I came across this website with some 'laws' of good sci-fi, which you can find
here. Being an enthusiast of that genre, I thought I'd do some cursory analysis. The original text will be in Italics. My response will be in normal text that's colored lime green.
10. Earthmen are not all white or all men.
Subscribers to Science Fiction
magazines in the 1950s were predominantly adult educated white men working as
engineers or other technical jobs. White, educated men with technical
backgrounds wrote SF stories. There is a strong tradition dating from the
Golden Age of SF that SF protagonists are white educated males.
Today, SF readers are younger and
much more diverse. SF characters need to reflect the diversity of its
readership. It should be as diverse as the backgrounds of the readers, and even
more so. Characters need to be all age groups from very young to very old.
Ethnically they need to reflect the readership and then push the limits.
Sexually, there should be reality-based characters that represent the readers’
real world.
Science Fiction should expand the
worldview of its readers and expose them to much more than the normal, expected
and ordinary. Nowhere is this more important than in the characters that
populate SF stories.
So much for not paying attention to immutable characteristics like race... As both a reader and writer, I genuinely do not care about a character's ethnic background unless it plays some role in the story or character's development. There's a sci-fi novel I am working on now where the lead character is a tall white man from Texas. However, his character background (so far) is so vague that he could easily be Hispanic, Black or mixed and it would not affect his development at all. If his background doesn't matter to me as the author, will it matter to my readers? I would venture to say no.
Then again, I'm one of those weird people that actually believes in what MLK said about 'judging not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character' rather than one of these SJW assholes. So, what do I know?
9. No
Supermen
A Science Fiction writer should
never put beings into a story that are so far superior to men that we cannot
understand their motives, we cannot overcome their will or we cannot meet them
face to face in a fair fight. It is not interesting that there is a being out
there who can simply step on us like an ant. This is one of the rules of the
famous Science Fiction editor John W. Campbell, Jr.
It is quite possible that we will
meet such beings, but it will not be such a good story because the aliens will
destroy us, ignore us, or take us as pets.
In order for there to be
interaction, or conflict, the protagonist has to have at least a chance of
success. He has to out fight, out smart, out luck, or out something in order to
make an interesting plot resolution. Avoiding the superman is not interesting.
If you can avoid him, he may not be so super. All villains have to have a
weaknesses and faults. Even the hero should have a few faults, and it helps if the
pretty girl brought along by mistake has a few as well.
The hero’s cause can look
hopeless, but we expect that. It is always interesting to see how someone gets
out of a sticky situation, but it is no fun when the cause is without any hope.
Agreed. Writing for Superman is incredibly difficult. That's why some of his movies have been a little suspect over the years.
8. No Star Trek or
Star Wars.
Nothing can kill a story,
conversation, or relationship deader than an inappropriate reference to Star
Trek or Star Wars.
Star Trek and Star Wars are
worlds unto themselves. They are beyond judgment and criticism. It doesn’t
matter how bad any individual scene or episode is, on the whole the worst Star
Trek episode is better than anything else that has ever been on television.
But, don’t ever think that Star Trek and Star Wars are good Science Fiction.
Rarely, they have had moments where they approach good SF, but only rarely.
Authors, please do not bring
elements of ST and SW into your stories. Don’t use Phasers, teleporters,
droids, Klingons, Wookies, the prime directive and especially never bring “The
Force” into a story. This, of course, includes renaming things.
The technology, philosophies,
plots and characters of ST, SW, Bab-5, BG, and other TV shows are so obvious
and easily recognizable that these elements, no matter how well disguised, are
instantly flagged as a bad imitation.
Star Wars is more Science Fantasy than genuine Science Fiction. Also, Star Trek is the gold and platinum standard in Sci-Fi. Don't let the utter crap that is 'Discovery' fool you. As for my story... Well, the only Trek-like elements in it so far would be a few technologies like faster-than-light travel. However, mine is called 'Hyperlight' and it works different from the warp drive on the Enterprise.
As for any 'philosophy' my story may have... Well, it wouldn't be at all similar to Star Wars and Star Trek. Star Wars is just classic good vs. evil in a new package. Star Trek is a moderately Humanist message with a special emphasis on the idea that Technology is Good. My story's philosophy would probably be summed up as 'mind your own business and don't poke the bear.'
7. Science
Fiction is Real.
Science Fiction is not like
fantasy. Science Fiction has to plausible, realistic, possible and yes, it has
to be real. Even if it hasn’t happened yet, or never happened in the past,
Science Fiction has to be possible in some alternate world. Elements that make
a story downright impossible make a story something other than Science Fiction.
There is a lot of leeway as to
what reality includes, especially when dealing with a possible science or
technology. It is important that the ideas appear to be real and do not raise
obvious objections. There will always be a certain level of what Coleridge
called the “willing suspension of disbelief”, but a Science Fiction story
should never ask a reader to swallow something that is obviously ridiculous or
patently impossible without a lot of convincing explanation.
Reality includes creating
scientific principles and concepts for which there is no current basis. These
scientific notions must be plausible in the sense that they act like the
scientific principle which we currently are sure of, but they may not so
outlandish as to negate anything we are pretty sure is true now.
Certain things so obviously lack
reality that they cannot appear in a Science Fiction story. Vampires, zombies,
ghosts, demons, unicorns, elves, and magic are mythical and have no scientific
basis, and they are incompatible with Science Fiction. No amount of
rationalization is going to make a vampire seem scientifically sound.
Religious ideas such as God,
angels, devils, life after death and miracles have a kind of reality based on
faith, but are not describable using the scientific method. They are perfectly
acceptable as part of a society’s or character’s belief set, but under no
circumstances should Jesus appear in a story as a fictional character.
One of the things that makes SF
so compelling is that there is a feeling that what we read is real. It may be
happening to fictional characters in a fictional situation, but the science and
technology are a very real and important part of a reality that affects our
lives.
I wouldn't use any of the characters mentioned in this rule, especially Jesus. They don't fit with Sci-Fi and you can't re-imagine them in a way that readers would accept.
Also, the tech described in my story are all based on real scientific theories, even if some of them are extremely theoretical and (currently) impossible to test. (Super-luminal travel, Dyson spheres, Matrioshka Brains, etc.) That is also one of the VERY few things my story has in common with Star Trek.
6. Giving
Something an Alien Name Doesn’t Make it Alien.
Raktajino is coffee. By giving it
a Klingon name it sort of appears alien, but everyone drinks it like coffee. It
looks like coffee. It is coffee. Writers should not think that making cows into
Dvigids and Horses into Pytkos that they are not writing a western. Pistols
should not be a ray gun unless the difference between a pistol and a ray gun is
important to the plot.
A possible future or an alien
culture should not be full of aliases for things that belong in our time on
earth – that’s just lazy.
A western can’t be turned into SF
by changing Texas to Alderan 7. Humans can’t be transformed into aliens by
changing their appearance. A murder mystery set on a space station is a murder
mystery, not Science Fiction.
Damon Knight described this as
“calling a rabbit a smeerp.”
And yet, the Klingons were still the stand-in for the Soviets whenever the original Star Trek series wanted to do a story that was a Cold War allegory. (A Private Little War, Errand of Mercy, etc.) I'm not sure if this is a good rule or not. There are numerous ways a talented writer could circumvent this one.
5. Aliens
Should be Alien
It is quite possible that in the
next thousand years we will find intelligent aliens or that they will find us.
It is not at all likely that they will be buxom babes with an urge to procreate
with the men of Earth.
TV and Movie Scifi uses humans,
usually with a strange shape of ear, a long tongue, or wearing a rubber alien
suit, because it is hard to make stories about truly alien aliens. Very often
aliens are not characters, but props or monsters, especially in movies, making
the story not Science Fiction, but a horror movie.
It is quite possible that any
alien will be humanoid with symmetric bodies, a head, arms, legs, hands, mouths
and eyes that work similarly to their human equivalents. It will be unlikely
that they work the same way, though. Sharks and Dolphins are similar looking,
but very different creatures, so aliens may look like men in many ways.
Aliens may have two sexes, but
are unlikely to be mammals and therefore will not have breasts or lips. They
may communicate through sound, but even if they do, they will probably not be
able to mimic human sound patterns. Lips are an adaptation for drinking milk
from breasts. On earth there are many ways in which a creature feeds its young.
Breast milk is one way, but this may not be common on other planets. It seems a
good solution to us, but may not be the best way. Creatures without breasts do
not have lips.
Aliens will not be like us.
Corollary laws:
A. You will never meet an alien who
speaks English like a native.
B. Aliens just like us, but with little squiggles on their noses only appear in
low budget TV shows.
C. We will never be able to have sex with aliens using the missionary position.
D. Aliens as far as they have personalities will be more likely to be
aggressive and pushy. There are not likely to be kindly, friendly and caring
aliens because they would not have the drive to explore space. (In this way,
they will be much like us.)
E. Real aliens don’t act anything like you’d expect them to act. For instance,
they will not be Nazis.
I found ways around this rule and its corollaries for the antagonist species in my story. Turns out they are a super advanced civilization that uploaded their intellect to a computer eons ago. They occasionally download themselves into vaguely humanoid android bodies whenever they need to do something in the physical world. Their original biological forms were a horrific Lovecraftian cephalopod form instead of anything humanoid. And no, they don't act like Nazis. In some ways, that might actually make them less evil.
4. No Nazis!
Lazy writers have no idea how to
create a villain. Villains are human beings with character flaws, psychological
handicaps, or even bad luck that forces them to do bad things. They are hard to
create, hard to develop and hard to write. The motivation of someone who
performs evil acts is difficult for a writer to explain to a reader.
Writers use short cuts. There are
classes of characters who are ready-made cookie cutter villains, and require no
thought or effort to put in a story. These include Nazis, serial killers,
Islamic terrorists, crooked cops, greedy businessmen, maniacs, corrupt
politicians, drug fiends, and sadistic nuns.
A writer should use his
experience and his imagination to develop characters. A reader should be able
to recognize a character as being like someone they may know. A villain should
also have a sympathetic element. This is one of the ways to make truly believable
characters, and a believable character is the way to bring a reader or viewer
into a story line. A writer must create villains that are recognized,
understood and even pitied by the reader. Developing a villain is one of the
three or four things that make writing hard, but a good villain is one of the
three or four things that make fiction good.
A writer who includes World War
II Nazis in his story has given up trying to make a real character and has
opted for taking the cheap and easy path.
TV shows and Movies are
particularly prone to using WWII Nazis, or proto-Nazi villains (cruel men with
dark uniforms), simply because there is so little opportunity to develop a good
villain in the short time available in a film.
Agreed. Making characters into 'Space Nazis' would have been VERY lazy of me. However, I do have one alien species in this story that is rather militant. Some who are ignorant of History might mistake them for a Nazi allegory that doesn't involve a Holocaust of some kind. However, I think that species is more of a commentary on the futility of Imperialism. Their society, as I have currently laid it out in my mind, has more in common with Spartans, Romans and Mongols than the Nazis.
3. Good
Science Fiction is Good Science.
You cannot take the science out
of Science Fiction. Science Fiction is not Mythical, Magical or Religious. It
is Scientific. Myth, Magic and Religion may be subjects that appear in SF, but
there is fundamental difference between Fantasy, Horror and Science fiction,
and that is that SF requires real or believable science as part of the plot.
There is a quote somewhere which
sort of goes “Advanced science will be indistinguishable from magic”, but when
you can’t tell the difference between Science and Magic, it is no longer
Science Fiction.
Science must be a part of science
fiction. In a real SF story, the science must be so integral to the plot that
it cannot be removed from the story.
The science can be mundane,
technological, futuristic, advanced or even steampunk science, but it must be
part of the story. Stories that take place on other planets or in space are
probably science fiction stories. Stories of alien contact may be science
fiction, but without fundamental science, are properly classified as horror.
Magical powers like telepathy,
visions of the future or communication with the dead are not scientific and not
Science Fiction, and they should be classified as Fantasy.
A science fiction story needs to
be scientifically real. There must be an element that leads the reader to
think, “Yes, this is possible”.
The famous Western Writer, Louis
L’Amour describes in an introduction in one of his books the Western Landscape
as an active character in a Western Novel. Westerns are not so much stories
that take place in a certain place and time as stories about how human beings
cope with the land. The deserts, mountains, weather and climate all play an
important part in Louis L’Amour stories. It not enough that the stories take
place in the West. His stories cannot succeed without some characteristic of
the land playing an important role.
Just as the Western Landscape
must be a kind of character in a Western, or the sea is a major force in C. S.
Forester’s Hornblower novels, so must good science be a character in a Science
Fiction Story.
There are no magical powers in any of my work, unless there's a Supernatural entity involved. I don't use characters like that very often and none appear in my sci-fi novel. Also, no one will be mistaking the advanced technology for magic since none of the characters are primitives. Neither are my readers.
2. Science
Fiction has a Sense of Wonder
Science Fiction is a unique
genre. It blends Technology with Fantasy to create a world in the imagination.
The world Science fiction creates is much more than ordinary reality. It is a
world of dreams and speculation. Science fiction has embedded in the plots,
characters and ideas the goal of an amazing universe of possibility.
True Science fiction is imbued
with Sense of Wonder. The reader should be astounded, amazed, and inspired.
This sense of wonder is what separates Science Fiction from mainstream
technical thrillers.
Science Fiction is the direct
product of daydreams and wanderings of imagination. It draws the reader into a
feeling of awe about the open-ended universe of what-if. This sense of wonder
is what separates, more than anything else, Science Fiction from other genres.
It is this sense of wonder that makes young boys so addicted to Science Fiction
that we are still reading it when we are old men.
Is this a rule or just a general statement on the nature of the genre? I can't tell.
1. Science
Fiction Changes the World for the Better.
We live in a Science Fiction
world. As Ray Bradbury said, “Anything you dream is fiction, and anything you
accomplish is science, the whole history of mankind is nothing but science
fiction”.
TV, computers, cell phones, cures
for diseases, the exploration of space – all of these things are the subjects
of Science Fiction. Science Fiction is a “What If” literature dealing with
Technology, Science and the future.
I am sure that almost every major
advance in modern science and technology for the last 50 years appeared first
in a Science Fiction novel or short story.
What is more, I think that most,
if not all advances in modern science and technology were motivated by a
Science Fiction idea. Science Fiction leads and the real world follows. Science
is possible because of the Science Fiction notion that there is a new world
coming.
The proper function of writing
Science Fiction, other than to entertain is to chart the dreams of our futures.
A Science Fiction writer warns us of obstacles and dangers to come and shows us
the promises of our imagination. Science Fiction is literature where a man’s
vision is temporarily cast into a plot with characters so that some day it may
become reality.
Science Fiction works out our
needs, hopes and problems in the form of a written page, but its goal is to
create a future world where the human condition is vastly improved.
Again, is this a rule or a statement on the nature of the genre? All of this is well-known to lovers of the genre. Why do you think it was once called 'speculative fiction' in years past?
RULE ZERO!
Many readers of this list
complain that I am being too harsh in my judgments and the many great SF
stories break these rules. I only have one case where any Science Fiction story
can break a rule without failing.
A Science
Fiction Story Should Be Fun!
With the exception of rule #4, a
good story can break any of the above rules as long as everyone has a good
time. SF’s lowest common denominator is cheap thrills. It is often not
literature, but escapist reading for enjoyment. A good story can overcome any
breach of rules as long as the reader is transported to a land of imagination
that makes all transgressions forgivable. (I still think any story with a Nazi
sucks the big one, though).
My stories are not likely to break (many) of these rules. However, they will be a lot of fun... if they ever get finished and published. Also, I am not interested in ever using Nazis in my stories. They are beyond trite at this point. If not for their horrible atrocities, they would be nothing but a complete joke to people nowadays.
- Lord Publius
