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The serious business of Science Fiction and Fantasy

Mon, 28 Jun 2021 20:12:51 GMT

I´ve got friends that don't quite get science fiction and fantasy and don't really understand why I write it. When I deployed to Afghanistan and wrote some emails about my experiences there, emails I forwarded on to friends and family, who as a general group gave me positive feedback about my ability to write about the experience of being a soldier at war and who praised me for doing a good job capturing what Afghanistan is like (and Iraq, when I wrote about it in 2008). A few of these friends suggested that if I want to write fiction, I should be writing military thriller genre, something like what Tom Clancy does.

Truth is I could and maybe will someday. I'm interested in military stuff and certain non-fiction, too, but writing about unreal worlds in general interests me more--and I think there's a positive reason why this is so, beyond the fact that I enjoy exercising my imagination. You see, writing science fiction and fantasy is serious business.

This statement may very much surprise friends of mine obsessed with politics or convinced this world is about to end soon...to them, I imagine, speculative fiction (a term which embraces both sci-fi and fantasy) is sheer escapism from the world around us and spending time on it is acting like the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand. I do want to acknowledge they have a point. Speculative lit seems to be nothing but escapism for some people. And there are times when it is absolutely essential to pay attention to the moment you are in and not wander off mentally to realms of what is not.

But I believe worlds of speculation, of the unreal, serve a very important function for most people, whether they realize it or not. They remind people this world we are in is not the only possible world; what was the world once is not just the stuff of known history, but also lies in the sphere of the unknown and legendary...and such legends have the power to live in human imagination right now. And even what we see all around us will change over time into something else someday, a world of advanced technology perhaps, or perhaps a collapse into decay and death. Science fiction and fantasy explore these other realities of what could have been or what will be.

THIS WORLD IS NOT ALL THERE IS shouts speculative fiction, pointing out a void in our human lives. It's often true that speculative fiction, an expression of corrupt humanity, tries to fill that void with corrupt thoughts. That void truly longs for God, the creator whose imagination far exceeds mine, Who has the power to create new worlds at a whim (I am not stating He has created them, simply that He has that power) and Who will bring to an end all of the things we know now and establish His own rule.

Christians may feel we know our future eternity very well: pearly gates, throne of God, singing praises, etc. But remember 1Corinthinans 2:9: "...Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." The actual truth is that what we know is only the tip of the iceberg.

As a point of fact, the full reality of what world awaits us is mostly unknown. As is also how long it will be between this world and the next and what will happen in this world in the meantime.

I write what I do not only to exercise the faculty of imagination God gave me in a positive way, but to reinforce the truth that this world is neither all there is, nor all there is to be--and to spin visions of the unreal that specifically point fingers back toward the creator God, the author of all things. As much as I may engage in flights of whimsy at times, all of my writing science fiction and fantasy has a bedrock foundation in this definite serious purpose.

I hope very much that makes sense...

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Top Ten Most Original Speculative Fiction Story Settings, General Authors

Sun, 20 Jun 2021 20:12:51 GMT

Readers of this article who know me on Facebook probably will have noticed I asked on several sites that cater to Christian writers of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, what they thought were some of the most original story worlds of all time. I apologize that it’s not possible for me to include everyone’s choice. That’s true even though I decided I couldn’t narrow this list down to just one set of ten. This week I’ll look at the ten best “secular” (or not specifically Christian) stories and next week I’ll do the top ten original story worlds from Christian authors

Why “most original” story worlds?

Speculative fiction is different from setting a story in a realistic scenario. Plot and characters are important for any kind of story, but in speculative fiction, the author gets to create the world from scratch if he or she chooses to do so. Yeah, some writers for a variety of reasons pick settings that are realistic or close to it (like Urban Fantasy). But one of the greatest powers science fiction, fantasy, and horror can choose to exercise is to make completely unfamiliar worlds that nonetheless make internal sense. The creation of these story worlds I would say is a unique achievement, often bolstered by specific story ideas that make a tale more than just entertainment. Speculative fiction can be and has been commentary on ordinary life. Science fiction comments in particular on the potential power of technology. Epic fantasy weighs in on the ultimate nature of good and evil, while horror looks at the inner darkness so common in our world, usually contrasting it with light. Much of this commentary, these powerful ideas found in speculative fiction, are found in the story worlds themselves. Rather than plot or character.

So strongly original story worlds often make the best stories–or at least the ones that impact people in the real world the most. These are the stories that get people to think about what could and could not be, what is and is not true. And helps them understand all of that better.

How did I choose and rate them?

I’ve considered novels, short stories, television, and movies. I admit to a sampling bias–media I’ve read or seen myself was more likely to make this list than media I haven’t seen myself. That’s true even though I did ask for other people to include their favorites and have included here two story worlds I personally don’t know much about and had to research (Myst and One Piece). Inevitably a story world I know little about is rated less objectively than ones I know.

I rated rated each story from 1 to 5 on originality, influence on other stories, sales influence, and influence on public discourse concerning the themes these tales cover. All of these stories rated between eleven and seventeen in my system with a number of ties. But the assigning of numbers was itself a bit subjective and so I also assigned subjective rankings to the ties.

So, starting from number 10 and working our way to 1:

Conclusion

Based on the list I’ve compiled, the most original stories don’t necessarily have to be the ones that get people talking about important issues. But may of them do–and for many, the issues they bring up rather overtly at times make the story more interesting than it would otherwise be, not less.

But readers, what do you think of the list itself? Hate it? Agree / disagree with particular points? Have your own list you’d like to share? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Carb Loading for Superheroes -- Comic Book, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy Physics

Sun, 13 Jun 2021 20:12:51 GMT

Superheroes are often viewed as a subset of science fiction. I'd say they're more fantasy, because the ordinary laws of physics that limit you and me usually get ignored in superhero stories.

Take the Law of Conservation of Matter--when Bruce Banner transforms into the Incredible Hulk, the cells of his body are supposed to expand to a massive size as he becomes the giant green monster. The problem is that according to conservation of matter, he'd have the same amount of total mass in his body even as his cells expanded--the Hulk would then weigh the same as Banner himself, though being a lot bigger, his density would have to be significantly lower. If Conservation of Matter were obeyed, the Hulk's physique be a lot more like the Stay Puft Marshmellowman's than like, well, the Hulk...

You can see I take the fundamental distinction between science fiction and fantasy as resting in attempting to obey the known physical laws of the universe. Sci fi to be properly so called tries to obey the laws of physics, while fantasy throws them to the winds. You could create a sort of science fiction Hulk, but you'd have to have propose something similar to a kind of interdimensional shift where matter existing in the (currently hypothetical) extra dimensions of string theory somehow is pulled into the Hulk's body. That would maybe give the story different flavor--perhaps Banner would have to be portrayed as a physicist working at particle accelerator which somehow blows a rift between dimensions--or perhaps into another universe-- an expanding universe of rage.

Usually I can accept a superhero story for what it is, though inconsistencies within a story bother me. So when Superman flies around at will, has raybeam eyes, and is vulnerable to very little except kryptonite, I see story elements that essentially hang together as pure superhero fantasy. Superman is almost like a god from a Pagan myth--he is powerful just because he is; physics simply don't apply. Iron Man, on the other hand, is supposedly a creature of real technology, so his scientific contradictions bother me if I allow myself to dwell on them. For example, he flies by jet power from his feet, right? This is an ordinary technology of course, which maybe could really work in a powered suit--but jet power burns a lot of fuel. The F18 carries something like 13,000 pounds of it to be able to fly around. "Where does Tony Stark have room in his suit to carry all the fuel?" I ask myself. To fly for more than a few seconds he'd need at least a couple tons worth... But then I try to forget about that (and other contradictions) and get back to the story.

Batman and Spiderman are a lot closer than the average superhero to falling in line with science fiction proper (though "average superhero" has to be an oxymoron, right?). Both are mere mortals that perform acrobatic feats not unlike what an Olympic gymnast does. The problem is the gymnasts make their incredible leaps and jumps for a few minutes at most at a time and even then you see them trying to hold back serious huffing and puffing while the judges determine their scores. And these, my friends, are the very best human athletes in the world.

The fact is that Batman and Spiderman both routinely perform feats of extreme physical prowess for a longer time than any real human being has ever performed them. We could wash our hands of them for science fiction purposes and simply enjoy the characters as sheer fantasy, but that not necessary. Spiderman, after all, has a pseudoscientific explanation for his physical prowess--being bit by what at first was a radioactive and in later stories a bioengineered spider. The spider changed his metabolism, so he is no longer a normal human, the story goes, which isn't unscientific per se. It's certainly possible in theory to increase the ability of human muscles to process energy and to exceed current output.

But consider this--if Spiderman has super-efficient muscles and a body energy system capable of outdoing the best gymnast in the world, the Law of Conservation of Energy still requires him to put enough energy into his body to fuel his powerful body organs. If Michael Phelps the Olympic swimmer consumes some 12,000 calories a day in training (a lot of this energy goes to keeping his body warm in the pool, by the way), imagine what Spiderman leaping from building to building for hours at a time would need to consume. At least twelve thousand calories a day, right? Maybe much more. Certainly far more than the standard 2,000 calorie a day diet.

For Batman to keep up it wouldn't be enough for him to have hardcore martial arts training and oodles of technological gizmos. He'd also need to bioengineer his body to be able to outperform mere mortals, something Bruce Wayne could easily afford. But like Spiderman, his caloric intake would have to be pretty huge to engage in the epic fights and leaping acrobatics he does every night. To fuel himself, he'd have to do some serious carb loading before going out into the evening--imagine Alfred serving him a two-foot high heap of spaghetti--on a silver platter, naturally.

Batman and Spiderman are not my creations, so of course my notions of physics aren't going to change these characters. But imagine creating a new superhero, similar to them, who has been bioengineered by his own scientific work or others, with enough technological gadgets to enhance his abilities. And then imagine a story condition in which he (or she) is always hungry, continually struggling to find enough time to get down all the calories he or she needs to face the next fight, continually a Snickers bar, a protein power bar, or a banana in hand.

That would add an interesting dimension to a character, wouldn't it? The poor superhero, trying to scrape up enough money for a shopping cart load of pasta every few days? And by the way, it so happens you'd have crafted a genuine science fiction superhero...

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