i’ve just received a wonderful review from a friend for Down the River, the second book in the River City Chronicles. In it, the reviewer talks about how the story provided such a great escape from all the awful things going on today.
It made me think once again about the responsibility that we, as authors – and especially those of us who write speculative fiction – have to our readers and to the world at large.
On the one hand, as a purveyor of science fiction, part of what I try to do is to reflect on what’s happening in our current world and suggest what might come next. Sometimes, this comes in the form of wonder – look at this amazing thing that might come to pass. And sometimes it comes in the form of a dire warning.
Science fiction has always played the latter role.
Frankenstein suggested the dangers inherent in mucking around with human genetics and the human form.
Terminator famously warned us against the dangers of AI, taking over the world, albeit in ways that were much less subtle than what we’re seeing today. And of course, you can argue that what we have today is not AI at all, except in name only.
And towering works of recent science fiction like Ministry for the Future have provided us with stark warnings about the dangers of climate change.
I have sounded the climate change warning in my own work, weaving the theme in a number of my stories, most pointedly in Slow Thaw, a gay romance set against the background of the rapidly warming Antarctic.
But while I believe it’s necessary to warn and sometimes scare our fellow human beings about what might be coming, it feels just as important is to inspire them and give them hope.
I first heard about the hopepunk genre a few years ago, and immediately realized that was what I was writing. Although I have a bad habit of destroying the Earth in a number of my stories, even in those tales there’s a strong thread of hope about what might come next.
In the River City series, it’s an insular hope – an invitation to cocoon yourself in a warm and fuzzy place where friendship is paramount, the Italian food is tantalizing, and things always work out in the end. A recharge for the soul.
In my science fiction books, it’s more of a hopeful looking forward – we will survive this too.
I am near the end of my Dropnauts sequel Coredivers. One of the characters is confronted with a weigted question. How has humanity changed? Are we worthy of taking the next step?
As I’m writing it, I’m realizing it’s all about hope and change – the idea that even in our darkest moments, things can get better. We are still capable of positive change.
Ultimately, that’s the lesson of science fiction. Progress is possible.
So do what you have to do to stay afloat right now. Retreat into comforting fictional worlds. Reach out to your friends. Don’t let those who sow chaos set up shop in your mind and soul.
And repeat yourself as often as necessary:
This too shall pass. We can be better than this.