by
Steve Lazarowitz
August 2001
THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION IS NOT SCIENCE FICTION
Science Fiction, and to a lesser degree fantasy, has more in common with the western genre than it does with say mystery or romance. This is a general statement and may not apply to each individual example, but it applies to enough of it, as I will hopefully soon prove.
Science Fiction, fantasy and westerns are often backdrops for a different type of story. Any story that takes place in the west, is a western. It could be a love story, a drama, an action piece. It could be a mystery or an adventure. It is the setting that makes a western, just as it is often a setting that makes a science fiction piece.
Set a story in space and it is likely to be considered science fiction, or arguably, in the case of Star Wars, science fantasy. That's all you need do to make a story at least outwardly science fiction.
In the movie Outland, Sean Connery plays a marshal on a moon of Jupiter in what is essentially a crime drama shot in space. Connery battles a crooked union, importing an illegal drug. It has all the elements of every good crime drama I've ever seen, and might just as easily, with several minor changes, have been set against the backdrop of twentieth century Los Angeles. Yet you will find the movie in the science fiction section of your local video store.
I recently had the chance to see the movie The Thirteenth Warrior, which I enjoyed immensely. Based on the Michael Chricton novel Eaters of the Dead, this movie starts slow and builds, in my opinion, to a marvelous crescendo. I love fantasy movies. It seems there are never enough of them.
It was only after the movie was over and I had a chance to think that I realized it wasn't a fantasy movie at all, but more of a historical adventure. The setting had lulled me into thinking of it as a fantasy and most video stores I've seen it in have it in that section, in spite of the fact that there is nothing fantastic about it. No magic. No monsters. I've since asked several people about it and most thought it was fantasy. It is not.
I have recently started rereading John Norman's Gor books, which are science fiction books, set for the most part against a fantasy backdrop. It is easy while reading, to forget you are reading science fiction and believe you are reading fantasy. In yet another series, Soul Rider by Jack Chalker, we are given a fantasy world that becomes a science fiction world, as the universe comes into sharp relief. The fantasy elements introduced in book one, are explained scientifically by book three, though there is plenty of foreshadowing early on to suggest he might do so. This is my favorite Jack Chalker series.
And as long as we're on the subject, who can forget Randell Garret's book Too Many Magicians, a locked room murder mystery that takes place in an alternate history version of England. It is clearly a mystery, but happens to take place at a Wizard's Convention. This book is one of the best mysteries I've ever read, though it is clearly a fantasy book.
This line of thinking started me analyzing my favorite science fiction books of all time and I have come to realize that in each case, the books I like best are the ones with strong character development. The science is indeed important, but for the most part, takes a back seat to the characters that make the book memorable.
Larry Niven's Ringworld is one of the classics of science fiction and yet, it is Luis Wu and Teela Brown I remember, more than any of the science of the ringworld. In Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park, the science is truly brilliant, but it is Ian Malcolm that steals the book and often, when thinking back, it's his words I remember. Millenium by Ben Bova is a political SF book set on a moon base, but it is the characters that bring the story to life.
Why did the original Star Trek do so well, while Space 1999 became the laughingstock of the Science Fiction community? Many would argue that no one on the moon would have survived the original catastrophe, but it is the lack of character interaction that destroyed the series. With the exception of the most hard-core fans, most of us can deal with a bit of misapplied science, if the characters and the stories grip us. The original Star Trek proved that time and again, we can not only tolerate plot flaws and bad science, but also William Shatner's bad acting.
Perhaps the best example of all is The Twilight Zone, strongly plot oriented and yet it is the characters and how we relate to them that made the series. The strongest episodes are the ones that make us feel along with the characters, whatever the plot or setting.
When Martin Sloan takes a walk into his past and learns he can not go home again, I feel his pain. Thus, Walking Distance becomes one of my favorite episodes of the old Twilight Zone. Virtually every episode I like has a character with which I can strongly identify.
Sometimes it is not a character that we can appreciate, but a sentiment. In the Hollywood blockbuster The Rock, Ed Harris plays a general that is angry enough to steal nuclear missiles to make a point. While I have never served in the armed forces, nor have any of the skills of said general, I can identify with his anger at the vast injustices of the world. I might not have chosen his ultimate solution, but I can surely appreciate what drove him to that limit.
Today's movies are too often special effects extravaganzas; all flash and little substance. More action, but less interaction between characters. The younger audience doesn't have time to watch characters develop or to sit through a long boring interchange between them. The Alfred Hitchcock movies Lifeboat and Rope could not have been made today. The movie going public wouldn't buy into it.
In these days when television, movies and video games all compete for reading time, it doesn't surprise me that image is more important than substance. I see it everywhere from what I watch on television, to what I eat for dinner. From the proliferation of chain food restaurants that have come to saturate strip malls across the country to the death of the mom and pop video store.
Perhaps this is the reason why, when a movie like Forest Gump arrives, it creates a stir. Or a movie like Saving Private Ryan. It's not about special affects. It's about people. It's not about backdrops, it's about striving and human suffering.
Today's authors can take a lesson home from this, by giving us memorable characters, moving within their plot devices. Characters to which we can relate. Living breathing people we can feel along with.
It doesn't matter if it's set in space, under the sea or on an alien world. It is the still human drama that drives the story, no matter what genre you write in.
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