Chuck Wendig:
SFF is an Interesting Portal to Dragons, Magic, and Happiness.
By
Drake Eidukas
Last
weekend, I finally sat down to read my favorite book of all time, Guards,
Guards!
by Terry Pratchett for the 7th time and I was suddenly reminded why
I spent my childhood ceaselessly reading fantasy novels. Within just a few
pages, I was instantly teleported from this mundane, predictable world to an,
albeit similar on the surface, completely different world where anything and everything can and will
happen.
Having
grown up reading primarily fantasy novels and only having read science fiction
for the first time a few months ago for our Speculative Fiction Studies class
(the one I’m writing this bit for!), I naturally don’t know all of what
interests and troubles me about science fiction, although I’ve developed a
pretty clear idea of what might.
Broadly
speaking, I read books primarily for entertainment (except, of course, for
history class). It’s no surprise, then, that I consume SFF content solely for
entertainment. (I use content since I listen to a lot of fantasy-themed music and watch a lot of SFF movies).
As you may have guessed by now, SFF to me is like a gateway to a different
world: one in which all my wildest dreams do
come true and adventures are had that I couldn’t even dream of! I’m interested
primarily in the interesting and novel world-building which goes on, and SFF
rarely disappoints me. As a reader, I would rather read the classic story where
the hero slays the villain and gets the girl in a world where the hero can fly,
has laser rifles, and is friends with a talking and walking tree than in ours,
having read the latter far too many times.
While
it feels rather…lazy, for lack of a better word, to just say that I’m
interested in the world building of SFF, I think that, once explained, you’ll
find it satisfactory. Like every other 17-year old, I too read the Harry Potter series and watched all
the movies religiously as a pre-teen (I even had Harry-Potter
glasses!).
Criticisms of the quality of the writing aside, when I read those stories, I
would oftentimes just set the book down and lay on my bed, hoping, wishing, that I too would get my letter
to Hogwarts because those stories
engaged and played with my budding creativity and imagination to the point of
ecstasy. Instead of worrying about the limitations and shortcomings of reality,
my inner optimist was able to escape and frolic about in the magic of the world
(not unlike as demonstrated in David Hartwell’s
“The Golden Age of Science Fiction is 12”).
When
I read through the 40-odd Discworld novels of Pratchett for the first time, I
couldn’t help but feel a sense of wonder the whole time, yet at the same time I
was endlessly amused by the whimsical nature that his universe held. In one
moment, an old policeman would explore the socio-economic
ramifications of boots, and in the next magazines, newspapers, and
tabloids would be invented by a struggling scribe. It is
currently this jovial nature of the genre (as a whole, of course there are
exceptions) compared to the much more somber tone, of say, historical fiction,
that keeps me interested in SFF.
Thinking
back towards the history SFF and I have held over the last 14-some years, I am
left with mostly happy thoughts. I’m not particularly troubled by much of
anything in SFF, although this is perhaps because I only happen to read SFF
that I’ve really resonated with. If I had to say something, I would say that
I’m troubled by the amount of low quality SFF floating around, as well as the
amount of books and stories which are practically clones of others in a poor
attempt to earn a quick buck. Not even this, though, troubles me too badly, as
I’ve just grown up to appreciate this phenomenon as indicative of a wider
variety within the genre: just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean others
won’t like it and be turned on to the genre, which is only good for the SFF
community.
As
far as I’m concerned, if something troubles you about SFF, you have two
options: hop into the intensely interesting worlds and universes of SFF, or be a
boring old curmudgeon and read realistic historical fiction. SFF is too
interesting of a genre to get bogged down by troubles—just have fun with it!
Drake,
ReplyDeleteI think Chuck's secondary question, about what troubles you, wasn't so much intended to be about "what troubles you in genre fic?" as "what troubles you as a person"? After all, he's a storyteller looking for new ways to turn the screws on his unsuspecting readers.
There's a fundamental kindness and inventiveness in Pratchett's prose that I think explains a lot about why you haven't felt very discomfiting in your readings of sff. He's an author who seeks to use the unusual and unlikely to affirm things about us, as humans. He's like a wry meditation, one I can easily understand your love of.
Best,
TT