Date: 2008-01-08 15:45 Subject: It's not science fiction or fantasy if... Security: Public

We were talking about this yesterday.

You've probably heard it said from time to time that if you can take the science fictional (or fantastical) elements out of a story and still tell the same story, it's not a science fiction (or fantasy) story, and you should rewrite it as a mainstream story. I'm not sure where this idea started, but it's crap.

The problem with this idea is that there are a lot of unspoken value judgements in it, as well as touch of inferiority complex. I'm guessing the idea comes originally from parts of the hard SF community, although feel free to correct me on that, where something is only seen as SF if at its core is a scientific idea, or a fictional-science idea. I have nothing against this type of SF--I've read some brilliant examples, and some not so brilliant ones--but it's not the only type of SF.

By making the statement that something isn't genuine SF if you can take out the SF elements, you're making a value judgement, a judgement that says the most important--possibly the only important--part of an SF story is the scientific/fictional-scientific idea. The other elements, you are saying, are not important to a science fiction story. But that's nonsense. SF has never only been that. The truth is, there's always been plenty of SF where the science is simply window dressing. And that's fine. That's good. Because spaceships are cool. Laser pistols are cool. Hell, giant space squids are cool. Just because you could convert all of these to contemporary, non-SF equivalents, doesn't mean you should. Spaceships are simply cooler and more fun than conventional ships. Laser pistols are cooler and more fun than mundane pistols. Sometimes SF is just about being fun, and we shouldn't be ashamed about that.

The other problem is the inferiority complex. Have you ever heard anyone look at a mainstream story and then tell the author that their story isn't mainstream because you could add SF elements to it and it would still work? That that makes it an SF story in mainstream clothes, not a mainstream story? Of course you haven't. But why not? Unless, somehow, people believe that SF (and other imaginative genres) are simply aberrations, stories that would have been mainstream if some terrible mistake hadn't been made that makes it impossible for them to reach that maximal state of fiction quality, the contemporary, mainstream story. Unless we believe that we should all be aspiring to the mainstream, if only we could possibly achieve it.

Well, I don't aspire to that. I don't even consider that it would be an aspiration, with all the attendant baggage that the word 'aspiration' carries with it, of being higher and better. I am fully aware that the science fictional and fantastical elements of my stories are not always integral to the core story. Sometimes they're just there because the stories are more fun that way. Sometimes they're just window-dressing. But the truth is, it doesn't matter, because that's what I love reading and writing.

So, if anyone tells you your story isn't SF or fantasy because you could tell the same story as non-SF or non-fantasy, ask them why the hell you would want to, because I'd really like to hear the answer.

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