The
first article alluded, as you were likely aware of, to science fiction as a
deep, varied, and multi-tiered genre. Though
it may be considered an offshoot of fantasy, it has become a monster of its own
right— big and ready to devour the weak. It’s okay, though we’re all weak when
compared to it. The beauty of the genre is just how limitless it really can be.
Sure, science is used as its backdrop, but the fiction part is where we shove
science down a bottomless pipe. All writers can play god with their stories,
but science fiction writers turn into malevolent and twisted gods attempting to
seek the new and thrilling.
Despite
its ongoing and revolutionary
innovations, the genre has a few themes or tropes it can’t shake off.
Humanity continuously concerns itself with these topics and are sometimes
stubbornly unable to move on. Leading them to pressure the writers, to have the
main character save the day or write a spin-off.. Whether you want to write a
great science fiction story or keep an eagle-eye out for the next great hit,
here are a few ideas that tend to cling a lot.
The Apocalypse and the Ruins It Leaves Behind
Strangely,
we as a whole seem to be consistently concerned with our eventual demise. This
does vary according to when a story is written (e.g. the Cold War where the
population was freaking out about a nuclear winter). Yet, there have been
moments where we’re not seemingly teetering towards pressing the self-annihilate
button. This was evident during the Bubonic Plague as it is now with North
Korea, whose leader constantly threatens to bomb something new with every
passing week. Due to events such as this there’s an older generation constantly
lamenting the atrocities in their present lives, even though the state of
everything was likely no different when they were young.
The
fact is? People are not only seemingly-obsessed with the destruction of our
society, but as well with its aftermath. When stripped away from our every day
needs, how would humanity react? Judging from most stories that run with this
trope, usually we devolve into anachronistic cannibalism. The trope remains
popular because it’s an easy medium for writers to express how exactly they view
human nature. Who are we really, when the smart-phones are gone and the
responsibilities are swept under a rug? Short answer: we’re terrible,
apparently.
Travelling Through Time
Time is
not a thing. It doesn’t exist in a room. You can’t put a leash on it and call
it George. It’s figurative at best and confusing at worst. Thousands of years
of thought have been put into it, and the most scientists and philosophers can
come up with to explain it is a shrug. This is another theme that is only a
reflection of human thought. In short,
it’s our obsession with either fixing that one little mistake that cost us
something dear (possibly whatever screwed over your new Flappy Bird high score)
or seeing what lies ahead of us (perhaps preventing heartbreak or hangovers).
It’s a
mix of curiosity and regret that makes us want to time travel. We can’t
actually achieve this. If we could, what then? What if nothing can be changed
and it’s all predetermined? What if your time travel escapades turn into a
Simpsons Halloween episode and stepping on a twig means you destroyed humanity
before it even got its start? Considering its immense popularity, maybe you
just want to get on that London police box and go traveling with a handsome man
of the medical profession. The topic has yet to abate in popularity, so might as
well get used to it.
Aliens
Aliens, man.
