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Why do we love science fiction and fantasy so much? Is it the escapism? Is it how those writers can capture our attention with the breadth and depth of their imaginations? Personally, I think it’s because SF/F speaks truth to power from an angle. Literary and contemporary fiction are often too on-the-nose, speaking directly to the troubles of our world in ways that make us want to tune out.
When sci-fi and fantasy do it, they’re speaking to those same troubles but through the lens of some fantastical, magical setting, or through an epic battle between warring galaxies. We read, turning page after page to find out what happens next, all the while reading about our own lives, though in a more palatable way.
And yet, it seems we’re often missing the point of these great science fiction and fantasy books.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Atwood’s classic has always been a cautionary tale about the frightening power of the patriarchy and how the bible can and has often been turned into a weapon. Women are second-class, forced into strict roles of labor, housekeeping, and child-rearing. What’s worse, Atwood based everything in the book on real-life events and actual bible verses.
Yet, in our own world, women’s rights are constantly being stripped away. Roe v. Wade was overturned by a conservative-majority Supreme Court, threatening bodily autonomy throughout the USA. Republicans are threatening to approve the SAVE Act, which would make it much harder for married women to vote if they changed their last name upon marriage. People who read the book and watched the lauded TV show have now voted against the rights of women, inching us closer to the reality of Atwood’s horrifying story of Gilead.
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
There’s a lot of brilliant stuff going on in Jemisin’s award-winning Broken Earth trilogy. At its center, it’s a story of how true power can be oppressed, though only so long as those with that power don’t realize that only they can destroy their shackles.
The story is talking about orogens, people with magic over the earth itself. But the lesson here is about the people: regular, everyday people always have the power to rise up and overthrow their oppressors.
But fascists are still getting elected. Those in power deflect and distract, creating false villains like transgender people and immigrants so that everyday people don’t see who the real villains are.
But maybe we do see that we have the power. When I look at Minneapolis, I see a whole city that refused to cower or back down. They also didn’t riot. They kept up a constant, peaceful protest in the face of violence and fascism. It’s a lesson we all have to take from Minneapolis and Jemisin.
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Star Wars, Imperial Radch, Foundation, Ninefox Gambit, and so many more
Empire. It’s certainly a four-letter word in the various universes of science fiction. So much of the world we live in was shaped, often for the worse, by empires of old: the Roman Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and so on. Always, these were wealthy nations conquering their way across the world by land or sea. They committed atrocities, stole land and resources, and enslaved others, all in the name of some religion or sense of divine right.
You know, evil. Just read An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for a primer.
Is it any surprise that empires pop up over and over as the great evil of the universe in science fiction, then? And yet, for all those who love Star Wars and know that Emperor Palpatine is evil, too many will willingly vote for fascist, racist, misogynists. Over and over and over again.
Ghost in the Shell by Masamune Shirow
Oh, this classic manga of the cyberpunk genre has so many lessons to teach us. Corporate greed and overreach? Yep. Technology creeping in to distance us from our humanity? Sure. Artificial intelligence’s risk of leading to the end of humanity as we know it? Oh, that’s a big one that speaks to us today. In the case of Ghost in the Shell, technology has pushed some people’s brains entirely into the cyber, opening them up to hacks and digital changes.
In a broader sense, Masamune’s classic manga poses questions about technology and humanity that are more relevant than ever. What is the future of art or work as AI keeps making leaps and bounds? How does this proliferation of AI affect our climate? Do we want the bleak future Ghost in the Shell presents, or do we course-correct now before it’s too late? So far, we seem to be ignoring its lessons.
1984 by George Orwell
“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command… and if all others accepted the lie, which the party imposed, if all records told the same tale, then the lie passed into history and became truth.”
In an age of AI misinformation, billionaires changing once-reputable news sources into right-wing state media, and those in power lying without flinching, this is the most important lesson of all. Believe who people show us they are, not who they try to tell us they are.