Nine Reasons I Read Science Fiction
1. Neophilia.
Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea introduced the idea of neophilia to me in their great conspiracy theory magnum opus, The Illuminatus Trilogy. Hagbard Celine, the half-Atlantian Discordian submarine captain describes the world as being divided into two types of people– neophiles and neophobes; those who are attracted by the new, and those who are repelled by it. I read this book when I was sixteen. I immediately recognized myself as a neophile. Science fiction writers generally attempt to show things that have never been seen before in their work. There is a tradition of the original within it. If there is a genre of fiction that can be described as neophillic, it is science fiction.
2. To challenge my preconceptions.
I grew up in Kansas, which if you read the news at all, is a state where people are generally very conservative. Racism is rampant. Homophobia was, at least when I was a child, the general rule. And if you weren’t Christian, then you were going to Hell. It is easy to accept all of these beliefs as fact when you are immersed in them. Even if you don’t agree with them, they find a way to seep into your mind. In that environment, science fiction, with it’s unusual and progressive views about gender, race, sex, and religion provides an escape, and an alternate view point. Ursula K. LeGuin alone challenged much of my preconceptions in her work. Whether it was the people of color in the Earthsea books, or challenging the idea of gender in The Left Hand of Darkness, her work opened up my mind to a world where cultural ideas are not hegemonic.
3. To travel to exotic places without leaving the house.
Science fiction is often set in places that no human being has ever visited before. I love to travel, and with enough time, I could one day see much of what Earth has to offer. And I don’t think there is any substitute for getting up and actually going to the places. But some places are beyond the reach of a jet plane. Without science fiction, I would never know or imagine what the skies of Venus are like, never feel the breeze of an alien wind across my skin, or feel the dread as a small alien spacecraft full of humans slips over the event horizon of a black hole. Science fiction inspires us to push this boundary of the limits of travel. I know more now about the surface of Mars than I could have expected to, ten years ago. I would bet that it was partly science fiction that inspired the NASA scientists to build the Mars rovers that gave me this knowledge.
4. To be prepared for possible future.
1984. Fahrenheit 451. These are no longer fiction, they’re practically modern day survival guides. Science fiction prepares us for the “what ifs” of the future. Science fiction readers as a group are more prepared for what comes. We’ve been considering the challenges and moral dilemmas of stem cells and cloning long before anyone else. The Singularity may be coming, and if anyone will be prepared for it, it will be the readers and writers of science fiction.
5. To escape the mundane.
Because I need adventure and excitement and stimulation! I work a desk job. I spend 48+ weeks a year in the same 100 mile square area. I see the same people, do the same tasks, and walk or drive the same streets day in, day out. Life is repetitive. Science fiction allows me to escape that. I don’t want to read about people who have boring jobs and relationship problems with their spouses. I want to read about things that stir surprise and amazement in me–what we call sensawunda. I don’t get sensawunda from my day to day life very often. When I do, it’s a blessing. But I know that if I turn to my book shelf, I can get a hefty dose of it any time I want.
6. Because I care about plot.
Science fiction stories often deal with Big Things. Saving the world. Saving the universe, even. Plot seems to be more emphasized in science fiction than it is in other genres, and it tends to have a larger scope. The stakes are higher. In the prototypical literary story, the stakes are a college professor’s marriage. Yawn. I want something big on the line. I want schemes from my villains, where the stake is nothing less than everything the protagonists hold dear. Little stories are nice, from time to time, but its the big stories that hold my attention the best. And science fiction offers those.
7. To learn science.
Reading isn’t just about fun. I like it best when I read fiction that teaches me something useful along with entertaining me. I find two genres particularly excel at this; historical fiction and science fiction. I love science for the way it makes sense of the world in a logical manner. And you could argue that some science fiction is really just historical fiction about the future. Both can occasionally provide life lessons. One is from previous examples and the other from theoretical.
8. Because it’s dangerous to like it.
Everybody has their way of being different. For me, it’s being a SF nut. This got me picked on more than a few times in my childhood. It gets me sneered upon by literary writers who hang out at the coffee shops around town. To some people, being a science fiction writer means I am lower on the totem pole than a garbage man. I like that. I don’t have much rebel in me, but I like taking pleasure in things that those kinds of people hate.
9. Because it offers hope.
Not all science fiction, but a great deal of it, has offered hope. Hope that the future can be better than the present. At times, it has fetishized the idea of progress, but when it is at its best, it can give hope to the lowliest soul that their life, or their children’s lives could be better than it is today. Yes, there is a great tradition of dystopia fiction in the genre, but I would argue that dystopias are written from a position of optimism–that perhaps, if the author lays out their dystopian vision, the world can avoid it. Dystopian writers see something that could go wrong and warn against it. Even this is optimistic to me and offers hope.
I am not usually a cheerleader for science fiction. I think there can be some very bad things about it and its fandom. I do not believe that science fiction fans are better than anyone else. That is not what this post is about. It is about why I personally continue to read science fiction today, twenty years after I discovered my first Anne McCaffery book. I encourage you to think about why you read science fiction too. Sometimes, we all need a reminder. I know that I did.
