Social science fiction
Encyclopedia
Social science fiction is a term used to describe a subgenre of science fiction
concerned less with technology and space opera
and more with sociological speculation about human society. In other words, it "absorbs and discusses anthropology", and speculates about human behavior and interactions.
Exploration of fictional societies is one of the most interesting aspects of science fiction
, allowing it to perform predictive (H.G. Wells, The Final Circle of Paradise
) and precautionary (Fahrenheit 451
) functions, to criticize the contemporary world (Antarctica-online) and to present solutions (Walden Two
), to portray alternative societies (World of the Noon) and to examine the implications of ethical principles (the works of Sergei Lukyanenko
).
, which could be considered as extreme special cases of the genre.
One of the first writers who used science fiction to explore sociological topics was H.G. Wells, with his classic The Time Machine
(1895) revealing the human race diverging into separate branches of Eloi
s and Morlock
s as a consequence of class inequality
: a happy pastoral society of Elois preyed upon by the Morlocks but yet needing them to keep their world functioning. Wells' The Sleeper Awakes
(1899, 1910) predicted the spirit of the 20th century: technically advanced, undemocratic and bloody. In 1888, Edward Bellamy
penned Looking Backward: 2000-1887
, a hugely influential utopian novel with socialist themes that outsold all but two books of the era.
In the U.S. the new trend of science fiction away from gadgets and space opera and toward speculation about the human condition was championed in pulp magazines of the 1940s by authors such as Robert A. Heinlein
and by Isaac Asimov
, who coined the term social science fiction to describe his own work. The term is not often used today except in the context of referring specifically to the changes that took place in the 1940s, but the subgenre it defines is still a mainstay of science fiction.
Many of the best known dystopia
s were inspired by reality: Aldous Huxley
's "negative utopia" Brave New World
(1932) and, alluding to the Soviet Union
, Animal Farm
(1945) and the Western world in Nineteen Eighty-Four
(1949) by George Orwell
. In 1921 Yevgeny Zamyatin
wrote his bitter novel We
, forecasting the "victory of forces of reason over forces of kindness" in Soviet Russia; prior to perestroika
it was known only in the West and influenced both Orwell and Huxley. "The thought-destroying force" of McCarthyism
influenced Ray Bradbury
's Fahrenheit 451
(1953).
The Chrysalids
(1955) by John Wyndham
explored the society of several telepathic children in a world hostile to such differences. Robert Sheckley
studied polar civilizations of criminal and stability in his 1960 novel The Status Civilization
.
The modern era of social science fiction began with the 1960s, when authors such as Harlan Ellison
, Brian Aldiss
, and Ursula K. Le Guin
wrote novels and stories that reflected real-world political developments. Ellison's main theme was the protest against increasing militarism. LeGuin in The Left Hand of Darkness
(1969) explored non-traditional sexual relations. Kurt Vonnegut
wrote Slaughterhouse-Five
(1969), which used the science fiction storytelling device of time-travel to explore anti-war, moral, and sociological themes. Frederik Pohl
's series Gateway
(1977 — 2004) combined social science fiction with hard science fiction
. Among the finest modern exponents of social science fiction in the Campbellian/Heinlein tradition is L. Neil Smith
, who is considered the heir to Robert A. Heinlein
's individualism
and libertarianism
in science fiction, and who wrote both The Probability Broach
(1981) and Pallas, which dealt with alternative "sideways in time" futures
and what a libertarian society would look like.
Kim Stanley Robinson
explored different models of the future in Three Californias Trilogy
(1984, 1988, 1990).
The Saga of Recluce
(1991 — now), by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
represents a fusion of science fiction and fantasy
that can be described as social science fiction. The 13 books of the series describe the changing relationships between two technologically advanced cultures and the cultures of a primitive world to which each is involuntarily transported. Themes of gender stereotyping, sexism, ethics, economics, environmentalism and politics are explored in the course of the series, which examines the world through the eyes of all its protagonists.
Doris Lessing
won the 2007 Nobel Prize for literature. Although mostly known for her mainstream works, she wrote numerous notable works of social science fiction, including Memoirs of a Survivor
(1974), Briefing for a Descent into Hell (1971) the Canopus in Argos
series (1974–1983), and The Cleft
(2007).
Caron Cro's Tierra del Fuego, Colony Ship (2010) explores a new social order during a ship voyage of 120 years to colonize a habitable planet. The Compact includes an animal bill of rights, a recognition of same sex partnerships, and procreation through randomly assigned embryos representing all ethnicities from Earth.
, imprisonment
or psychiatric treatment
under Leonid Brezhnev
. There were poor and opportunistic works, there were works of talent touched by ideology (e.g. 1923 Aelita
or 1926 The Garin Death Ray by Alexei Tolstoy
), there were non-ideological works describing the happy future of humankind (some works of Kir Bulychev
and Ivan Efremov), but also such writers as Mikhail Bulgakov
, Evgeny Shvarts
and Boris and Arkady Strugatsky who chose the hard way of "balancing" on the edge, struggling not to betray their views while avoiding punishment for expressing them.
The 1920s brought Andrey Platonov and Yevgeny Zamyatin
, but it was not until the time of Perestroika
that their works were published in the Soviet Union.
One exception is an example of critique under Stalin — Evgeny Shvarts' play The Dragon (1944), showing how totalitarianism
thrusts its roots into the hearts of the people.
The next period of science fiction in the Soviet Union was shaped by the greater liberalization of the Nikita Khrushchev
regime, advances of science, and the beginning of the space age.
In 1957 Ivan Efremov wrote the utopian Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale, revealing a harmonious space-exploring civilization of the distant future, whose culture took much from antique art. His further works included Razor's Edge (1963) emphasizing narrowness of the way of successful development of a civilization, and the dystopian The Bull's Hour
(1968).
Amongst the best known social science fiction is the Noon Universe
of Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
, designed to be a future world of "communism", where creative work is considered the highest purpose, but unlike utopian worlds, Noon Universe is settled by real people. The rise of reaction, initiated by Khrushchev's public criticism of modern art and literature in 1963, showed to Strugatsky that "while for us communism was a world of freedom and creativity, for them it was the society, in which the population fulfilled immediately and with pleasure all precepts of the Party
and the government". This largely affected their Hard to be a God
(1963).
Suppression of the Prague Spring
in 1968 ultimately ruined Strugatsky's dreams about the Soviet rule. Another Noon Universe novel, Prisoners of Power
(1969), somehow alluding to Soviet Union
describes Maxim Kammerer
, crashed on an unknown planet in the wrecked Land of Fathers, and his attempt to destroy the system of transmission which deprived his new friends of ability of critical thinking.
"Kin Dza Dza" is a Soviet comedy taking place on other planets which makes fun of capitalism, classism, and cultural centrism.
Social science fiction turned out to be a powerful means to respond to real situations in communist countries. While communist rules did not allow any critique, one possibility was to veil it as a science fiction world. In the 1980s the genre called 'sociological fantasy' (fantastyka sociologiczna) arose in the People's Republic of Poland
. It focused on the development of societies, generally dominated by totalitarian
governments. This genre was represented by writers like Janusz A. Zajdel (Limes Inferior
, Paradyzja
), Edmund Wnuk-Lipiński
(Apostezjon trilogy), Adam Wiśniewski-Snerg
or Marek Oramus
. Books from that genre were based in different times (usually in the future), and usually were pretexts for analysing structures of the described societies, being full of allusions to reality. After the revolutions of 1989
, when using real world examples became as safe in former Eastern Bloc
countries as in their Western counterparts, this genre mostly transformed itself into a political fiction
, represented by writers such as Rafał A. Ziemkiewicz.
only for several years — it was well explored, so usually only small amounts of it can be found:
An important study of consumer capitalism
on the Russian soil was carried by Victor Pelevin
, who described Russian "wild capitalism" in his 1999 Generation "П", and continued this theme, describing the situation in his 2006 novel Empire V as "anonymous dictatorship", aimed to trap people's minds in a rush for riches.
Since disbandment of KGB
in 1991, dissident trend in science fiction transformed as well. Government in 1999 Rejection (Wybrakovka) by Oleg Divov responded on rise of crime in 1990s by creating the service rejecting millions criminals out of life; the book raised discussions which hardly subsided now (inaccurate quote of the main hero, "the world envies Slavian Union, because it's the only country where human rights are really guaranteed — but rights of law-abiding citizens."). Hero of Sergey Lukyanenko
's Spectrum
(2002) prefers not to seek troubles cooperating with FSB
, though taking it half-ironically ("Or do you consider that government is able to exist without counterintelligence?"). Looking broader, society ruled by intelligence services disturbs citizens, but democracy is unable to react on sharp threats, as shown in the duology Soft Landing, Year of the Lemming by Alexander Gromov
. But what about personal freedom? Here comes a revelation, because it's a function not only of condition of society but of person's will as well. As a polar case, Pavel Gusev considers himself free in harsh world of Divov's Rejection. Freedom does not make happier lives of several male refugee's in matriarchal world of Gromov's The First of the Mohicans, but it makes them people; the male oppositioner finds it possible to fight for this world against alien threat, remembering Helots
who became mentally free fighting for Spartians. Moreover, true democracy may be built only by responsible people able to refresh the tree of liberty with their blood, as Gromov showd in Antarctica-online. This approaches theme of individualism
; world dying since people's assurance there's definitely someone to care for them is theme of several late stories by Leonid Kaganov. However this fails to be the essence of modern Russian science fiction, only a slice cut in this plane.
Social science fiction as investigation of various social systems without evident political subtext is well represented in works of many writers, such as Alexander Gromov
, Sergey Lukyanenko
(Knights of Forty Islands, The Stars Are Cold Toys
— Star Shadow), Marina and Sergey Dyachenko
. In some sense writers prolongate human-centered tradition of Russian classic literature of 19th century in contemporary themes and prose.
"Eurochinese humanist" Holm van Zaichik (pen name of Vyacheslav Rybakov
and Igor Alimov) is known for the world of Orduss, a fictional country unifying China, Russia, Near East, forming a humane society with rich culture.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
concerned less with technology and space opera
Space opera
Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in outer space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing advanced technologies and abilities. The term has no relation to music and it is analogous to "soap...
and more with sociological speculation about human society. In other words, it "absorbs and discusses anthropology", and speculates about human behavior and interactions.
Exploration of fictional societies is one of the most interesting aspects of science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
, allowing it to perform predictive (H.G. Wells, The Final Circle of Paradise
The Final Circle of Paradise
The Final Circle of Paradise is a science fiction novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky set in the first half of the 21st century. It was first published in the USSR in 1965 and the first English edition, translated by Leonid Renen, was published by DAW books in 1976...
) and precautionary (Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 dystopian novel by Ray Bradbury. The novel presents a future American society where reading is outlawed and firemen start fires to burn books...
) functions, to criticize the contemporary world (Antarctica-online) and to present solutions (Walden Two
Walden Two
Walden Two is a utopian novel written by behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner, first published in 1948. In its time, it could have been considered to be science fiction, as the methods employed to alter people's behaviour did not yet exist....
), to portray alternative societies (World of the Noon) and to examine the implications of ethical principles (the works of Sergei Lukyanenko
Sergey Lukyanenko bibliography
-Sergey Lukyanenko ., et al. , Knights of Forty Islands:The story is about several contemporary teenagers "copied" into an artificial environment, where they are forced to play a game with very harsh rules....
).
Social science fiction in English
Some roots of the genre may lie in such social speculations as utopian and dystopian fictionUtopian and dystopian fiction
The utopia and its offshoot, the dystopia, are genres of literature that explore social and political structures. Utopian fiction is the creation of an ideal world, or utopia, as the setting for a novel. Dystopian fiction is the opposite: creation of a nightmare world, or dystopia...
, which could be considered as extreme special cases of the genre.
One of the first writers who used science fiction to explore sociological topics was H.G. Wells, with his classic The Time Machine
The Time Machine
The Time Machine is a science fiction novella by H. G. Wells, published in 1895 for the first time and later adapted into at least two feature films of the same name, as well as two television versions, and a large number of comic book adaptations. It indirectly inspired many more works of fiction...
(1895) revealing the human race diverging into separate branches of Eloi
Eloi
The Eloi are one of the two post-human races in H. G. Wells' 1895 novel The Time Machine.-In The Time Machine:By the year 802,701 AD, humanity has evolved into two separate species: the Eloi and the Morlocks...
s and Morlock
Morlock
Morlocks are a fictional species created by H. G. Wells for his 1895 novel, The Time Machine. They dwell underground in the English countryside of 802,701 AD in a troglodyte civilization, maintaining ancient machines that they may or may not remember how to build...
s as a consequence of class inequality
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
: a happy pastoral society of Elois preyed upon by the Morlocks but yet needing them to keep their world functioning. Wells' The Sleeper Awakes
The Sleeper Awakes
The Sleeper Awakes is a dystopian novel by H. G. Wells about a man who sleeps for two hundred and three years, waking up in a completely transformed London, where, because of compound interest on his bank accounts, he has become the richest man in the world...
(1899, 1910) predicted the spirit of the 20th century: technically advanced, undemocratic and bloody. In 1888, Edward Bellamy
Edward Bellamy
Edward Bellamy was an American author and socialist, most famous for his utopian novel, Looking Backward, set in the year 2000. He was a very influential writer during the Gilded Age of United States history.-Early life:...
penned Looking Backward: 2000-1887
Looking Backward
Looking Backward: 2000-1887 is a utopian science fiction novel by Edward Bellamy, a lawyer and writer from western Massachusetts; it was first published in 1887...
, a hugely influential utopian novel with socialist themes that outsold all but two books of the era.
In the U.S. the new trend of science fiction away from gadgets and space opera and toward speculation about the human condition was championed in pulp magazines of the 1940s by authors such as Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
and by Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
, who coined the term social science fiction to describe his own work. The term is not often used today except in the context of referring specifically to the changes that took place in the 1940s, but the subgenre it defines is still a mainstay of science fiction.
Many of the best known dystopia
Dystopia
A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian, as characterized in books like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four...
s were inspired by reality: Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
's "negative utopia" Brave New World
Brave New World
Brave New World is Aldous Huxley's fifth novel, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Set in London of AD 2540 , the novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology and sleep-learning that combine to change society. The future society is an embodiment of the ideals that form the basis of...
(1932) and, alluding to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, Animal Farm
Animal Farm
Animal Farm is an allegorical novella by George Orwell published in England on 17 August 1945. According to Orwell, the book reflects events leading up to and during the Stalin era before World War II...
(1945) and the Western world in Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...
(1949) by George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
. In 1921 Yevgeny Zamyatin
Yevgeny Zamyatin
Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin was a Russian author of science fiction and political satire. Despite having been a prominent Old Bolshevik, Zamyatin was deeply disturbed by the policies pursued by the CPSU following the October Revolution...
wrote his bitter novel We
We (novel)
We is a dystopian novel by Yevgeny Zamyatin completed in 1921. It was written in response to the author's personal experiences during the Russian revolution of 1905, the Russian revolution of 1917, his life in the Newcastle suburb of Jesmond, and his work in the Tyne shipyards during the First...
, forecasting the "victory of forces of reason over forces of kindness" in Soviet Russia; prior to perestroika
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
it was known only in the West and influenced both Orwell and Huxley. "The thought-destroying force" of McCarthyism
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
influenced Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
's Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 dystopian novel by Ray Bradbury. The novel presents a future American society where reading is outlawed and firemen start fires to burn books...
(1953).
The Chrysalids
The Chrysalids
The Chrysalids is a science fiction novel by John Wyndham, first published in 1955 by Michael Joseph. It is the least typical of Wyndham's major novels, but regarded by some people as his best...
(1955) by John Wyndham
John Wyndham
John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris was an English science fiction writer who usually used the pen name John Wyndham, although he also used other combinations of his names, such as John Beynon and Lucas Parkes...
explored the society of several telepathic children in a world hostile to such differences. Robert Sheckley
Robert Sheckley
Robert Sheckley was a Hugo- and Nebula-nominated American author. First published in the science fiction magazines of the 1950s, his numerous quick-witted stories and novels were famously unpredictable, absurdist and broadly comical.Sheckley was named Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and...
studied polar civilizations of criminal and stability in his 1960 novel The Status Civilization
The Status Civilization
The Status Civilization is a science fiction novel by Robert Sheckley, first published in 1960.The Status Civilization concerns Will Barrent, a man who finds himself, without memory of any crime or, indeed, of his previous life, being shipped across space to the planet Omega.Omega, used to imprison...
.
The modern era of social science fiction began with the 1960s, when authors such as Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
, Brian Aldiss
Brian Aldiss
Brian Wilson Aldiss, OBE is an English author of both general fiction and science fiction. His byline reads either Brian W. Aldiss or simply Brian Aldiss. Greatly influenced by science fiction pioneer H. G. Wells, Aldiss is a vice-president of the international H. G. Wells Society...
, and Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin is an American author. She has written novels, poetry, children's books, essays, and short stories, notably in fantasy and science fiction...
wrote novels and stories that reflected real-world political developments. Ellison's main theme was the protest against increasing militarism. LeGuin in The Left Hand of Darkness
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Left Hand of Darkness is a 1969 science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin. It is part of the Hainish Cycle, a series of books by Le Guin all set in the fictional Hainish universe....
(1969) explored non-traditional sexual relations. Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a 20th century American writer. His works such as Cat's Cradle , Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions blend satire, gallows humor and science fiction. He was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association.-Early...
wrote Slaughterhouse-Five
Slaughterhouse-Five
Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death is a satirical novel by Kurt Vonnegut about World War II experiences and journeys through time of a soldier called Billy Pilgrim...
(1969), which used the science fiction storytelling device of time-travel to explore anti-war, moral, and sociological themes. Frederik Pohl
Frederik Pohl
Frederik George Pohl, Jr. is an American science fiction writer, editor and fan, with a career spanning over seventy years — from his first published work, "Elegy to a Dead Planet: Luna" , to his most recent novel, All the Lives He Led .He won the National Book Award in 1980 for his novel Jem...
's series Gateway
Gateway (novel)
Gateway is a 1977 science fiction novel by American writer Frederik Pohl. Gateway won the 1978 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the 1978 Locus Award for Best Novel, the 1977 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and the 1978 John W. Campbell Award. It is the opening novel in the Heechee saga...
(1977 — 2004) combined social science fiction with hard science fiction
Hard science fiction
Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both. The term was first used in print in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller in a review of John W. Campbell, Jr.'s Islands of Space in Astounding Science...
. Among the finest modern exponents of social science fiction in the Campbellian/Heinlein tradition is L. Neil Smith
L. Neil Smith
L. Neil Smith , also known to readers and fans as El Neil, is a libertarian science fiction author and political activist. He was born on May 12, 1946 in Denver...
, who is considered the heir to Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
's individualism
Individualism
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that stresses "the moral worth of the individual". Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance while opposing most external interference upon one's own...
and libertarianism
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
in science fiction, and who wrote both The Probability Broach
The Probability Broach
The Probability Broach is the first novel by science fiction writer L. Neil Smith. It is set in an alternate history, the so-called Gallatin Universe, where a libertarian society has formed on the North American continent, styled the North American Confederacy.-Plot summary:Edward William "Win"...
(1981) and Pallas, which dealt with alternative "sideways in time" futures
Alternate future
In science fiction stories involving time travel, an alternative future or alternate future is a possible future which never comes to pass, typically because someone travels back into the past and alters it so that the events of the alternative future cannot occur.An alternative future differs from...
and what a libertarian society would look like.
Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer known for his award-winning Mars trilogy. His work delves into ecological and sociological themes regularly, and many of his novels appear to be the direct result of his own scientific fascinations, such as the fifteen years of research...
explored different models of the future in Three Californias Trilogy
Three Californias Trilogy
The Three Californias Trilogy consists of three books by Kim Stanley Robinson, that depict three different possible futures of Orange County, California. The three books that make up the trilogy are The Wild Shore, The Gold Coast and Pacific Edge...
(1984, 1988, 1990).
The Saga of Recluce
The Saga of Recluce
The Saga of Recluce is a series of fantasy novels written by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.. The initial novel in the series, The Magic of Recluce , was published in 1991...
(1991 — now), by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
L. E. Modesitt, Jr. is an author of 56 science fiction and fantasy novels. He is best known for the fantasy series The Saga of Recluce....
represents a fusion of science fiction and fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
that can be described as social science fiction. The 13 books of the series describe the changing relationships between two technologically advanced cultures and the cultures of a primitive world to which each is involuntarily transported. Themes of gender stereotyping, sexism, ethics, economics, environmentalism and politics are explored in the course of the series, which examines the world through the eyes of all its protagonists.
Doris Lessing
Doris Lessing
Doris May Lessing CH is a British writer. Her novels include The Grass is Singing, The Golden Notebook, and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos....
won the 2007 Nobel Prize for literature. Although mostly known for her mainstream works, she wrote numerous notable works of social science fiction, including Memoirs of a Survivor
Memoirs of a Survivor
The Memoirs of a Survivor is a dystopian novel by Nobel Prize-winner Doris Lessing. It was first published in 1974 by Octagon Press. It was made into a film in 1981, starring Julie Christie and Nigel Hawthorne, and directed by David Gladwell.-Plot:...
(1974), Briefing for a Descent into Hell (1971) the Canopus in Argos
Canopus in Argos
Canopus in Argos: Archives is a sequence of five science fiction novels by Nobel Prize in Literature-winning author Doris Lessing which portray a number of societies at different stages of development, over a great period of time...
series (1974–1983), and The Cleft
The Cleft
The Cleft is a novel by Doris Lessing.-Plot summary:The story is narrated by a Roman historian, during the time of the Emperor Nero. He tells the story as a secret history of humanity's beginnings, as pieced together from scraps of documents and oral histories, passed down through the...
(2007).
Caron Cro's Tierra del Fuego, Colony Ship (2010) explores a new social order during a ship voyage of 120 years to colonize a habitable planet. The Compact includes an animal bill of rights, a recognition of same sex partnerships, and procreation through randomly assigned embryos representing all ethnicities from Earth.
The genre in the Eastern Bloc
All science fiction of the Soviet era had to subscribe to communist ideology, or else the author could face serious consequences — from a ban against being published to death under Joseph StalinJoseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
, imprisonment
Labor camp
A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons...
or psychiatric treatment
Psikhushka
In the Soviet Union, systematic political abuse of psychiatry took place. Soviet psychiatric hospitals were used by the authorities as prisons in order to isolate hundreds or thousands of political prisoners from the rest of society, discredit their ideas, and break them physically and mentally...
under Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev – 10 November 1982) was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in...
. There were poor and opportunistic works, there were works of talent touched by ideology (e.g. 1923 Aelita
Aelita (novel)
Aelita also known as Aelita or, The Decline of Mars is a 1923 science fiction novel by Russian author Alexei Tolstoy.-Plot summary:...
or 1926 The Garin Death Ray by Alexei Tolstoy
Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy
Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy , nicknamed the Comrade Count, was a Russian and Soviet writer who wrote in many genres but specialized in science fiction and historical novels...
), there were non-ideological works describing the happy future of humankind (some works of Kir Bulychev
Kir Bulychev
Kir Bulychev or Bulychov was a pen name of Igor Vsevolodovich Mojeiko , who was a Soviet and Russian science fiction writer and historian. He received a Master's degree in 1965 and a Ph.D. in 1981 and wrote his first science fiction story in 1965...
and Ivan Efremov), but also such writers as Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhaíl Afanásyevich Bulgákov was a Soviet Russian writer and playwright active in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his novel The Master and Margarita, which The Times of London has called one of the masterpieces of the 20th century.-Biography:Mikhail Bulgakov was born on...
, Evgeny Shvarts
Evgeny Shvarts
Evgeny Lvovich Shvarts was a Soviet writer and playwright whose works include twenty-five plays and screenplays for three films .- Life :...
and Boris and Arkady Strugatsky who chose the hard way of "balancing" on the edge, struggling not to betray their views while avoiding punishment for expressing them.
The 1920s brought Andrey Platonov and Yevgeny Zamyatin
Yevgeny Zamyatin
Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin was a Russian author of science fiction and political satire. Despite having been a prominent Old Bolshevik, Zamyatin was deeply disturbed by the policies pursued by the CPSU following the October Revolution...
, but it was not until the time of Perestroika
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
that their works were published in the Soviet Union.
One exception is an example of critique under Stalin — Evgeny Shvarts' play The Dragon (1944), showing how totalitarianism
Totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
thrusts its roots into the hearts of the people.
The next period of science fiction in the Soviet Union was shaped by the greater liberalization of the Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
regime, advances of science, and the beginning of the space age.
In 1957 Ivan Efremov wrote the utopian Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale, revealing a harmonious space-exploring civilization of the distant future, whose culture took much from antique art. His further works included Razor's Edge (1963) emphasizing narrowness of the way of successful development of a civilization, and the dystopian The Bull's Hour
The Bull's Hour
The Bull's Hour is a social science fiction novel written by Russian author and paleontologist Ivan Yefremov in 1968...
(1968).
Amongst the best known social science fiction is the Noon Universe
Noon Universe
The Noon Universe is a fictional future setting for a number of hard science fiction novels written by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. The universe is named after Noon: 22nd Century, the chronologically first novel from the series...
of Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
The brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are Soviet Jewish-Russian science fiction authors who collaborated on their fiction.-Life and work:...
, designed to be a future world of "communism", where creative work is considered the highest purpose, but unlike utopian worlds, Noon Universe is settled by real people. The rise of reaction, initiated by Khrushchev's public criticism of modern art and literature in 1963, showed to Strugatsky that "while for us communism was a world of freedom and creativity, for them it was the society, in which the population fulfilled immediately and with pleasure all precepts of the Party
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
and the government". This largely affected their Hard to be a God
Hard to Be a God
Hard to be a God is a 1964 sci-fi novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky set in the Noon Universe.The novel follows Anton, an undercover operative from the future planet Earth, in his mission on an alien planet, that is populated by human beings, whose society has not advanced beyond the Middle Ages...
(1963).
Suppression of the Prague Spring
Prague Spring
The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II...
in 1968 ultimately ruined Strugatsky's dreams about the Soviet rule. Another Noon Universe novel, Prisoners of Power
Prisoners of Power
Prisoners of Power also known as Inhabited Island is a science fiction novel written by Soviet authors Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. It was written in 1969 and originally published in 1971, the English translation was released in 1977...
(1969), somehow alluding to Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
describes Maxim Kammerer
Maxim Kammerer
Maxim Kammerer is a fictional character in Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's series of science fiction novels set in the Noon Universe....
, crashed on an unknown planet in the wrecked Land of Fathers, and his attempt to destroy the system of transmission which deprived his new friends of ability of critical thinking.
"Kin Dza Dza" is a Soviet comedy taking place on other planets which makes fun of capitalism, classism, and cultural centrism.
Social science fiction turned out to be a powerful means to respond to real situations in communist countries. While communist rules did not allow any critique, one possibility was to veil it as a science fiction world. In the 1980s the genre called 'sociological fantasy' (fantastyka sociologiczna) arose in the People's Republic of Poland
People's Republic of Poland
The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...
. It focused on the development of societies, generally dominated by totalitarian
Totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
governments. This genre was represented by writers like Janusz A. Zajdel (Limes Inferior
Limes inferior
Limes inferior is a social science fiction dystopian novel written in 1982 by the Polish author Janusz A. Zajdel. Limes inferior, one of Zajdel's best known works, is a dystopia showing a grim vision of a future society resulting from a merger of the two systems competing at the time - communism...
, Paradyzja
Paradyzja
Paradyzja is a 1984 science fiction novel by Janusz A. Zajdel.It is a dystopian novel similar to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. The space colonies are more or less federated with the Earth. Human rights are observed and respected everywhere, but Paradise has not been verified for sure...
), Edmund Wnuk-Lipiński
Edmund Wnuk-Lipinski
Edmund Wnuk-Lipiński , professor of Sociology, is the founder and first head of the Polish Academy of Sciences Institute of Political Studies, Rector of Collegium Civitas in Warsaw. He was a Fellow at the Institute of Human Sciences in Vienna, the University of Notre Dame, and Wissenschaftskolleg...
(Apostezjon trilogy), Adam Wiśniewski-Snerg
Adam Wisniewski-Snerg
Adam Wiśniewski-Snerg was a Polish science fiction author. He was born in Płock, Poland.Although unpopular during his life, after his suicide he became recognized as one of the most significant authors of Polish SF...
or Marek Oramus
Marek Oramus
Marek Oramus is a Polish science fiction writer and journalist. He graduated from the Silesian University of Technology in 1975. Most of his books and stories belong to the social science fiction genre and were written in the 1990s...
. Books from that genre were based in different times (usually in the future), and usually were pretexts for analysing structures of the described societies, being full of allusions to reality. After the revolutions of 1989
Revolutions of 1989
The Revolutions of 1989 were the revolutions which overthrew the communist regimes in various Central and Eastern European countries.The events began in Poland in 1989, and continued in Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and...
, when using real world examples became as safe in former Eastern Bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
countries as in their Western counterparts, this genre mostly transformed itself into a political fiction
Political fiction
Political fiction is a subgenre of fiction that deals with political affairs. Political fiction has often used narrative to provide commentary on political events, systems and theories. Works of political fiction often "directly criticize an existing society or.....
, represented by writers such as Rafał A. Ziemkiewicz.
Post-Soviet social science fiction
Anti-communism was a sort of national idea in RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
only for several years — it was well explored, so usually only small amounts of it can be found:
- Arrows of PerunPerunIn Slavic mythology, Perun is the highest god of the pantheon and the god of thunder and lightning. His other attributes were the fire, mountains, the oak, iris, eagle, firmament , horses and carts, weapons and war...
with separable warheads, a 1994 novella by Braider and Chadovich depicts a small totalitarian state, founded by personnel of a Soviet missile shaft. - Search for designation or Twenty seventh theorem of ethicsSearch for designation or Twenty seventh theorem of ethicsSearch for Designation, or Twenty Seventh Theorem of Ethics — is a 1994 science fiction novel by Boris Strugatsky , covering the life of a fictional Soviet citizen Krasnogorov with light and bitter truth about that time and including the long chapter "A Happy Boy" about his childhood in sieged...
(1994) and Devil amongst peopleDevil amongst peopleDevil amongst people — is a 1991 Russian science fiction novel by S. Yaroslavtsev about "the time which created monsters"....
(1991) are late novels of Strugatsky, exploring often the tragic Soviet epoch. - Evgeny Lukin's http://rusf.ru/english/lukin 2000 novel Scarlet aura of a protopartorg is set in a "horizontal" world of little peer countries — debris of collapsed Russia. Background involves satire on Russian politicians and PRPublic relationsPublic relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
battles of 1990s — lie and truth means nothing, but people's trust does. Totalitarian Christian OrthodoxEastern Orthodox ChurchThe Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
Communists and democratic League of Wizards use different methods to gain popularity, which in turn gives them a magical ability to commit marvels. The action concerns intrigues between two states which reveal more similarities than may seem. - Vyacheslav RybakovVyacheslav RybakovVyacheslav Rybakov is a well known Soviet and Russian science fiction author and an orientalist, interested in the medieval bureaucracy of China...
in 2003 novel In the adjacent year in Moscow explores a sickening world of Russia torn apart into tiny countries, ruled by Darths and Vaders of the West and having no own sincere desires. Rybakov lais emphasis on culture studies and a trial to regain national unity and idea, as an old scientist Ivan Obiwankin goes in a mission to install an anti-gravity device on the old Buran shuttle.
An important study of consumer capitalism
Consumer capitalism
Consumer capitalism is a theoretical economic and political condition in which consumer demand is manipulated, in a deliberate and coordinated way, on a very large scale, through mass-marketing techniques, to the advantage of sellers....
on the Russian soil was carried by Victor Pelevin
Victor Pelevin
Victor Olegovich Pelevin is a Russian fiction writer. His books usually carry the outward conventions of the science fiction genre, but are used to construct involved, multi-layered postmodernist texts, fusing together elements of pop culture and esoteric philosophies...
, who described Russian "wild capitalism" in his 1999 Generation "П", and continued this theme, describing the situation in his 2006 novel Empire V as "anonymous dictatorship", aimed to trap people's minds in a rush for riches.
Since disbandment of KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
in 1991, dissident trend in science fiction transformed as well. Government in 1999 Rejection (Wybrakovka) by Oleg Divov responded on rise of crime in 1990s by creating the service rejecting millions criminals out of life; the book raised discussions which hardly subsided now (inaccurate quote of the main hero, "the world envies Slavian Union, because it's the only country where human rights are really guaranteed — but rights of law-abiding citizens."). Hero of Sergey Lukyanenko
Sergey Lukyanenko
Sergei Vasilievich Lukyanenko is a science fiction and fantasy author, writing in Russian, and is arguably the most popular contemporary Russian sci-fi writer...
's Spectrum
Spectrum (Russian novel)
Spectrum is a novel that takes place in the near future. Contact with aliens allowed humanity to travel between planets through portals. The Keymaster civilization not only provides new technologies to the world but also makes sure that their conditions are fulfilled to the letter: unrestricted...
(2002) prefers not to seek troubles cooperating with FSB
FSB (Russia)
The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation is the main domestic security agency of the Russian Federation and the main successor agency of the Soviet Committee of State Security . Its main responsibilities are counter-intelligence, internal and border security, counter-terrorism, and...
, though taking it half-ironically ("Or do you consider that government is able to exist without counterintelligence?"). Looking broader, society ruled by intelligence services disturbs citizens, but democracy is unable to react on sharp threats, as shown in the duology Soft Landing, Year of the Lemming by Alexander Gromov
Alexander Gromov
Alexander Nikolayevich Gromov is a Russian science fiction writer, who began writing in 1986 and was first published in the early 1990s. His work is influenced by that of the Strugatsky brothers....
. But what about personal freedom? Here comes a revelation, because it's a function not only of condition of society but of person's will as well. As a polar case, Pavel Gusev considers himself free in harsh world of Divov's Rejection. Freedom does not make happier lives of several male refugee's in matriarchal world of Gromov's The First of the Mohicans, but it makes them people; the male oppositioner finds it possible to fight for this world against alien threat, remembering Helots
Helots
The helots: / Heílôtes) were an unfree population group that formed the main population of Laconia and the whole of Messenia . Their exact status was already disputed in antiquity: according to Critias, they were "especially slaves" whereas to Pollux, they occupied a status "between free men and...
who became mentally free fighting for Spartians. Moreover, true democracy may be built only by responsible people able to refresh the tree of liberty with their blood, as Gromov showd in Antarctica-online. This approaches theme of individualism
Individualism
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that stresses "the moral worth of the individual". Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance while opposing most external interference upon one's own...
; world dying since people's assurance there's definitely someone to care for them is theme of several late stories by Leonid Kaganov. However this fails to be the essence of modern Russian science fiction, only a slice cut in this plane.
Social science fiction as investigation of various social systems without evident political subtext is well represented in works of many writers, such as Alexander Gromov
Alexander Gromov
Alexander Nikolayevich Gromov is a Russian science fiction writer, who began writing in 1986 and was first published in the early 1990s. His work is influenced by that of the Strugatsky brothers....
, Sergey Lukyanenko
Sergey Lukyanenko
Sergei Vasilievich Lukyanenko is a science fiction and fantasy author, writing in Russian, and is arguably the most popular contemporary Russian sci-fi writer...
(Knights of Forty Islands, The Stars Are Cold Toys
The Stars Are Cold Toys
The Stars Are Cold Toys — Star Shadow are two 1997 books of a space opera duology by Russian science fiction writer Sergey Lukianenko. It's a first-person narration, told by a pilot Pyotr Khrumov, who attempts to prevent destruction of the planet....
— Star Shadow), Marina and Sergey Dyachenko
Marina and Sergey Dyachenko
Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko — Maryna Y. Dyachenko and Serhiy S. Dyachenko are spouses and Ukrainian co-authors of novels and plays. They write in Russian and Ukrainian languages. The primary genres of their books are modern science fiction, fantasy, and fairy tales...
. In some sense writers prolongate human-centered tradition of Russian classic literature of 19th century in contemporary themes and prose.
"Eurochinese humanist" Holm van Zaichik (pen name of Vyacheslav Rybakov
Vyacheslav Rybakov
Vyacheslav Rybakov is a well known Soviet and Russian science fiction author and an orientalist, interested in the medieval bureaucracy of China...
and Igor Alimov) is known for the world of Orduss, a fictional country unifying China, Russia, Near East, forming a humane society with rich culture.
Examples from the 1940s
- Isaac AsimovIsaac AsimovIsaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
, Nightfall, 1941 - Isaac AsimovIsaac AsimovIsaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
, The Foundation SeriesThe Foundation SeriesThe Foundation Series is a science fiction series by Isaac Asimov. There are seven volumes in the Foundation Series proper, which in its in-universe chronological order are: Prelude to Foundation, Forward the Foundation, Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation, Foundation's Edge, and...
, 1942- - Robert A. HeinleinRobert A. HeinleinRobert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
, If This Goes On—, 1940 - Robert A. HeinleinRobert A. HeinleinRobert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
, Beyond This HorizonBeyond This HorizonBeyond This Horizon is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. It was originally published as a two-part serial in Astounding Science Fiction and then eventually as a single volume by Fantasy Press in 1948.-Overview:The novel depicts a world where genetic selection for increased health,...
, 1942 - George R. StewartGeorge R. StewartGeorge Rippey Stewart was an American toponymist, a novelist, and a professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley...
, Earth AbidesEarth AbidesEarth Abides is a 1949 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by American writer George R. Stewart. It tells the story of the fall of civilization from deadly disease and its rebirth. Beginning in the United States in the 1940s, it deals with Isherwood "Ish" Williams, Emma, and the community they...
, 1949
Further reading
- Modern Science Fiction: Its Meaning and Its Future, eds. Reginald Bretnor and John Wood Campbell, 2nd edition, 1979, ISBN 0-911682-23-6.
See also
- Anthropological science fictionAnthropological science fictionThe American Anthropological Association defines anthropology as “the study of humans, past and present. To understand the full sweep and complexity of cultures across all of human history, anthropology draws upon knowledge from the social and biological sciences as well as the humanities and...
- FableFableA fable is a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized , and that illustrates a moral lesson , which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.A fable differs from...
- Libertarian science fictionLibertarian science fictionLibertarian science fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction that focuses on the politics and social order implied by libertarian philosophies with an emphasis on individualism and a limited state-- and in some cases, no state whatsoever....
- List of social science fiction writers and stories