Wait, before you ignore this post, know that this isn’t a discussion of
internet science fiction memes, but rather replicating trends in the
genre. I’m not going to post a list of books or movies with an
embarrassingly small number of titles bolded or italicized. Just saying.
In any case, I’ve been milling about the memes in science fiction, the
trends that repeat (with varying degrees of utility) for a number of
weeks, and it remains a chief nagging point on my todo list. As I return
to science fiction writing it’s something that I’ve found myself eager
to consider as I make sense of the genre (again).
This was, like a number of the essays/posts about writing methods and
practices that I’ve posted in recent weeks, spurred by listening to one
of Cory Doctorow’s podcasts of a panel he was
on with a few other science fiction writers.
There were a lot of somewhat germane debates that are so typical of
science fiction discussions, over literary-ness, over “accuracy” and
the ability of science fiction to predict the future, and originaity
in the genre and so forth (actually I need to write a post about this).
But one thing that Cory said that struck me, about both, I think
literary tendencies and originality was that science fiction is a genre
where almost cut their teeth on a retelling of Isaac Asimov’s
“Nightfall,” story. To drive this home, in the next week or so I
listed to Nancy Kress'
“Ej-Es” on Escape pod.
Which was amazing, and then I realized that of course it followed the
basic “Nightfall” type story structure. (Sorry for the semi-spoiler,
it’s still a great story.) Nightfall is not only a great story, but its
framework gives us the possibility of thinking about our reflexes, and
habits, that can be a great tool for getting into “sociological sf.”
After recognizing the nightfall meme, I thought immediately about
another huge trope in (particularly hard) SF: the Mars book. In addition
to retelling nightfall, there’s also a meme of writing “the mars
book” about the red planet. Think: Martian
Chronicles, and
Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars
Trillogy, and not to forget
Stranger in a Strange
Land and so on
and so forth. Hell, my current novella project is a Mars Book, though
it’s by no means a hard-sf project. The Mars book/story, I think is
the hard SF trope, because it lets writers talk about space travel,
colonization, and so forth, without getting “fantastic.”
There’s also sub/alter-genres, like space operas, and alternate
history, and the various -punks (cyberpunk, steampunk, Cory’s
disneypunk, etc) and so forth, that are in their own way memes. There
are conventions which are played with and broken/bent to varying
degree’s, but still replicate throughout significant swaths of the
literature, and if nothing else I think that’s incredibly interesting.
I guess the main point of this argument is to say that, I’m not sure
that Memes are such a bad thing. In a lot of ways they seem to be a lot
of the connective force behind the genre. I mean it can be taken to
extremes, of course, but all things can. Also, I think it would be
foolish to suggest that SF is the only genre that has such memes. I
guess this all got started by a question about “is there anything
that’s truly new and original happening now,” and the answer is, yes
and no.
Everything new, even recombinations of old material is, original. Even,
dare I say, Kirk/Spock Star Trek fan fiction represents some kind of
forward movement for the genre and the community. Now don’t take the
Kirk/Spock too far, and there is such a thing as blatant plagiarism, but
I think at the heart of the matter is the fact that we don’t actually
really want things that are original and different, that kind of thing
is jaring, and by its very nature difficult to understand. This doesn’t
mean that a given retelling of Nightfall, or a book about Mars, doesn’t
further a discussion along. Even in science, where new studies are
supposed to create new knowledge, it’s all incremental.
The qualities that make good science fiction, captivating stories,
interesting questions and perspectives, honest characters, and enjoyable
settings are for the most part independent of there being “something
new,” and I think you can say something really new in a fairly typical
space opera, and tell a completely contrite in the new thing that
we’ve never seen yet. o So there.
Have fun, Tycho