Hatrack River Writers Workshop: how much of SciFi is rehash of regular lit

This is topic how much of SciFi is rehash of regular lit in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
http://www.hatrack.com/ubb/writers/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=000070

Posted by jackonus (Member # 132) on :

Found myself writing a story that wasn't sci-fi and it got me thinking that I could easily turn it into sci-fi by adding a space ship or bug eyed alien. This reminded me of the old chesnut that there's nothing new under the sun, or all that stuff about there are only 3 stories and they just get retold in different ways, and so on.

I don't necessarily think this is true, but do you see a lot of stuff in Sci-Fi that just as easily could've been a Western or a detective story or what have you?

Delete space station, insert sage brush?

Posted by Thought (Member # 111) on :

You could also turn most fictional stories into fantasy by adding an elf or gnome. Or you could turn any book into a mystery by adding a murder and a brown trenchcoat.

It will always be the same basic story... it will always be about humans, even if they don't exist persay. For example George Lucas' Star Wars was set in a galaxy far far away. Hence, they couldn't have been humans however it was still about humanity. Even if there wasn't even something remotly human looking, it would still be about humans. If a human writes it, it will be about humans. Since that is the base for all stories, wether sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, or romance... then they are all interchangable.

Just a

Thought

Posted by srhowen (Member # 462) on :

Hmmm,

Well I write stories that do not have any humans in them. I spend a lot of time creating their world and culture and then make the characters stay in those boundries...but I have to agree that the story is still a "human" drama. There are still loves and torchered souls.

So I guess being human---even without humans our stopries are still about humanity.

Shawn

Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :

We do live in a remarkably cosmopolitan world today, and it's not hard for us to imagine almost anything going on in 'our' world. I put it that way because the truth is that we don't really live in the remarkably cosmopolitan world depicted in the media, we all live in much smaller communities and are only passingly concerned with what goes on outside of those communities.

I don't know why this matters, though. We write works as Science Fiction or Fantasy or Historical because we like the setting and feel comfortable with putting the story there, not because it is the only possible setting for the story. I've realized that I can't write contemporary work, for the simple reason that I wouldn't live my life in this world if the choice were up to me. I wouldn't like to live in the world of Anne McCaffrey's books either, where everyone with psionic powers is automatically taken to be better and more worthwhile than anyone without them (certain people have laughed at me about this, apparently because I seem to be just the sort of person that would have the psionic powers, but even if I did, I would despise a society that was based on the assumption that my having such abilities made me better than others).

In short, I would be unable to write a story based on McCaffrey's work without challenging the assumptions of her world. I could only write a story about 'our' society by rejecting certain premises that the vast majority of Americans and Europeans take for granted. If I were to write a Western...actually, I like Westerns.

But in a story about 'our' world, my characters would be the bad guys, the super villians, the madmen. So why would I want to write stories set here?

Posted by Dazgul (Member # 24) on :

Though I would not say that speculative fiction (sf/fantasy/horror/magic realism etc) is a rehash of regular lit -- though I would not call it regular lit because lots of SF (e.g Brave New World, Frankenstein) is called regular lit. I will rather call it literature of the mundane).

Indeed, speculative lit addresses the same themes as mundane lit: prejudice, the human condition, struggle...etc. However, I feel in a lot (not all) speculative fiction, the viewpoint is entirely original (which is why I like it so much). Aliens, magic, impossible science and so on allow a broader range of dramatic options.

Yes, it is true that a lot of regular fiction could be rewritten in a world of space ships and called science fiction, but I do not think that would be true science fiction. In science fiction or fantasy (I admit this is not true for all sf/fntsy: let me rather say for the sf/fntsy that is not interchangeable with literature of the mundane) the dramatic possibilities are born of the scientific or fantastic and it does not exist merely as fluff. "Frankenstein" would not be frankenstein devoid of the technology which allows the doctor to animate his creature & a fantasy tale about a magic that allows a single person to cause as much damage as a nuclear bomb would, causing hi/her to require different moral consideration, would not be the same tale if the magic was eliminated. It could be adapted, but it would lose much of its substance. The same themes might be touched on, but in a wholly novel way.

Posted by TheUbiquitousMrLovegrove (Member # 390) on :

Harlen Ellison says that any real sci-fi is going to have at it's heart a concept that can't be transmitted into the other genres. One idea that breaks the known rules, or establishes a new order. Spaceships and aliens do not make a story a sci-fi story, he says, that can be just a transplanted western.

I would tend to agree with him, although I do think there are some exceptions. "Enemy Mine" to me is a great sci-fi story, but it could be set in WWII or the Frontier or somewhere and still work. But then, look at Larry Niven, there is no way in hell to transplant a lot of his stories, not when the the concept at the very heart of it is that a neutron star reacts a certain way when...

Posted by Varneshi (Member # 650) on :

Greetings,
New at this but will learn. I found that with anything written, one must remember that his or her readers are the ones that can make or break you.What I did was take what we have today, throw it into the future, and then adlibe. (is that how you spell it?)
For example. My main charactor lives in a world were minds are changed everyday but his office looks like a through back to the 1940's. Old Oak desk, Lamps, Leather chair...etc.You don't really need aliens nor spaceships to create Scifi. But you do need the ablility to see that future as if you were there.

Varn