A Case for Science Fiction...

Or, a thought on why we might consider how extremity of situation/imagination can bring us closer to the human element we are craving. From Yann Martel's Beatrice & Virgil.

..if I tell a story about a dentist from Bavaria or Saskatchewan, I have to deal with readers' notions about dentists and people from Bavaria or Saskatchewan, those preconceptions and stereotypes that lock people and stories into small boxes. But if it's a rhinoceros from Bavaria or Saskatchewan who is the dentist, then it's an entirely different matter. The reader pays closer attention, because he or she has no preconceptions about rhinoceros dentists -- from Bavaria or anywhere else. The reader's disbelief begins to lift, like a stage curtain. Now the story can unfold more easily. There's nothing like the unimaginable to make people believe.

I think we can consider the possibility of one or two big, imaginary ideas and how we can establish ideas as given truths quickly and undoubtedly in the early moments of the play. We have such a great opportunity with theater: there is a (hopefully) captive audience who are ready to believe what we tell/show them. This is what makes me hate the theater and love it at the same time. None of this is to say that the belief we hope the audience has is based on a replication of a variety of reality, rather that the world or scenario we present is unlikely enough to lodge them firmly in their imaginations from where they will, as Martel writes, pay attention to what is happening. Here we can think of the audiences' attention/imagination as a veil or window through which they watch Uncanny Valley; they enter the space, see the scenario exists outside the world/physics they know and expect, engage their imaginations in an unexpected way, and are then surprised (perhaps doubly so) to find a deep emotional engagement and attachment to what is happening. I think this is why we cry when Bambi's mother is shot.

I think the much discussed idea of how much science fiction to use or not use can be considered a detail oriented and aesthetic question. Are there beeps and protocols for two scenarios or 12? My question, and my hope, is we find a way to use fiction, may of a scientific bent, to create a bigger space for the imagination. This fiction may exist in script/text, situation, movement, relationship and is a huge possibility. I think we've just started to touch on it. Excited to dig in for more and to consider and create fictions we have yet to conceive.

How the Future predicts Sciene Fiction

Interesting post from a local SF writer david levine who spent time at the Mars research station in Utah (where Jay Scheib also spent time prepping for his show... link below, really great photos and info)

link... jay scheib


link... david levine

Excerpt from the Article.

We science fiction writers aren't futurists. SF needn't even be set in the future, and even when it is, we're not necessarily trying to create an accurate model of what we believe is the most likely future—we're just trying to write an entertaining and thought-provoking story. To this end, we'll often create an exaggerated, stylized, or dramatized vision of the future designed either to make a point or simply to provide a more interesting story. Rather than being rigorous attempts at accurate prediction, science fiction futures tend to fall into one or more of the following literary categories:

Cautionary tales emphasize the negative consequences of some aspect of present life. These dystopias are often prompted by the words "If this goes on…"

Thought experiments focus on the possible effects of some current or projected event, technology, or trend. These stories ask the question "What if?" They are distinguished from cautionary tales in that they explore both positive and negative impacts of the trend; they are distinguished from predictions in that they do not necessarily focus on the most likely outcome.

Literalized metaphors examine an aspect of our world by taking a metaphor and making it concrete. Examples include using space aliens to address alienation, using clones to discuss conformity, and using a location on a distant planet as a metaphor for personal isolation. Metaphors such as these are used in non-science fiction as well, of course, but in SF the aliens, clones, or distant planets are literally rather than figuratively present in the world of the story.

Explorations of new science and technology simply use some new advance as the basis of a story. "What's in New Scientist today will be in Analog next year." Often in these stories something goes wrong with the new technology, but this is often done simply to create an exciting story rather than to criticize. An example is Arthur C. Clarke's A Fall of Moondust, which is basically a disaster movie based on the latest theories about the composition of the lunar surface (theories that later turned out to be incorrect).

How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later

Essay from 1978 by Philip K. Dick. Can we channel his spirit and ask him to be a collaborator?

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2e5a2A/www.deoxy.org/pkd_how2build.htm