There’s a major difference between science fiction and fantasy. Both work with the “What if…” hypothesis, but there should be a distinct difference in intent that the reader should recognize. The Sci-Fi writer might say, “What if we could travel to the planets?” Whereas the fantasy writer might say, “What if fairies lived in Central Park?” In the former, the author is suggesting that people might build machines and travel to Mars. He or she is creating a story about something that could happen in our reality. The fantasy writer, on the other hand, wants to tell a fun tale and asks the reader to assume there is another world, it might be like ours or very different, and hopes we will pretend to believe.
Most modern science fiction is a mixture of both kinds of “What if…” stories. For example, “What if people could travel to the stars?” and “What if people could build machines that could travel faster than light?” However, there is a special kind of “What if…” that I want to deal with, and that is “What if people had psychic powers?”
This “What if…” theme is fantasy but I believe that many people want to believe its science. Fantasy for fun is a delightful pastime. Fantasy for believing is being delusional. The difference can be the fun kids have playing first person shooters and going berserk and shooting people.
Years ago I ran across an article in an old science fiction magazine that reported that for decades public libraries banned the Oz books because they felt the books gave children unrealistic expectations about life. Since I was an Oz book fan growing up I was outraged at this idea, but as an adult I can’t help wonder if it wasn’t true.
Looking back I can see there are also a number of power fantasies for adolescents that I wonder about now. The two that I want to deal with the most are Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein and the Star Wars films by George Lucas. Both stories mix science fiction and mysticism and advocate the existence of mind powers. Heinlein even mixed traditional religion of God and Angels with super-evolved Martians in an effort to legitimize old ideas with exciting new SF ones.
I’ve read and reread Stranger in a Strange Land many times since 1965. It was the perfect power fantasy for a thirteen-year-old because it promised the power to think your enemies out of existence and have sex with lots of eager women. Now that I’m closer to Heinlein’s age when he wrote Stranger I realize it was also the perfect power fantasy for a horny old man. Stranger in a Strange Land was breakout radical for science fiction at the time. Now I see it as a pathetic fantasy about wife-swapping, wishing for life after to death, and the desire to either talk your enemies to death or blink them out of existence with a thought. It’s both a great novel and a sick fantasy.
Star Wars is actually a horse of a different color. On one hand it’s an old fashion adventure serial like Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon. Like Stranger it wants to mix in some mysticism but in a neutral non-religious way. Good versus Evil has always been part of fiction but George Lucas lucked out by inventing “The Force.” It’s such a nice packaging of an old concept that I can easily imagine that a religion being built around it in the future. It’s sort of a distilled essence of all mysticism. And that brings up the problem I have: is there any reality to mystic theories?
There are many kinds of mysticism but basically it suggests that humans can tune into a higher power. In some forms this is just communing with God and in other forms it means acquiring super powers to use on Earth. The problem with mysticism is it requires making a decision about reality and it’s a very fundamental philosophical decision. Even traditional theology has problems with mysticism. Mysticism opens up a can of worms for both theists and atheists.
The question becomes how powerful can a person be? In Star Wars and Stranger in a Strange Land people can become very powerful indeed. Even popular books like The Secret suggest people can tune into success via mental effort alone. Heinlein might have promoted the belief that there is no such thing as a free lunch but his belief in mysticism suggested otherwise. That’s the problem with mysticism with its money for nothing and chicks for free attitude. Mysticism allows the universe to be anything. It’s a funny thing to believe in when most people do not have the mental discipline to lose weight. I also think it’s obvious that mental powers don’t exist; otherwise the stories of history would be very different.
In both real life and fiction life the reader needs to make a decision about the reality of this world and the fictional world. If you believe that magic works in books but not life then you’re probably sane, but if you believe that magic works in both places then you might be in trouble. There is a third alternative with a spooky physics of quantum mechanics solution and that suggests the universe is whatever the observer wants it to be, so in your universe mysticism works, but in mine I keep things orderly with the laws of science.
Einstein never could accept the spooky world of quantum physics that he discovered. He insisted that there is an objective reality that exists outside our minds. Back in the sixties and seventies when I was exploring altered states of consciousness and New Age philosophies I eventually came to the same conclusion. I decided that mystical thinking was indistinguishable from madness. And that is why at 56 I find stories like Stranger in a Strange Land and Star Wars repugnant. They are psi-fi phantasies.
“May the Force be with you,” is a wonderful sentiment for an adolescent fantasy but it’s a dangerous idea to live by. There are forces of nature, like gravity, electro-magnetism, etc. And there are forces we may not understand, but the belief that our minds can achieve godlike powers is a dangerous concept. In Stranger in a Strange Land everyone was God, but what about all those people Mike winked out? Weren’t they God too?
I don’t believe in Good and Evil, but I do think there are two forces in nature that those concepts can be compared to. Entropy is the obvious force resulting from the Big Bang but the harder to understand one is the force that assembles complexity out of chaos. That force took billions of years to arrange for us to exist. We aren’t here because of a blink of a thought. In our part of reality we are the crown of complexity, able to be self-aware of the reality around us and the history of the universe.
To deny this position in reality, to shut our eyes and dream of magic is a tragedy of epic proportions. “What if there was a world of tiny creatures that woke up in an immense reality of infinite possibilities and they chose to close their eyes and ignore it?”
Jim
Auxiliary Memory 
“Stranger in a Strange Land and Star Wars repugnant.”?
In some ways I have to admit I got a bit off track about what your bottom line point was with this post. Is it that believing in something not easily identified by scientific methods is crazy or is it that you don’t think stories should incorporate mystical elements?
I can certainly see Heinlein’s adult work being classified as repugnant, repulsive, whatever. I haven’t read Stranger, but Time Enough for Love is one of my favorites of the few I’ve read but on the surface it is certainly the same horny male fantasy that makes me not want to recommend it to anyone. I mean a book that has a section devoted to the main character going back in time and essentially falling in love with and wanting to have sex with his mother is pretty out there on the sexual desires scale. The fact that I got so much more out of the book underneath all the sexual stuff is something I’m not sure I could make a convincing argument about eventhough I believe it.
But Star Wars? I’m still not quite sure exactly why you are upset with the mystical elements of the story. I can certainly see people being upset with mystical how-to books. Every charlatan with a pen can write a book about how to tap into magical forces to make one’s life better rather than actually putting in a hard day’s work. But I’m not sure what the issue is with fiction?
On one level there are certainly some solid truths underlying much of mystical thinking, religious thinking, etc. I believe there is a spiritual element to our lives and I certainly think our relationships with one another bear out the fact that we can and do have more than just a chemical connection to one another as human beings. Exploring that and cultivating that connection can, I believe, lead to a deeper appreciation and commitment to others. I also think old saws like ‘what goes around comes around’ have some basis in the fact that our actions and the resultant consequences have a bearing on our happiness, our success, etc.
But in story many things are an exaggeration of truths to make a point. I think this is certainly the case in space opera like Star Wars where all the characters are for the most part one dimensional representations of various character types: the young man on a journey of discovery, the dashing rogue, the damsel in distress, the evil villain, etc. Putting the force element into it adds a level of interest and a slight bit of depth to the whole thing. And I think this is true with all stories about super mind powers or control over forces of nature, etc. They are exaggerations that make for good story and can also tie into lessons about the real world. I think the
good story’ part comes to play in that it is interesting to see characters who have powers beyond that of normal folks and watching how those powers effect their actions, their behaviors, their interactions with others. Does absolute power corrupt absolutely?
These are simply object lessons for real life: if you suddenly became powerful, wealthy, etc. How would you react? Would you begin walking over those around you, manipulating them, using them, being dismissive of them? Or would you be a force for good? Or something in between? I can think of no easier way to demonstrate some of these things than by using fiction as a way to illustrate the many sides of the ‘all powerful’ coin.
You mention, “it’s a dangerous idea to live by”…but of course that is the point and that is what makes for a good story. Again that is why I am somewhat confused because I can see why one could argue against walking around thinking magically in one’s real life, but I don’t understand why it is an issue in story. Fiction, especially science fiction and fantasy, would be pretty damn boring without that aspect.
I am thinking about Demolished Man which I just read which is all about mind control and governmental control through that mind control. Great story that certainly wouldn’t be the same without that premise.
Anyway, I’m just ranting and you are probably reading this thinking “I’m not sure what the hell he’s one about”, ha! So I’ll leave it there in case you want to yack about this further.
In your email response to me you wrote:
“I’m at work and have to go but I’ll write more later. Your long comment might generate a whole new blog post.”
Oh no, I’ve created a monster.
Just for the sake of disclosure, and it probably shouldn’t matter, but I profess Christianity.
I think you’ll find in my responses, etc that it rarely if ever comes up because I made the decision
long ago that my blog was going to be about everything I am interested in BUT religion and politics.
Occasionally I bend the rules but not very much.
I think I try really hard to see things from the point of view of those who don’t believe the way that I do
and I think at the core many religions and belief systems, etc. share the same basic beliefs if you
strip away the diety aspects of them and that is where I think common ground for discussion lies
in that at the very least if we all would practice those basic core behaviors towards one another and
towards life we all would be a great deal happier.
I certainly see your point about what is out there now becoming someone’s belief system in the future.
It is hard for me to equate that all with Christianity simply because I believe it and part of that belief system
presupposes that there are going to be many other belief systems, etc that seem just as valid, or just as invalid depending on one’s point of view. Anyway, I’m babbling again!
I see things from the opposite side in that I still believe films and literature are a catalyst for people to get into space exploration in the future. It could readily be a naive belief, but my strictly amateur interests in astronomy and in the space program has everything to do with the fact that I raised myself (reading and tv/film wise) on a diet of science fiction and fantasy.
And going back to your original post above, I certainly don’t truly believe in magic in the ‘real world’, but I continue to maintain that child like desire to WANT it to be real. If you stay tuned on my site during the spring when I’m hosting the fantasy/fairytale/mythology/folklore challenge Once Upon a Time II, you’ll no doubt see my referring in posts and essays, etc. to their being magic in life. When I say stuff like that I am really tapping into the whole idea of continuing to exercise my imagination as an adult as a way to stay connected with my young, wonder-filled self.
I don’t believe that walking into a forest and turning around thrice widdershins will translate you to the world of faerie.
I don’t believe that there is a thin veil between this reality and another underground magical realm.
I don’t believe, honestly, that there are other alien races out there for us to come into contact with.
I don’t believe that there exists ancient tombs and crypts of the kind Lovecraft writes about where one could stumble upon undisturbed insensate evil.
But I *want* to believe it. Why? Simply because it makes life pretty darn interesting to imagine that there is some sort of undiscovered country out there. I think that is why I like fiction so much. It takes us to those places in our imaginations and inspires us to become a part of those stories. To share those stories with our friends, our children, our neighbors, whoever and to likewise bring them into those magical worlds.
I have always believed that make believe wasn’t a waste of time. That the things that go on when one interacts with fiction actually does more than just simply entertain. That the sharing of those stories somehow stimulates our brains and that they inspire us to be more and to do more. I’ve alway believed that the simple act of reading was a pretty magical experience in its own right. I mean isn’t it pretty odd that a person can sit down and put words to paper and create a story that certainly isn’t reality, especially with science fiction and fantasy, and yet somehow something in the story grips you for days and won’t let you go. That you can find yourself emotionally attached to characters that aren’t real and that you can take those emotions and share them with others and open up a whole other level of communication.
I guess I do think there is something a bit magical about the whole thing because I think, all the scientific explanation be damned, we are a pretty unbelievable mechanism. All it takes is an introductory anatomy/physiology course to understand just what a wonder the human mind and human body are. Despite all the mechanical explanations as to why things work the way they do…which are pretty interesting in and of themselves…it is that spark of individuality that makes it all seem a bit mystical/magical/miraculous to me.
Okay, back to work.