On Science Fiction
I have often made the point that true science fiction is a creature of the last two centuries. Science fiction cannot exist as a picture of the future unless, and until, people get the idea that it is science and technology that produce the future; that it is advances in science and technology (or, at the very least, changes in them) that are bound to make the future different from the present and the past, and that thereby hangs a tale.
Naturally, no one could possibly get that idea until the rate of scientific and technological change became great enough to be noticed by people in the course of their lifetime. That came about with the Industrial Revolution say, by 1800—and it was only thereafter that science fiction could be written.
And yet there must have been something that came before science fiction, something that was not science fiction and yet filled the same emotional needs. There must have been tales of the strange and different, of life not as we know it, and of powers transcending our own.
Let’s consider— The respect that people have for science and for scientists (or the fear that people have or a combination of both) rests on the certain belief that science is the key to the understanding of the Universe and that scientists can use science to manipulate that key. Through science, people can make use of the laws of nature to control the environment and enhance human powers. By the steadily increasing understanding of the details of those laws, human powers will be greater in the future than in the past. If we can imagine the different ways in which they will be greater, we can write our stories.
In previous centuries, however, most men had but a dim understanding, if any at all, of such things as laws of nature. They did not know of rules that were unbreakable; of things-as-they-must-be that could serve neither to help us nor to thwart us but that might allow themselves to be ridden to glory, if we but knew how.
Instead, there was the notion that the Universe was the plaything of life and the will; that if there were events that seemed analogous to human deeds but that were far greater in magnitude, they were carried through by lifeform’s resembling those we know but greater in size and power.
The beings who controlled natural phenomena were therefore pictured in human form, but of superhuman strength, size, abilities, and length of life. Sometimes they were pictured as superanimal, or as supercombinations of animals. (The constant reference to the ordinary in the invention of the unusual is only to be expected, for imaginations are sharply limited, even among the best of us, and it is hard to think of anything really new or unusual—as Hollywood ‘Sci-fi’ constantly demonstrates.) Since the phenomena of the Universe don’t often make sense, the gods are usually pictured as whimsical and unpredictable; frequently little better than childish. Since natural events are often disastrous, the gods must be easily offended. Since natural events are often helpful, the gods are basically kindly, provided they are well-treated and that their anger is not roused.
It is only too reasonable to suppose that people would invent formulas for placating the gods and persuading them to do the right thing. Nor can the validity of these formulas be generally disproven by events. If the formulas don’t work, then undoubtedly someone has done something to offend the gods. Those who had invented or utilised the formulas had no problems in finding guilty parties on whom to blame the failure of the formula in specific instances, so that faith in the formulas themselves never wavered. (We needn’t sneer. By the same principle, we continue to have faith in economists, sociologists, and meteorologists today, even though their statements seem to match reality only erratically at best.)
In prescientific times, then, it was the priest, magician, wizard, shaman (again the name doesn’t matter) who filled the function of the scientist today. It was the priest, etc., who was perceived as having the secret of controlling the Universe, and it was advances in the knowledge of magical formulas that could enhance power.
The ancient myths and legends are full of stories of human beings with supernormal powers. There are the legendary heroes, for instance, who learn to control winged horses or flying carpets. Those ancient pieces of magic still fascinate us today, and I imagine a youngster could thrill to such mystical methods of aeronavigation and long for the chance to partake in it, even if he were reading the tales while on a jet plane.
Think of the crystal ball, into which one can see things that are happening many miles away, and magic shells that can allow us to hear the whisperings of humans many miles away. How much more wonderful than the television sets and the telephones of today!
Consider the doors that open with ‘Open sesame’ rather than by the click of a remote-control device. Consider the seven-league boots that can transport you across the countryside almost as quickly as an automobile can. Or, for that matter, think of the monsters of legend, the powerful travesties of life invented by combining animal characteristics: the man-horse Centaur, the man-goat Satyr, the woman-lion Sphinx, the woman-hawk Harpy, the eagle-lion Gryphon, the snake-woman Gorgon, and so on. In science fiction we have extraterrestrials that are often built up on the same principle.
Understanding the Text
1. What makes for the distinction between the various genres of fiction—‘a sports story’, ‘a Western story’, ‘a jungle story’ and science fiction?
2. How does Asimov establish that John Campbell was wrong in his opinion that it is not possible for a science fiction mystery to be fair to a reader in the same way as a classical mystery is?
3. What are the pitfalls that the writer of science fiction mystery must guard against?
Talking about the Text
1. Imagination and fantasy help human beings to speculate upon the possible explanations for the complexity and unpredictability of the phenomena in the universe.
2. The difference that science and technology have made to everyday life today was visualised in science fiction fifty years ago.
Appreciation
1. Discuss the author’s attitude towards the pre-scientific imagination and the tone he adopts while talking about it.
2. Observe how the paragraph, as a form, has been used in the essay. Some paragraphs consist of just one sentence. What purpose do you think the author had in putting them in this manner?
3. Mark the linkers used by the author to connect the point he makes in one paragraph with that in the next. For example, Let me explain the difference that makes in the last line of para 1 of Section II. These are called discourse markers or discourse signalers.
Please refer to attached file for NCERT Class 12 English Non-Fiction On Science Fiction
