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Revolutions vary from the disparate traditional tropes of the French and American revolutions to non-violent revolution (Gandhi’s India), The entrenched power may be colonial, class-based, or simply authoritarian. How well does SF & F represent the ideals and ambiguities of revolution, the need to rebuild, and the cultural stresses that result.
I almost titled this post Politics in Fantasy part 2. Revolutions are politics. They are one of it’s most visible forms, like earthquakes are for plate tectonics. (International wars are volcanoes in this analogy, in case you’re interested. No? Well alright.)
Revolutions in Speculative Fiction tend to be he big flashy kind with epic battles and heroic deeds. They also tend to be fought by the Good Guys(tm). We love underdogs, and rebellions are the underdogs in a big way. Furthermore, a Good King or a democracy never seems to have a revolution raised against them. History however is full of stories of revolutions that brought brought cruel dictators like the Ayatollah to power, or revolutions fought against democracies, like the American Civil War.
In Speculative Fiction the kind of revolution that shows up is also different. Most fictional revolutions, as I said before are the kind that involve a war. Peaceful revolutions happen on occasion, while ideological social, and technological revolutions are rarer still, except as backstories. These are revolutions where the outcome is inevitable, and the combat verbal. The shakeups change the fabric of society fundamentally. Part of this is a sense of stasis in especially fantasy. Series that take place over a thousand years may have a society and material culture that is almost identical. Revolutions run counter to this.
Most Speculative Fiction ends when the revolution ends, but there are exceptions. Firefly has the browncoats, a class of failed revolutionaries, meant according to the show creator, Joss Whedon, to be analogous to the former Confederate soldiers after the American Civil War, only with more of a moral leg to stand on. The first book of Carol Berg’s Rai-Kirah trilogy ends with the main character’s nation being given its freedom, and he next two books deal with the resulting shakeups. The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge ends with Moon taking power, and The Summer Queen is about her reign. The Star Wars Expanded Universe deals with the transition from the Rebel Alliance to the government of the New Republic, what it means to become a centralized government, and the Imperial Remnants, themselves attempting a counter-revolution. At the end of a revolution, no matter who wins, suddenly, the story becomes more complex, and less black and white, yet one of the great attractions of epic fantasy and space opera, huge segments of the reading public for Speculative Fiction is that it deals in black and white. As with cop shows, the muddy grays of the world can be forgotten, and good can unequivocally triumph over evil until the end of the story.
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bittercon the online convention for those of us who can't make it to any other kind, on a topic stolen from a panel at the 2011 Worldcon.
I almost titled this post Politics in Fantasy part 2. Revolutions are politics. They are one of it’s most visible forms, like earthquakes are for plate tectonics. (International wars are volcanoes in this analogy, in case you’re interested. No? Well alright.)
Revolutions in Speculative Fiction tend to be he big flashy kind with epic battles and heroic deeds. They also tend to be fought by the Good Guys(tm). We love underdogs, and rebellions are the underdogs in a big way. Furthermore, a Good King or a democracy never seems to have a revolution raised against them. History however is full of stories of revolutions that brought brought cruel dictators like the Ayatollah to power, or revolutions fought against democracies, like the American Civil War.
In Speculative Fiction the kind of revolution that shows up is also different. Most fictional revolutions, as I said before are the kind that involve a war. Peaceful revolutions happen on occasion, while ideological social, and technological revolutions are rarer still, except as backstories. These are revolutions where the outcome is inevitable, and the combat verbal. The shakeups change the fabric of society fundamentally. Part of this is a sense of stasis in especially fantasy. Series that take place over a thousand years may have a society and material culture that is almost identical. Revolutions run counter to this.
Most Speculative Fiction ends when the revolution ends, but there are exceptions. Firefly has the browncoats, a class of failed revolutionaries, meant according to the show creator, Joss Whedon, to be analogous to the former Confederate soldiers after the American Civil War, only with more of a moral leg to stand on. The first book of Carol Berg’s Rai-Kirah trilogy ends with the main character’s nation being given its freedom, and he next two books deal with the resulting shakeups. The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge ends with Moon taking power, and The Summer Queen is about her reign. The Star Wars Expanded Universe deals with the transition from the Rebel Alliance to the government of the New Republic, what it means to become a centralized government, and the Imperial Remnants, themselves attempting a counter-revolution. At the end of a revolution, no matter who wins, suddenly, the story becomes more complex, and less black and white, yet one of the great attractions of epic fantasy and space opera, huge segments of the reading public for Speculative Fiction is that it deals in black and white. As with cop shows, the muddy grays of the world can be forgotten, and good can unequivocally triumph over evil until the end of the story.
Written for
bittercon the online convention for those of us who can't make it to any other kind, on a topic stolen from a panel at the 2011 Worldcon. 
