{"id":2738,"date":"2015-08-12T17:35:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-13T00:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=2738"},"modified":"2020-10-18T11:52:21","modified_gmt":"2020-10-18T18:52:21","slug":"ken-macleod-on-science-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2015\/08\/12\/ken-macleod-on-science-fiction\/","title":{"rendered":"Ken MacLeod on Science Fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Terrific essay by Ken MacLeod, at a site called OpenDemocracy\/Transformation, which is called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opendemocracy.net\/transformation\/ken-macleod\/science-fiction-taking-science-personally\">Science fiction: taking science personally<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I say it&#8217;s terrific because it expresses my own thoughts that science fiction is mainly a way of thinking about the world. The essay describes Ken and Iain Banks chatting in a pub with another writer.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nWe explained that SF was the language we used to engage with big questions: the dizzying vistas opened by science and technology; how societies work and how they change; what might yet be and what might have been. At its strongest, strangest moments SF gives its readers what some of them call \u2018the sense of wonder\u2019 \u2013 that distinctive, addictive kick of the sublime which comes from vividly imagining oneself in the presence of the immense: deep time, deep space, and natural or artificial objects of gigantic scale or fascinating complexity.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This other writer thinks, &#8220;It sounds like science fiction is your religion.&#8221; Well, in a sense, as MacLeod says:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nLike religion, SF gives us a symbolic relationship with a reality beyond, and yet intrinsic to and underlying, everyday life. That reality is the universe as we&#8217;ve come to understand it through science: vast, ancient, and indifferent; and inarguably <em>there<\/em>.<br \/>\nWhere SF differs from religion is that the reality isn&#8217;t apprehended by faith, but by everyday sense and reason.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Exactly.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll resist quoting more, but I appreciate the observation that in contemporary fiction, outside the SF genre, the realities of the universe &#8220;are barely acknowledged&#8221;. OK, one more quote:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nIn literary fiction, unless the plot demands Australia, the Earth might as well be flat. A novel as much influenced by the findings of current psychology and neuroscience as some 20th-Century fiction was by psychoanalysis has yet to be written&#8230;\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And the para &#8220;These three features&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Terrific essay by Ken MacLeod, at a site called OpenDemocracy\/Transformation, which is called Science fiction: taking science personally. I say it&#8217;s terrific because it expresses my own thoughts that science fiction is mainly a way of thinking about the world. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2015\/08\/12\/ken-macleod-on-science-fiction\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2739,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2738\/revisions\/2739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}