SFF is a Laboratory for Dangerous Ideas
We can experiment safely there
I had an incredibly quirky high school World History teacher named Mr. Hartley. He was also incredibly smart. He’d shut the lights off the moment class started and squint back through inch-thick spectacles as the overhead projector blinded him.
Then he’d begin to lecture.
He regaled us with tales of the Soviet Union: broken escalators, crumbling concrete, the value of labor in a simple wooden chair, the horrors of the gulags. He explained the complexities of a communist economy: central planning, forced labor, and secret police.
I was hooked.
To me, the Soviet Union was so far away and so foreign, it was as if Mr. Hartley were reading me a science fiction novel. He could have been talking about a Martian colony.
High Stakes
Today, discussions about the Soviet Union or Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine are higher stakes.
The debates can get heated quickly.
I could ask anyone’s opinion on immigration, race, marriage, social programs, or climate change in 2022 and they would most likely have strong opinions that were reinforced by the media they read or formed by their life experience. The names Biden and Trump alone trigger an immediate response.
We all have biases. That’s part of being human. That’s ok.
But what if we could shed those emotional responses and those preconceived notions, just for an hour? What if we could separate ourselves from our frustrations and anger, and even our loyalties?
What if we had a place to escape to where we could examine ideas and principles, all of their own merit, free from the baggage that current events brings?
The Laboratory
That place is the Laboratory of Science Fiction and Fantasy.
A writer can create a complex society with hypothetical economies, swirling cultural nuances, clashing politics, and mind-bending art. That society can contain every moral implication and problem of our day.
By setting a story in a future place (or an imaginary kingdom), it allows us to examine the principles behind the concepts, rather than the rhetoric portrayed in the media of the moment.
In many ways, it allows us to be more objective.
Look at the politics of court portrayed in the Stormlight Archives.
Or the military strategy of the Hegemony in the Ender’s Game books.
That’s why Heinlein wrote Starship Troopers.
Or Asimov wrote Foundation.
And of course 1984 and Brave New World.
It gives us a chance to examine hypotheticals. It gives us time to think about principles.
And hopefully, from those introspections, we can draw conclusions that make us more magnificent. These stories can help unite us. They can help us build a better future.
More Chances to Get Books
As part of the fun of being part of this community, I do the occasional giveaway.
The winner of our recent Etherwalker print book giveaway is… Pam B! Thanks for being a super subscriber. We’ll email you with details on how to claim your real-life, made-of-actual-paper book.
Speaking of giving away books — I want to give away 3 more. These are also actual, real-deal paperback copies.
To participate, go here:
Once we get to 10,000 subscribers (we’re close!) I’ll do a really special giveaway. I’ve got a couple of fun ideas up my sleeve.
See you in the future.
Adam Sidwell
Creative Director
Future House Publishing & Future House Studios
And Another Thing…
Join the Conversation: We all had some good laughs at how Gary Larson predicted the future (ironically) in this Far Side cartoon.
Sword of the Week: Sword of Omens from the miraculous 80’s cartoon ThunderCats!
…the legendary and most powerful weapon of the ThunderCats. Wielded only by the Lord of the ThunderCats, the Sword of Omens is the true heart and soul of the ThunderCats. Embedded in the hilt of the sword is the Eye of Thundera which is the source of all the ThunderCats' powers.
This is exactly why I love fiction!
Awesome analysis of the importance of fiction in, to quote, "[giving] us time to think about principles." This is all too important to have in our lives.