This essay was first written on
May 6, 2007
Why is FANTASY all the rage right now?
Easy Answer: technology scares people, science bores them and they'd rather not think about the technological ramifications of science -- no matter HOW entertaining.
Easy Answer: people got tired of STAR WARS and wanted to watch LORD OF THE RINGS instead. They liked the movies, read the books, then moved into the rest of the genre (oh, add to that the unexpected arrival of Harry Potter).
Tough Answer: SF eliminates the spiritual in favor of the material and humans have an intrinsic spiritual dimension.
To be truthful, I don't much care for easy answers. One of the reasons for that is that it encourages finger pointing. I've been a middle school and high school science teacher for 26 years and the level of scientific literacy among my parents and students has gone DOWN as the level of scientific discovery has gone UP and we've moved into the 21st Century. It would be very easy for me to blame people's boredom with science on some sort of intangible "attitude" against it.
But that would ignore the fact that young people -- and people in general -- have changed very little in 10,000 years. As much as we'd like to think that we're "all that" or that one political party is "more aggressive" than another or that "we're evolving to a higher plane", the evidence does not bear those conclusions. Quite the opposite. Evidence would suggest that we are NOT "all that", that political affiliating isn't the "way" to manage populations once they've grown beyond a certain limit and we appear to be evolving to a lower plane -- at least it seems so when I watch the evening news.
Secularists -- backed by scientific research -- have steadily pushed any elements of spirituality from the public arena. With the banning of prayer and all other forms of religious expression from schools, governments buildings and public places, the behavior of the human race should have gotten better. After all, the stated intent was that religion causes division and once religion was removed, we could all just get along. But has this dream been realized now that we've chased virtally all religion out of public sight? We still talk about eliminating "In God We Trust" from our money. And that would accomplish greater peace among people and less greed? Hmmm...
Science Fiction has done its part to promote worlds unencumbered by religious dogma through STAR TREK and the works of writers like Anne McCaffery, Lois McMaster Bujold and Arthur C. Clarke. Ridiculing religion by appearing to plumb its depths to discover the mechanistic roots (and by implication the mechanistic roots of all religion) has also been popular in the worlds of Frank Herbert, David Weber, STAR TREK, Tobias Buckell and Sharon Shinn.
And so people shy away from the secularization of their fiction. Fantasy is by its very nature SPIRITUAL. What could be more spiritual than magic -- black or white? Fantasy speaks to the soul while SF speaks to the head. Elves and witches and goblins and hobbits and Aslan and The Golden Compass and Perdido Street Station and Hogwarts Academy are permeated with spiritual beings and by implication, spiritual messages.
We don't need any more secularizing. We've had enough. And so to feed our souls, we head for the groaning racks of fantasy: good or bad, new or old.
All we want is food for our souls. Our heads are about ready to explode..
5 comments:
Science fiction is the literature of people who are looking forward to the future. Fantasy is the literature of people who are frightened by the future. Humans are innately conservative and frightened by the unknown, therefore it takes unusual circumstances to get them to look forward with anticipation rather than backward with longing.
The 20th century had several waves of "unusual circumstances" that produced periods of hope for the future, and coincidentally, boomlets in science fiction publishing. But right at the moment, it's a real challenge to get anyone to look to the future with other than a sense of dread.
With the banning of prayer and all other forms of religious expression from schools, governments buildings and public places.....
You have your facts wrong here. Prayer is not banned in schools. SCHOOL-LED prayer is banned. Students can pray any time they like. Student athletes in many schools have a group prayer before games, for example, and its perfectly legal. It would only be where the coach leads a prayer that legal problems could result (its still common anyway though).
As to government buildings, there is a prayer before each session of congress (which is certainly inconsistent with other rulings on church state separation---but when was the law ever all that consistent).
Besides, Christians can still do all the fun stuff like bomb abortion clinics and shoot doctors with high powered rifles, all in the name of religion.
I pray for anyone who uses the words "fun", "bomb" and "shoot" in the same sentence. Even when they are attempting hyperbole...
Science fiction is the literature of people who are looking forward to the future. Fantasy is the literature of people who are frightened by the future.
What about people like me who happen to love both?
Admittedly, though, I think that might be an element in the current swing of the pendulum. I'm far from convinced by ANY of the arguments I've heard from various and sundry commentators on this issue.
On a related issue---why are zombie movies and novels all the rage lately? I admit to loving them but haven't quite decided what it is about them thats so appealing (though I have many hypotheses).
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