Saturday, March 8, 2014

Fantasy towards Science

Indian Sci-Fi writer Dr. Arvind Mishra view on science fiction :


Let we discuss the very hybrid nature of SF –the marriage of science and fantasy, the unison of seemingly two opposite humane attributes.  But how to define SF academically? I am too little an authority to attempt doing such an academic exercise but there seems no harm in making at least a try? Isn't it? We are already familiar with many literary forms of social fictions i.e. stories, novels, novelettes etc, which depict several shades of our society in a lucid and interesting manner. 

The themes and plots of such social fictions are based only on past or present happenings related to man and his society. That is why the oft repeated adage, "literature is the mirror of society". Science fiction on other hand is the portrayal of man's future. And here lies the difference between social and science fictions, notwithstanding the many similarities of both the genres as they entail identical ways of storytelling, selection of a theme and structuring a plot around it and above all engaging the readers with a continuous and sustained flow of suspense leading ultimately to the climax of the story. 

But the million dollar question still remains unanswered, “how to honour this genre by giving it a proper and intelligible academic definition"?

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