The Implications of Science-Fiction

The technology in science-fiction is capable of having the same kind of metaphorical implications as the magic in fantasy. As I mentioned last week, the two kinds of literary device are the same in many ways. But, what makes these pairs different from each other (fantasy and magic on the one hand, science-fiction and technology on the other) bears some further investigation.

The primary difference I mentioned before was that the technology in science-fiction is meant to be within man’s grasp, although it is beyond our current capacity, whereas magic and the other things that appear in fantastical literature posit a radical difference between the real world

Science-Fiction is Aspirational

In my series on magic, I defined magic as using apparently unrelated means to achieve some end. Also, in that same series, I pointed out that, for those without the necessary knowledge and experience, any sort of skill seems “magical” in this sense. Given this, what exactly is the difference between fantasy and science-fiction? I mean, besides the outfits, the shape of the doohickeys they use, and drastically unequal degrees of personability, what distinguishes Snape saying, “Expelliarmus!” and zapping someone with a ray, from Captain Kirk saying, “Set phasers to stun,” and zapping someone with a ray? Quite a few things, you reductionist!

Sci-fi stories say: "our courage and ingenuity will take us
boldly where no man has gone before."

A big one is this: science-fiction presupposes that, although the forces and methods shown in the story may be currently undiscovered and practically “magical,” they are discoverable, and we will use the same kinds of means we've used so far to find them out and use them to our advantage.

The Terminator (part 1 of 2)

The Terminator is one of the action movies, helping to define the genre, as well as the style people call “80’s”. But it is by no means a stupid movie, or a shallow movie – it’s really very serious.