Marc Fournier: "Dear Naomi Kritzer: What I Want in Fiction"

Dear Naomi Kritzer: What I Want in Fiction

By Marc Fournier

Sometimes when I read a science fiction story, it somehow involves using a computer for entertainment purposes. Whether for playing video games, or streaming the news, or whatever other purpose, it’s there. But those stories almost never contain a phenomenon common in the lives of those around me: memes. Sure, occasionally they come close, like in the short story “Cat Pictures Please,” but I have never directly detected a meme in a science fictional setting.

Memes come in many forms, depending on the original location and medium. Some are captioned images, others are short, funny video clips, and others are just catchphrases between an in-group. (One of the earlier memes I know of the third type is “bunga bunga,” from a prank by college students who snuck aboard the HMS Dreadnought while it was still in service. Soon it was considered a mildly offensive call to members of the British Navy.) There are many webpages devoted entirely to memes, including several subsites of reddit. There also are many memes about science fiction out on the Internet. But I rarely, if ever, see memes in science fiction.

Probably the closest thing I’ve seen to a reference to memes in SF was in “Cat Pictures Please” (granted, I don’t read as much science fiction as I used to, and certainly not the more modern stuff). Here, a sentient search algorithm AI works effectively for free, asking only for cat pictures in return. The choice for specifically cat pictures may seem stylistically odd—until you realize that cats are one of the most common sources for memes.

Yes, memes also exist in some other and older science fiction works. But they appear mostly as mind viruses or catchy tunes. These are not quite the same as modern memes. The difference, while subtle, is still there. Old-style memes would spread involuntarily, almost like a disease. The infected would have a compulsion to spread the memes to as many new targets as possible. This would make them nearly unavoidable, as most people would spread the meme fairly quickly. On the other hand, it is quite feasible to avoid modern memes—potentially for a lifetime. By merely not visiting meme-heavy sites such as reddit and 4chan, meme exposure decreases significantly. You still get the occasional friend’s Facebook meme, but never anywhere near the same level of exposure.

Well, these two takes on memes exist. But so what? Why should they be used in science fiction stories? For one, it makes science fiction stories more accessible and inviting to today’s youth and young adults. In the digital age, the time of instant gratification and mindless entertainment, the younger generations are moving away from media that require effort to consume, including novels. Including some sort of reference to memes, which make up a large part of sites younger potential readers visit, could help more with engagement in the story.

Secondary-world memes also provide a way of sharing information about the world in the story. For example, say you wanted to tell a reader about an event in popular culture that recently happened in the world of the story. You could take a break, shifting focus from the characters to tell the reader about the event directly. You could write in a conversation between characters about the event. You could have a character read an article about it. But constantly using the same few methods gets boring eventually. Even just one more way to tell the reader (perhaps by describing a character browsing through memes) will help to stave off that boredom.

Of course, I’m not trying to say that memes should be used constantly, in life or in science fiction. Overuse leads to a phenomenon known as a “dead meme” (not to be confused with a certain dead meme), where those who live in the meme-world no longer appreciate it. Similarly, in a work of fiction, overuse would desensitize the reader to the novelty of the meme and wear down its effectiveness. Modern memes as an idea could be used more.

Memes are fun. They work as a way to engage with the audience on a personal level. They can be used to draw in a new, younger audience, as well as to illustrate events in the story world. And they’re a relatively unused mechanic in science fiction. They are a way to set your story apart. And that, my friends, is good content.