Science fiction as a literature of discontent
01/04/2008 . Source: Mark R. Leeper 
Back when I was in college at the University of Massachusetts I was a member of the science fiction club. At the same time the school had a university-wide art magazine called Spectrum, paid for as part of our tuition. It had poetry and fiction and experimental art. One day an issue came out and it had a piece of art with the title A Meeting of the Science Fiction Club. It was just a picture of some bizarre-looking people. I doubt that the artist had ever been to the real club. He was just trying his style at drawing people who looked just a little off kilter.
I don't know if we were insulted. Maybe
we were a little amused. But we had to admit
that the artist really had a point. The
people in the club did look just a bit strange.
They were not strange in the way Spectrum
portrayed them; they were just a little
odd-looking. One of the regular attendees
was called "Turtle Man" behind is back because
he walked with the gait of a turtle walking
on his hind legs as portrayed in animated
cartoons. We definitely did have our share
of slightly bizarre people. In fact, the
people in most science fiction clubs look
just a little stranger than most of the
rest of the population.
And that has remained true. If you go to
a science fiction convention and stand around
in the lobby of the hotel where it is held
you can pick out with fair accuracy the
people who are just coincidentally staying
at the hotel at the same time and those
who are going to the convention. The beautiful
people are just there by chance. The people
who look a little strange or unkempt or
who dress differently or who have a weight
problem or a peculiar posture are probably
there for the convention. They are bright
people, but they look odd. (I am sorry if
I am being overly frank. Maybe I should
call fans non-conformist.)
Now why is this? Well, one explanation is
that science fiction fans are just not so
anxious to fit in. They do things their
own way. And perhaps the beautiful people
do not need the support fans get from the
science fiction community. They are sufficiently
popular socially. They do not need science
fiction for a social life or escape. They
are busy dating and skiing and laying tennis
and going out drinking. Cliques and campus
Greek organizations seem to be glad enough
to welcome the pretty people. Now what I
am making here really are wild generalizations.
There are people in science fiction fandom
who are extremely attractive. But the largest
proportion is just a bit different.
So what happens? The attractive people may
find it easier to succeed without being
intellectual. The people who are less like
the factory standard tend to compensate
or to become unhappy. Many become intellectuals.
Some become neurotic. And these are people
who may gravitate to science fiction. I
think of science fiction as being a literature
of discontent or even rebellion. People
in science fiction frequently are not completely
happy with the here and now. They look forward
to when the future will take away the status
quo.
I remember in my Classics Illustrated comic
of The War Of The Worlds that the cover
of the comic was a late 19th century battlefield
that was dominated by a gleaming, futuristic
Martian war machine staring down a piece
of artillery. It is a very memorable image.
Here the past loses to the future. One exciting
moment in the comic showed the obsolete
battleship Thunder Child firing its rickety
guns at a war machine and in the next frame
the war machine unharmed turns its heat
ray on the dreadnought and obliterates it.
Again the past loses to the future and it
is no contest. These were just the images
that Wells' readers enjoyed. They were seeing
the status quo being eliminated. And that
is exciting for science fiction fans. And
we are still getting big destructive scenes
in films like Armageddon and The Day After
Tomorrow in which the world we know is no
match for science-based threats.
Who do these images appeal to? It is not
someone who loves the status quo and is
accepted in it. These sorts of plots appeal
to the people who have less of an investment
in the current order. They are people who
would welcome its end or at least are willing
to contemplate it.
Time travel also provides an escape. Forward
time travel directly replaces the current
world with a new world. It is like travel
to another world where different rules prevail.
Presumably we already know the past for
backward time travel. But backward time
travel allows us to go back in time with
technical knowledge our world. Thus while
King Arthur's Court does not give Hank a
crack at a wholly new world, he can apply
his knowledge to the 19th century to modernize
Camelot. It is the time travel itself that
is vanquishing the natural world.
Science fiction appeals to people who have
less of an investment in the status quo
and who want to trade in this reality for
another one, a better one. Science fiction
literature allows the reader to do that
for the hour he is reading. That may be
the secret of its popularity.
Mark R Leeper
(c) Mark R Leeper 2008
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