Isaac Adorno: "Dear Michael Damian and Lynne Thomas: What Actually Matters?"

Dear Michael Damian and Lynne Thomas: What Actually Matters?

By Isaac Adorno

Before taking Speculative Fiction, I had a very limited view on science fiction and fantasy. All I could think of was the wizarding world of Harry Potter, or the epic battles of Star Wars. This changed over the semester as I became introduced to several different authors and writing styles, leading me to become much more aware of how diverse science fiction and fantasy can be. To be fair though, not every story kept me engaged. I wasn’t always biting my nails, waiting to see what would happen on the next page. Oftentimes, I would lose interest just a few pages in.

I started noticing a trend in the stories that I would actually read to the end and enjoy. It became apparent to me that two things in speculative fiction matter more to me than anything else: the characters, and the world that they are placed in. Specifically, I learned that I grew a strong preference for stories that had dynamic characters who affected the environment around them.

On the other hand, I’m usually thrown off when authors try to emphasize a quick, exciting plot over one that shows growth in the characters. Let’s take one of my favorite reads from the semester: Isaac Asimov’s “Reason”. We are actually presented with very little information about either the characters or the space station they are located on, besides that they’re placed there to build robots that control the energy beams heading towards the planets. Additionally, there are only three important characters to the story: Powell, Donovan, and Cutie. We don’t really know much about their previous lives, such as their likes, desires, or their experiences. Despite (or maybe even because of) this small environment and cast, Asimov was able to write a short story that kept me engaged from start to finish. What impressed me most was that as I was reading it, I realized that I didn’t want to get through the story just so that I could do well on the reading quiz. I was becoming engrossed with seeing how Cutie was changing, and how that affected Powell, Donovan, and the rest of the space station. We can take Tom Goldwin’s “The Cold Equations” as another, simialr supporting point. A man, a ship, and a girl that’s a stowaway. It’s a simple premise, but it works perfectly to illustrate how little is actually needed to make science fiction and fantasy engaging.

When confined with a shorter story length, authors have the tendency to write something that is very plot driven. From what we read through the semester, I noticed that the stories I enjoyed least were those that focused a lot more on location changes and plot twists, rather than the dynamics of the characters. The one that stuck out most to me was Alfred Bester’s “Fondly Fahrenheit”. I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t something that particularly stuck out to me. I felt that it worked on a skewed scale, attempting to balance its speculative elements with its characters and world, causing a much heavier weight for the former. It seemed very focused on the idea of this “killer robot”, and how Vandaleur has to deal with him as he continues his killing spree. Although there’s nothing wrong with this, I quickly became bored with what seemed like a rather repetitive plot. However, that’s just me. Science fiction and fantasy have such a large fan base that it is very possible that someone else has the exact opposite opinion. The average reader just wants to enter somewhere new and exciting through your story – and that’s what makes speculative fiction unique.