Science Fiction is mainly collectivist?
L. Neil Smith wrote earlier this year:
But the driving ideology [of Science Fiction] was almost always some form or another of socialism.
While the pap that passes for science fiction for the often has utopian collectivist themes, the truly brilliant writers of the past century wrote of freedom and individualism triumphing over command structures.
Smith continues by saying:
…any publisher that can attract that small handful of forward-thinking libertarian authors who have largely been rejected by establishment publishing, any publisher that is willing to cater to bright, cynical, individualistic, forward-thinking readers, can have SF…
Smith makes a number of good points, that science fiction has been for the most part literature of the possible and stories about individuals making a difference. But to imply that science fiction is awash or overwhelmed by socialist propaganda belies the evidence. Just pumping out books for cynics isn’t likely to catch anyone’s eye.
Writers as diverse as Asimov, Heinlein, Simmons, Niven, Pournelle, Stephenson, Brust, Dick, Saberhagen, Benford, Brunner, Silverberg, among others have all published works with a strong bent towards freedom and individualism.
Intelligent, freedom advocating new releases by Neil Stephenson, Harry Turtledove, Ken Macleod and Dan Simmons, along with new editions of old Dick classics regularly hit fiction best sellers lists.
If there is any reason that science fiction is losing shelf space it’s because the writing of the average novel is aimed at a juvenile audience. The genre suffers from the same problem as romance and chick-lit and adventure novels - the poor writing and hole-ridden, paper-thin plots make it difficult for anyone with an interest in the written word to slog through.
Libertarians read novels of struggles for freedom through their formative years which helped gel their ideals. The novels don’t have to be bald propaganda for readers to appreciate the themes of freedom, liberty, and individualism.
What I would suggest that Mr. Smith do is not write for the Star Wars franchise, continue writing his other novels and peddle and promote new novels that do present freedom cogently. He could also support the independent publishers like Tor and Baen, along with the majors like Ace and Bantam that often deliver high quality prose from excellent authors. None of this was mentioned in his essay.
If more libertarians understood that good science fiction is one of the best tools for spreading ideas, maybe it wouldn’t be at best a sideline in discussions on freedom.
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