海角社区官网

The world can feel like an AI hallucination that鈥檚 been fed only the worst of the news and we鈥檙e told that extremists are better able to speak to how we feel, even if their solutions seem far from normal. What鈥檚 happened to weather? To decency? To common sense? To data? How do we find a context for joy? For what we thought of as reality? For what Shakespeare terms the 鈥渨ondrous strange鈥�?

I鈥檝e been thinking about how we use story to try to make sense of the world and to express how inexpressible and unbelievable everything seems right now. And this has led me to Speculative Fiction. Speculative fiction听is a term for all the genres of fiction that aren鈥檛 鈥渞ealism鈥� or what we conventionally consider real. (If you can tell me what that is, please contact me right away!) Author Paul Witcover听writes that works of Spec Fic, ask 鈥渨hat-if questions鈥� and then 鈥渢ake those questions absolutely seriously and logically in extrapolating answers.”

These days, 鈥渟peculative fiction鈥� seems as real and makes as much 鈥� or more 鈥� sense as what we call 鈥渞eality鈥� and what is represented in 鈥渞ealist鈥� fiction. Instead of feeling like 鈥渆scapist鈥� writing, this writing often feels like it addresses what is most essential and helps sustain us. Our contemporary moment certainly seems to be asking 鈥渨hat-if questions.鈥�

Our best stories help us expand how we think and feel, and broaden what we imagine is even possible. They help us to not be overwhelmed 鈥� or numbed. They help us manage the present: the absurd, unbelievable, the possible, the impossible. Our world is a place of sadness and confusion but also one of possibility and wonder.

Sometimes speculative fiction 鈥渕akes things strange.鈥� It opens up our brains and hearts through surprising or strange techniques. It鈥檚 a sneak attack on that 鈥渟ame old same old鈥� feeling which makes us feel numb or overwhelmed. Getting our heads around something new energizes us, makes us reconsider what we thought we knew. It awakens us to new insights and feelings.

It reminds us that making new stories or telling old ones in a new way and trusting our imagination 鈥� our fundamental creativity as humans 鈥� helps us through, well, everything. Imagine if you were inventing a world, what an inspired idea snow would be? Imagine beautiful flakey things falling from the sky and transforming the landscape.

I recently reread听“The Memory Police” by Y艒ko Ogawa. It鈥檚 a powerful novel where the 鈥淢emory Police鈥� enforce the forgetting of objects and concepts. Like George Orwell鈥檚听”1984” or Ray Bradbury鈥檚听”Fahrenheit 451,” it鈥檚 a tale of erasure and state control of imagination as well as of resistance.听It鈥檚 an empowering story of how ideas and language in contemporary public discourse are redefined or suppressed entirely. Think about how difficult it is today to have a nuanced discussion about important but complex issues like Israel and Palestine. People talk past one another and words like 鈥渨okeness,鈥� or 鈥渃ritical race theory鈥� are thrown around as insults with impunity, with the result that potentially enlightening conversations are shut down before they begin.

I love the famous myth about the Norse god Odin where he makes a deal to get the secret to ultimate wisdom by giving up one eye. 听He hands over one of his eyes and asks, 鈥淪o what鈥檚 the secret?鈥� 鈥淲atch with both eyes,鈥� he鈥檚 told. The metaphor here 鈥� we鈥檒l overlook the ableist aspect of this ancient story for now 鈥� is that we鈥檙e not equipped to really understand the world. We鈥檝e asked to give up our eye to someone or something more powerful, whether corporate capitalism or some other kind of extremism and the fear that goes with that. But literature and speculative fiction in particular lets us keep our eye and tells us that it is our own imagination, our own thinking that is the source of understanding.

And by the way, I wrote this entire article using my imagination; I didn鈥檛 once use my opposable thumbs, except to pick up my coffee cup.