Darkest before the storm

Not long after I started reading science fiction, I bought Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume 2B, a collection of stories edited by Ben Bova. I got that collection of stories because it had a story by Iasac Asimov, who I had been introduced to by way of his novel, The Gods Themselves. That collection of stories also introduced me to Bova, James Blish, Algis Budrys, Theodore R. Cogswell, E. M. Forster, Frederik Pohl, Clifford D. Simak and Jack Vance...that volume provided a rather mind blowing expansion of my science fiction horizons. Jack Vance eventually became one of my favorite authors, but I mention that "Hall of Fame" volume here because of the story by Theodore Cogswell called The Spectre General which introduced me to the concept that published science fiction could be humorous. At the time I only knew of humor in science fiction from television, particularly The Trouble With Tribbles.

I think it was after reading The Spectre General that I first started to realize that I lack the ability to name characters. One of the characters in The Spectre General is named Schninkle. In a story full of soldiers with names like Krogson, Dixon and Blick, what could be better for comic relief than a stray Schninkle?

When the internet exploded and computers became geeky-cool, ReBoot appeared on television as a science fiction show. For an example of ReBoot's nerd humor see this joke.


While on the topic of humor in science fiction, check out the video in this blog post from last July (a scene from The Bicentennial Man with comedian Robin Williams as a joking robot).

While reading the science fiction story No. at Novelas, the fiction wikia, I could not get images of ReBoot out of my head. Normally I am too busy being serious to include much humor in the science fiction I write. Evil aliens who are somewhat doltish about their invasion of Earth seems to be a sub-genre of science fiction, and No. includes a rather bumbling alien who is intent on enslaving humanity. I've often wondered why aliens would come half way across the galaxy to enslave humans and conquer Earth...I mean, besides all the girls. If I had been a more avid movie goer then I might have figured this out sooner. As explained in No., the big attraction is movie theater popcorn. Not to eat...all the fatty flavoring makes good rocket fuel. I'm glad we have that settled.

Image. The image at the top of this post is from the story No.
See this page for image credits.

Overly Melodramatic

I use 'abysses of pain' as shorthand for overly melodramatic description of a character's emotional state. "His eyes were deep, dark wells of agony," and so on. A lot of bad fantasy does this and I used to be prone to it.

The above is a comment about my previous blog post. I've been trying to embrace melodrama while working on The Search for Kalid, a science fiction novel that has elements of Space Opera.

I agree that there are times when making a story overly melodramatic will only earn the label: FAIL. However, part of the magic of art is that it is possible to take an idea so far beyond the point of failure that it emerges from the "dark side" and becomes something wonderful. The are some formulas that "work" so well that they can tell us something fundamental about human nature. Artistic forms can go out of style, but there seems to be a large momentum associated with successful formulas. Art critics might lament the plebeian tastes of an audience, but that will not stop people from spending hard-earned money on the forms of art and entertainment that they truly like. There always seems to be an audience for melodramatic forms, even if going down that path might earn you an automatic failing grade from a publisher.

In the case of The Search for Kalid there is a scene in which the young Sybil is worrying and worrying (and worrying some more) about her future. All the worrying is just too much and the reader might wish that Sybil would just shut up. Hopefully the reader does not give up in disgust because while Sybil's worrying is close to pathological, it is in the story for a reason. Spoiler warning: plot details follow. Sybil has telepathic powers and is able to receive information from the future. She's getting "bad vibes" from the future, but she does not know that.

I think there is a theorem: when writing, anything can be done right or wrong...write with adequate awareness of a goal and a purpose and you can get away with anything. The corollary is that writing anything reflexively and for no good reason will earn you scorn.

Image: source.

The Pits

Avoid deep dark wells and/or abysses of pain. In characters, I mean. Well, in real life too, but that kind of goes without saying.

That advice is from a blog post by Heather McF.

One of the reasons for writing fiction is to explore the highs and lows of life. Quoting myself: "writing can be a pleasurable exploration of a wonderful landscape".

Our human brains allow us to experience the heights of elation and the depths of despair. From the perspective of evolutionary psychology we can ask if even our lowest moods have a function. It is possible that mild depression is adaptive and has been selected evolutionarily as a brain mechanism that can shift our behavior out of maladaptive ruts. When we experience anxiety, helplessness or frustration our brains perform a cost-benefit analysis of the situation. Our brains are designed to become obsessed with important problems and either solve them or show us that we are wasting our time on a problem we cannot solve.

Our brain mechanisms for dealing with problems that we cannot solve do sometimes go "off the rails". It is a tragedy for an individual if they cannot move out of a "pit of depression". It is a tragedy for readers if an author mercilessly leads us into a "pit" and never shows us a way out. In contrast, a successful author will have descended into the depths, done battle with demons and returned to the surface hand-in-hand with their Muse, ready to describe some glorious revelation that allowed escape from the "pit".

Image. The image shown of a modified version of this copyleft image by Carsten Nebel.