On Newsnight Review last night, the panel discussed science fiction. That got me thinking about what science fiction is, or at least what it should be. Kevin Smith, the creator of Dogma, said that essentially sci-fi just transfers real life stories into another framework, characterised by being very different to our reality. That’s probably true, but it’s not the full story. Not all stories are easily transferrable, or transferrable at all, to this imaginary other world. Imagine, for instance, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in a space station. Words can’t begin to express how this would utterly ruin the story. Firstly, its charm would be utterly removed—but that’s probably immaterial. Most importantly, nothing at all is gained from the shift. We learn no more about pride, prejudice or love from having the story exactly the same but in a different location. The writer must think, when choosing his location, why he wants it to be set there, and how, dramatically, it serves his story. [Read more →]