, but it is also so far away. Of course, when I read science fiction or fantasy, I am not literally balancing a treat on my nose. In speculative fiction, the treats are the worlds that are created by authors. In many stories, the world seems very distant but when I take a closer look, there are many aspects that are also relatable to my life. It is this combination of unfamiliarity and reality that draws me to speculative fiction and will keep me reading it after this class.

            The ability to allow the reader to escape into a different world, while still having some grounding in reality, is present in E.M. Forester’s “The Machine Stops.” Vashti and Kuno live in a world that is run by and dependent upon the Machine. They live in a world where the earth is no longer habitable and on earth you have to use a respirator to avoid being killed immediately by the cold of the outer air. This description has a certain air of remoteness for the reader. For one, humans still live on earth in the given world. The isolation of people in the created world doesn’t seem plausible in reality either. Yet, when you think about it, this world has traits that are remarkably similar to ours. If I told you that “the round plate that [Vashti] held in her hands began to glow, a faint blue light shot across it [and] she could see the image of her son, and he could see her,” would you have suspected that this was part of a different world? I certainly would not have. The technology in this world is remarkably similar to what we call Skype or FaceTime. It makes me somewhat uncomfortable to think about how our world could eventually turn into the world that E.M. Forester creates, especially knowing that humanity gets wiped out at the end of the story, but that’s what I love most about science fiction. It allows you to explore the implications of the created world in the given world but still escape from reality.

            What are the possibilities of a robot going on a killing spree, right? That only happens in movies and books, right? Alfred Bester’s “Fondly Fahrenheit” would suggest otherwise. There is a scientific explanation for why the robot has gone haywire: “The Android most probably reacts to temperature stimulus above the ninety degree level synesthetically.” Only through speculative fiction could there possibly be a logical explanation for something that seems so unrealistic and distant from our world. In “Super-Toys Last All Summer Long” by Brian W. Aldiss, David seeks love from his mother. As readers we can understand his desire to communicate with his mother. Yet, the world of David is separated from the given world because David is an android and at times it appears that he has a greater capacity to express emotion than his human mother. Robots are a classic topic to explore in science fiction and many of the stories have the quality that I love in speculative fiction: the balance between exploring the created world and finding bits of reality throughout the story.

            Even fantasy has some traces of reality that allow us to understand the created world and explore it. In Among Others by Jo Walton, there is magic in the world, at least that’s what Mor tells us. While we are presented with foreign concepts like gnarly fairies and unorthodox magic, we can relate to Mor’s experience in boarding school, the books that she reads, and her family relationships. This ability to immerse yourself into another world but still find familiarity in what you are reading draws me to the fantasy genre.

            A world that is so different that the reader cannot even comprehend what is happening is too weird. A world that is no different from the one we live in is too boring. Science fiction and fantasy are the perfect combination of the two. So, the next time you pick up a science fiction or fantasy novel, I hope you enjoy the same balance between escape and reality that I treasure in the books that I read.