From: ghm@sserve.cc.adfa.oz.au (Geoff Miller)
Subject: Re: Political Science Fiction
Organization: Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, Australia
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 02:29:43 GMT

comrade@uniwa.uwa.edu.au (Peter Cooper) writes:

>dyfl@kbs.citri.edu.au (Daniel Lam) writes:

>>I once heard a talk where the speaker said that science fiction can
>>be roughly classified politically as either libertarian (e.g. Robert
>>Heinlein, Vernor Vinge) or socialist (e.g. H.G. Wells).

>Strange, I've never really associated HG Wells with socialism in his SF
>- it's been a while since I read _Tono_Bungay_ (sp?) which seemed to
>advocate a corporatist future (ala some cyberpunk, but set amongst the
>green hills of England :-)

There is a classification problem.  It's too simplistic to say
that any story set (no matter how nearly or remotely) in the future
is SF (Science Fiction), although if you take those initials to stand
for Speculative Fiction then the classification does hold.  Both
interpretations of SF can also be set in the present-day, of course.
Like Peter, it's a long time since I read any of Wells' SF, but as I
recall it didn't seem overly politicised, at least compared to some
of his other writing.  However, that is probably true of his fiction
generally  -  "History of Mr Polly", for instance.

>For what appears on the surface to be a very socialist-leaning SF, Iain
>M. Banks' -Culture- series of space-opera is a good example.  IMHO,
>anything that annoys hell out of the libertarians should be compulsory
>reading.

Well, it certainly annoyed me:-)

>  An American author of 'light' fiction, Lois McMaster Bujold
>consistently shows her more advanced societies as being predominantly
>socialist-leaning, although her background makes it difficult for her to
>be *too* radical ;-)

Another "political" SF novel is Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Dispossessed".
I found it depressing, although like almost everything she has done 
it's excellently written.

>But seriously, most thoughtful fiction that deals with societies tends
>to make some sort of political stand, doesn't it?  I mean, it is very
>difficult to advocate the -status-quo- when you are identifying problems
>with it ... and it's one of the things that a good subset of sf (and
>much other fiction) *are* concerned about....

It is probably true that authors with one sort of view of the world
look outward, at the world/universe as it might be  -  perhaps a
libertarian view encourages a greater interest in diversity?  Other
views of the world lead to a greater concentration on the world as
it might be  -  the "meaningful" and "politically correct" novel
which achieves great critical acclaim and no sales.  My suspicion
is that authors like Heinlein, Niven, Pournelle, Pournelle, etc.
find SF easier to write because of their philosophical bias, whereas
writers with different underlying beliefs work in different areas.
Thus, if you consider one literary genre you don't have a random
sample of authors' beliefs.

>>What do the SF fans have to say about this?  Can you offer a more
>>elaborate classification?  What do you think the impact of science
>>fiction has been on political debate?

>Haha.  Most fans wear pocket-protectors and coke-bottle-glasses, and
>have little to do with public policy ;-)  How can a ghettoised genre of
>fiction make a big impact? Look at massmarket SF - Star Wars (advocating
>liberty in a traditional, aristocrat-dominated state) and its kin, most
>of which seem to be myths and fairytales wrapped up in special effects,
>which don't seem to advocate very much at all.

Yes, to some extent (although the only glasses I wear are safety ones)
but if you talk about "Speculative" instead of "Science" fiction it 
isn't so constrained (or "ghettoised", if you must).  However, has
_any_ fiction had much impact on political debate?  Certainly there
are well-known works which were written as political or social satire,
but did even these really have much lasting impact?

Geoff Miller  (g-miller@adfa.oz.au)
Computer Centre, Australian Defence Force Academy
Newsgroups: aus.sf