Great Books and Genre Books—Part Five
Does Science Fiction Speak to All Time?
Here we run into the crux of the argument. Science fiction stares into the future with wonder. Fantasy looks back on the past with longing, or into fairytale worlds that might have been. But the first of our three criteria for a great book is that it be timeless. Great books deal with reality, the human condition, as it was, as it is now, and as it ever shall be. Science Fiction concentrates primarily on the changes to human society that future technology or future evolution might one day produce. A great book tells a tale that would be as worthy of deep study by readers in ancient Athens, medieval Rome, or modern New York. Science fiction, on the other hand, is the unique product of the industrial and scientific revolution, and its emphasis is on the exploration of the human condition only insofar as it will be changed by continued scientific revolutions.
What is life that we are mortal, and do not live forever? Is it better to live a short and glorious life, or a long and obscure one? The Homer uses Achilles in the ODYSSEY to asks this question. Is there a life beyond this life? So Dante ponders. Why is man mortal? Milton offers an answer.
What would life be like (so a science fiction story might ask) if we could live forever, or had a medicine that revived the dead? A poor science fiction story (PHANTOM EMPIRE starring Gene Autry) might have a resurrection machine merely as a gimmick, to get a hero out of a scrape. A good science fiction story (TITAN by John Varley) would carefully extrapolate the impact on everyday life of the resurrection machinery. Would it be acceptable to kill your cat every night so his yowling did not wake you, provided you resurrected the beloved pet every morning? That is the kind of speculative questions sciencefiction writers extrapolate. The idea seems shocking at first, but granting the premise, maybe it could be.
There is clearly a tension between the two approaches. When you write about the eternal things, it is hard to concentrate on the wonder or terror of the future; pondering the verities of the human condition is at odds with drawing out speculations on the ramification of a counterfactual. Asking what is the meaning of life antithetical to asking what would life be like if pigs could fly?
Has anyone overcome these barriers? Now we move from the abstract to the particular. Let us take a more or less random sample of the better books in SF, and see if they meet the three criteria of being a great book (Timeless, Infinite, Relevant to the 102 Great Ideas) or the three criteria of being great literature (Graceful, Natural, Deep).
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
