Themes in Science Fiction and Fantasy

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Themes in Science Fiction and Fantasy

• An Introduction to ENGL5010
• Professor Ingrid Hutchinson

2
Topics of Discussion

• Types of Satisfaction Offered by Science Fiction
• Special Powers of Narration
• Northrup Frye and The Keys to Dreamland
• Mythmaking and Storytelling
• Mythmaking and Symbology
• Technology and Storytelling

3
Topics Continued

• Fiction and Technological Societies
• Asimovs Definitions of Science Fiction
• Isaac Asimovs Best Definition of SF
• Ursula K. LeGuins Definition of Science Fiction
• Conclusion

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Types of Satisfaction Offered by Science Fiction

• Pleasures of escape into worlds of wonder
• Inspiration of connecting with higher universal
  truths through the vehicle of the imagination
• Satisfaction of a good story, well written and
  well developed
• Stimulation that comes from an encounter with
  the thought processes of science (Isaac Asimov)
• Satisfaction of a contemporary story that is not
  as dense as the classic forms
• Excitement of encountering a living art form
  that is part of pop or popular culture (media
  choices that change with culture).

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Special Powers of Narration

• The power to expand our human capacity for
  sympathy with great moral ideas (Thomas De
  Quincy 1785-1859)
• Aristotle and Catharsis the power of calling
  out the emotions, engaging and exercising them
  (De Quincy)
• The magic of enchanted tales or fantasy
  literature is in the satisfaction of certain
  primordial human desires (Tolkien) like
  communing with animals and nature connecting
  with the mysteries (stepping outside of Time
  reconnecting with what we feel separated from).

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Northrup Frye and The Keys to Dreamland

• Frye wrote a series of talks aired on CBC radio
  for the Massey Lectures, now collected as a book
  called The Educated Imagination
• In The Keys to Dreamland he distinguishes
  between fiction and reality in King Lear

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Mythmaking and Storytelling

• Symbolically we face what we find threatening or
  challenging through our powers of myth-making and
  story-telling
• Fairy-tales ref. Bruno Bettleheims The Uses of
  Enchantment (pseudo-Freudian)
• The wicked witch as a form of the mother
• All parental conflicts resolved through a happy
  ending

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Mythmaking and Symbology

• Myths are social fictions that speak to us
  about origins and values and that employ
  archetypes, symbols, and signs.
• Dream and Nightmare Symbolism we make up and
  tell stories to ourselves in order to resolve
  conflict and issues about power (right of
  authority over misuse)
• Common elements of adventure tales are the chase
  and falling which may represent lack of control
  or being out of control
• Flying might psychologically represent a fearful
  escape or quite differently, mastery over a
  situation
• Colours are also symbolic as are the use of
  weapons, spells, helpers, guides, and even
  technological devices.

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Technology and Storytelling

• As change increases in society, science and its
  discoveries become a huge juggernaut or mindless
  machine that takes control away from us
• Technology aids us, yet is terrifying because in
  many ways we do not control its effects or
  by-products
• Storytelling is an adult activity that helps us
  to step back from technology and see it as both
  necessary and useful, but also threatening
  because it blinds us to the difference between
  knowing and truth (Neil Postman Technopoly
  12).

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Fiction and Technological Societies

• Few utopias (perfect worlds) appear in science
  fiction and fantasy
• Dystopias (perfect worlds gone wrong) are more
  common
• Totalitarian states control individuals as tiny
  cogs or microchips in a huge social-technological
  machine such stories end with our utter
  annihilation or the possibility of overthrowing
  the existing social order. But in the end, is the
  new system really better than the old?

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Asimovs Definitions of Science Fiction

• Science fiction is the literary response to
  technological advance.
• Science fiction is that branch of literature
  which deals with a fictitious society, differing
  from our own chiefly in its technological
  development.

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Isaac Asimovs Definitions of SF

• These include the Standard Definition of Science
  Fiction
• Social fiction that adds science and moralizes
  about a current society through the device of a
  fictitious society.

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Tolkien and the Definition of Fantasy

• Fantasy is about truth, especially higher truths,
  and our ability to imagine Secondary Worlds that
  draw on the materials of our Primary World or
  this Reality.
• Literature, however, should show not tell.
• Reveal, but not preach.
• However, virtue, morality, ethics, recovery from
  loss, redemption, and spiritual consolation are
  all part of the impetus of fantasy-writing.
• Magic is sacred to fantasy, and though satire may
  exist in Faerie, the magic is never explained
  away or satirized.

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Ursula K. Le Guins Definition of Fantasy and
Science Fiction

• Science Fiction is not predictive it is
  descriptive (Introduction to The Left Hand of
  Darkness).
• The purpose of the thought experiment is not to
  predict the future . . . but to describe
  reality, the present world (Le Guin).
• Although Le Guin refers here to SFshe actually
  also means fantasy. Her books include The Wizard
  of Earthsea series.

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Conclusion

• ENGL5010 will introduce you to favourite books
  and films that stimulate the imagination.
• You will hopefully better understand and
  appreciate science fiction fantasy literature and
  films.