The Role of the Writer
The artist, as Collingsworth tells us, must be a prophet, “not in the sense that he fortells things to come, but that he tells the audience, at the risk of their displeasure, the secrets of their own hearts.” That is why he exists. He is a spokesman for his community…. No community altogether knows its own heart; and by failing in this knowledge a community decieves itself on the one subject concerning which ignorance means death.
Saul Bellow, Culture Now
The rememdy, in Saul Bellow’s essay, is art. Art opens the eyes of the community, and it is the writer as artist who bears the responsibility for seeking out those blind spots.
As readers of speculative fiction–SF, fantasy, horror and the many blends–we expect the considered juxtaposition of our reality against the many possible realities. That expectation is part of the very definition of “speculative fiction.”
It seems to me, however, that as the genre reader has retreated into their own private Idaho–”Bartender, make mine entertainment. Hold that other stuff”–so too have the artistic types withdrawn in their own form of splendid isolation. “The Women Men Don’t See,” and other works by James Tiptree, Jr. challenged the community to respond in the 1970’s. Michael Swanwick says Alice Sheldon’s work set the genre on fire. Pratically overnight, you had to change the way you thought or be left behind.
Karen Joy Fowler’s Nebula award winning “What I Didn’t See” makes for the modern counterpoint. While WIDS does pay homage to gender issues (most notably of a long gone era), the dramatic engine is a literary device as the story is really about appreciating the unrealiable narrator. WIDS is a wonderful tale skillfully told, riffing ever so slightly off of TWMDS. I enjoyed WIDS and by itself I have no fault with it. Yet I regard WIDS as archetypal of the modern artistic branch of speculative fiction where the primary concern of the artist has become the artist or at least personal artistic pursuit and fulfillment.
With the 1970’s SF became a important force in experimenting with gender issues, an incubator for social change. A certain amount of success was achieved. and naturally gender equality drifted to the edge of cutural radar (although given the reactionary direction of world affairs, it might be back.) But what social concern has taken its place? Personally, I find it painfully difficult to believe that 30 years have gone by and the combined genres haven’t discovered a new windmill to tilt nobly at. I’m convinced the world is full of them. Maybe I’m confused.
Perhaps I’m looking in the wrong places but I can’t remember a single story in the last year that succeeded in (or really tried) challenging my vision of who I am and my place in the world. For the most part, the SF I’ve encountered ultimately reads like fantasy, exuding soothing warmth and affirmation: you’re a fine person. You don’t need to think critically about your place in the world. Don’t worry about the past, don’t stress yourself about the future, just keep consuming.
If you’ve found challenging material, please mention it in the comments.
Instead, it feels as if the mainstream is taking over where SF is supposed to be leading. Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America (ad supported), whether or not you agree with it, should have been a genre work. Is, in fact, that most disreputable of sub-genres, alternate history.
How come none of my homes are doing this kind of work? How come something like this can get published outside the field but not inside?
I don’t want all of my SpecFic reading to be challenging any more than I want all of my meals to be Frosted Mini-Wheats. Some is good for me. Too much “good for me” you can have. On the other hand, most intelligent people know the future isn’t rosy–no more rosy than we make it, anyway–and the past wasn’t so rosy either. For all stories to be uncritical, unchallenging entertainment establishes cognitive dissonance in the reader, transforming “speculative” into “unbelieveable.” It’s not healthy for the genres, it’s not interesting for the reader, and its not carrying our weight in regard to the larger community outside the genre ghetto.
Best regards,
Alan