FutureTense

Several famous writers in the field have attempted to explain away the decline of SF and the rise of fantasy as the natural reaction to an uncertain, increasingly dismal future. Depressing futures lead to depressing stories and thus, to depressed readers who turn away from SF toward the comfort of the known, the formulaic and the irrelevant.

That’s what the pundits of the SF field would have us believe. Personally, I take exception to the generalization that Fantasy is comforting, formulaic and irrelevant. Personally, I also believe that another word for “depressing” is “dangerous.” Those dangerous futures can produce — perhaps even require — SF works of insight, imagination and invigorating peril.

With that spirit, I was delighted to chance upon John Brunner’s definition of Science Fiction among Neyir Cenk Gökçe’s collection.

As its best, SF is the medium in which our miserable certainty that tomorrow will be different from today in ways we cant predict, can be transmuted to a sense of excitement and anticipation, occasionally evolving into awe. Poised between intransigent skepticism and uncritical credulity, it is par excellence the literature of the open mind.

Best regards,
Alan