Writing about Politics in Speculative Fiction: Made Up Places and the Things They Get Up To

[attackfish]

I have this running joke about fantasy that I’m there for the politics.  I’m not all the way kidding.  It’s my field of study, and I chose it because I am a hard core policy wonk.  I was there for the politics before I even realized I was into politics.

Speculative Fiction is the perfect genre for exploring politics.  Because Speculative Fiction authors are able to make up whole worlds, they can make up whole countries, with whole political systems.  It is the genre of “what if”, so authors are free to ask “What if aliens really did invade?  What would the world’s governments do?” or “What if I had a set of small kingdoms, each trying to get he better of the others, wedged between two empires?” or “What if we try to colonize a people (human or alien) and we fail?”  Or “How would [insert influential world event here] be different with magic/lasers?”

Hands down, Speculative Fiction has the greatest potential for this, but not everybody gets their socks knocked off by this stuff.  Fantasy especially has long been accused of being retrogressive and conservative, an I have written before about the deep ties it keeps to history.  It is a genre populated with monarchies, good kings, bad kings, evil regents (are there any good regents in fantasy?) noble princes, determined princesses, and whole courts full of aristocrats.  And you Science Fiction readers shouldn’t get too smug either.  If it isn’t a world controlling totalitarian dystopia, it’s a non-specific never seen intergalactic council.  In other words, Spec Fic authors can, but don’t have to.

The Fantasy genre tends to have a love affair with royalty, and the goal of most Epic Fantasy is to either prevent the conquest of a kingdom, or free a kingdom, or put the true heir on the throne, or otherwise put or keep a Good King (or more rarely a Good Queen) defined as anyone with royal blood who was reasonably moral and of moderate intelligence, on the throne.  Some secondary world fantasies have powerful courts where the nobility jostle for power, or diplomatic relations between multiple nations, but for some reason, this sort of power play is almost always portrayed as sinister.

Urban Fantasy has it’s share of the world’s real oldest profession too.  Odds are actually better that the author will discuss the internal politics of vampires/werewolves/fae/zombies (the internal politics of zombies would be actually kind of awesome, someone should get on that) than the odds that politicking will show up in secondary world fantasy, in Urban fantasy, it is an even dirtier, more morally repugnant game.  Heroes don’t play politics.

Well, they do sometimes, but usually the books they play it in are all about the politics.

Science fiction too has a fascination with ultimate power, but their view of it is far darker.  Dystopian totalitarian states must be overthrown in exchange for a government (or lack of government) more suited to the author’s beliefs, usually democracy.  Somehow, very few Science Fiction stories ever show anybody living in a republic actually voting, or discussing politicians, or public policy.  The nitty gritty of freedom is almost unimportant.  This is partly because both genres have strong ties to epic literature, were politics was the slow stuff between wars.

These are all of course trends, not absolute realities otherwise, I probably wouldn’t be here.

Political Speculative Fiction: (Let’s build a list!)

The Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner (shut up)
The Westmark Trilogy by Lloyd Alexander
Leviathan and Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld
The Abhorsen series by Garth Nix
The Pain Merchants/The Shifter by Janice Hardy

From the comments:

The Deryni series by Katherine Kurtz
The Deverry cycle by Katharine Kerr
Point of Dreams by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett
The Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold
Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge
Swordpoint and Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner
Crossover by Joel Shepherd
Kitty Goes to Washington by Carrie Vaughn
The Elenium and Tamuli trilogies by David and Leigh Eddings


Written for bittercon the online convention for those of us who can't make it to any other kind, on a topic loosely from a panel at the 2011 Worldcon.

Comments

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Every time I had it recommended t me, it was by someone telling me "Oh, it's noting like that fanfiction trash you read, really." That's the only reason I haven't read it yet.

[theironchocho.livejournal.com]

Ha, I enjoy thinking of it as very well-written fanfiction.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

*grin*

[abricot-vert.livejournal.com]

Wow, this is kind of amazing! I wish I could put together such thought out, analytical, meaningful essays about fantasy.

This is completely what I love about SF and fantasy too, and I think that Abhorsen is what really got be into it. Seeing the politics of that world, even just vaguely drawn out, intertwinned with the magic and the power of the story just gave it so much more meaning to me. I wish more books were about the intricate power plays of politics between this clan of werewolves and that coven of vampires, rather than which of them is getting off, really (although, yeah, let's get rid of them all together and go with zombies - I think they must have a bit of a hive mind and swarm attack motive).

Basically, this makes me sad I gave up Philosophy, Economics and Politics to do English.
Sorry for the random rambly comment, I just think this is awesome . Is it alright if I add you as a friend?

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

This is what I love about bittercon. There are so many fantastic essays about SpecFic that come down the pipeline there.

I's a shame you left Philosophy, Economics and Politics. I'm a Polisci and Sociology student, and it would be nice to have some company in the SpecFic geekery department.

Do all zombies share the same hivemind, are there different groups? does the hivemind have a "queen bee"? Is it that zombies are absorbed into a hivemind when they congregate and then leave it when they disperse? If the hivemind isn't constant, how do non-hiveminded zombies feel about being sucked in? See awesome stuff here.

Sure you can add me! I never say no. Beware though, I write more fanfiction than essays, so...

[abricot-vert.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's a shame, but I'm still doing the philosophy and I really couldn't see myself coping with the economics side of things, even if the course I wanted only required a year.

See, the first thing that came to mind was some sort of structure based on a bee hive, with there being "worker" drones and one controller. But then comes the question of how the queen bee BECAME the queen bee. Then how the hive actually forms...Sorry, sorry, rambling here :)

Thank you! Well, I do love a bit of fanfic and I've noticed you write some A:TLA - the drabbles I've read are amazing by the way.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

I took one economics course in my freshman year that almost made me drop out. It didn't help that the professor was very very libertarian.

this needs thinking about. Maybe the first zombie (and then you have to work out how zombies came about) was the queen bee, and then once somebody managed to kill it, and all the zombies they had turned became queen bees and started building their own hives?

Thank you! A:tLA is my primary fandom, and I post a lot of drabbles.

[abricot-vert.livejournal.com]

I hate it when a bad teacher ruins a potentially great subject, but I'm glad you didn't drop out. I almost had a similar problem with my very catholic philosophy and ethics teacher, but luckily we didn't go into "personal beliefs" too much. With economics I realised you had to do actual maths and headed for the hills. I'm a terrible cliche, I'm afraid.

Ooh, that's an interesting idea. But then, is it every person they turn becomes a drone of that queen bee, and the every person that subsequent drone turns is another drone until a whole hive is established? It would make killing them off quickly very difficult, so a good survival strategy for the species.

How I wish I could write A:TLA fic! I just can't get into the heads of the characters to do it.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Lol, I'm a physicist's daughter, and math was no fear. Wht drives me nuts is how so many political theorists want to narrow it all down to scientific formulas when in the end, we're dealing with a bunch of people who act unpredictably.

And then people would have to decide if they want to try to kill the zombie queen and risk sending each of the suddenly free drones into a frenzy as they build their own hive, or just wait to die. Or you know, firebomb them all.

Well, if you ever do decide to give it a go...

[abricot-vert.livejournal.com]

Ha, biochemist's kid here, my mother despairs of me :) Although I always loved physics. I could deal with maths in physics. Exactly! Basing your ideas on predictions of what people will do without some buffer zones is stupid because people aren't rational like numbers. I think poltics in general just needs to become far more compassionate.

Firebombing sounds good :) Interesting, so your suggesting the "en-queened" zombies become ultra-productive, as it were, for a short time until a viable hive is established?

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

I was my dad's last hope to have physicist kid.

Yep, faster moving, more chaotic, maybe stupider, an instead of trying to feed on most of the humans they run across, they turn them until they have a swarm. Oh man, I have put way too much thought into this.

[abricot-vert.livejournal.com]

I'm lucky, my sister's a medic :)

I know, now I want to write orginal fic about zombie perspectives of their society. Like, what does the small part of their brain with coherent thought thing about this? Shame I've never been able to stick with anything original.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

My brother's an engineer, but they're lowly applied scientists.

Its a shame I can't deal with Zombies.

[abricot-vert.livejournal.com]

My cousin's an engineer! I keep getting told what a great career it is.

For some reason, my only plan for zombies is to hole up in a library.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Lol.It is a great career. My dad's a physics snob.

I plan to use my spare oxygen tanks as firestarters. I figure the library is a bad place to be, since the zombies are looking for brains...

[abricot-vert.livejournal.com]

Most science-y people in general like to tell me my path in life is useless :)

Make make-shift flame throwers. Haha, thats a good point, but at least I would die happy

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

My dad's actually really good about humanities, and polisci, and he will give anybody at his work a long talking to who thinks things outside the sciences are useless and for idiots. the words "you couldn't even begin to do what my daughter does" have been heard. But engineers are different. Engineers and physicists have a bit of a rivalry. Physicists say engineers are intellectually lazy pretend scientists who use the science physicists have discovered for them without ever thinking about what it means. Engineers say physicists are useless.

[sholio]

Libertatianism says the best person will rise to the top, and most libertarians somewhere think that person's going to be them, and they really could just fix everything if they had the money.

Somewhat OT threadjack here, but this isn't really the impression I get from the Libertarians I know -- most Libertarians seem to be more of the mindset that any government is going to inevitably become corrupt and abusive, and the best thing you can do with it is give it as little power as possible, to limit the amount of fucking up it can do when it gets out of control.

Ironically I think most Libertarians hold a more optimistic view of human nature than I can bring myself to subscribe to -- the idea that humans, if left to their own devices without a government holding them in check, will treat each other well and make sensible decisions. History does not seem to bear this out.

More on topic, this whole discussion has reminded me all over again of the lack of democracies in spec fic, especially fantasy, and reminded me that I want to write one, someday.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

There are multiple strains of Libertarian thought. Anarchist Libertarians for the most part are as you described, (though I did meet one who was kinda convinced that he was going to rule the world... strange man) and I feel about the the way I feel abou Marxists. It would be a great idea if people could function without police and laws/have a centrally planned economy where there was no incentive system, but if we were able to do that, we wouldn't need the theories. Randian Libertarians, however, are under the strange misapprehension that the poor are oppressing the rich, and only the people at the top of the economic pyramid are really contributing anything, an everybody else is leaching off of them. They want to see governmental control done away with, because it's the tool by which the poor oppress their superiors. This is the Libertarianism of trendy college kids. Then there's the mass of baby boomer tea partiers. They're not libertarians so much as people who A) don't want to pay for what they get from the government or don't realize how much our taxes do and are under the illusion that most of it goes to welfare and the unemployed, and B) are seeing the privileges that come from being white middle class straight Christian or culturally Christian, able-bodied, etc. slipping away, and because they've been taught by society for so long that they really are the best and deserved those privileges, they believe that without all that busybody government stuff, they would climb to the top of the heap. This is the Libertarianism that is becoming popular right now.

[sholio]

Yeah, I'm mostly going off personal anecdata here -- most of the Libertarians I know are of the well-meaning, "if the government would just get out of our business everybody would do their own thing and the world would be great" sort (I live in Alaska, so a vague distrust of the guv'mint is practically a lifestyle up here). I think the comparison to Marxists is spot-on; it's exactly the same sort of idealistic thing that would work great if people would just ... stop being people. But it's fundamentally idealistic.

Randian Libertarians are more like what most people seem to mean when they speak of Libertarians, except they don't seem especially representative of Libertarians in general, at least in my experience; they're mostly either assholes to begin with, and would be assholes no matter what their political philosophy, or new converts who haven't actually done the mental legwork necessary to figure out the dark underbelly of their shiny new philosophy yet ...

[abricot-vert.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's amazing. My parents are supportive (especially my dad, he's a historian) but they don't exactly go around defending the arts. That's really interesting, actually, because one informs the other, with physics and engineering. Then again, I suppose that can breed rivalries. I always thought the funniest bits og physics were the parts for knowledge itself :) but most physics folk I know (not many) like to joke about how it "doesn't work"

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

The fact that a lot of physicists who work outside the university setting get mistaken for engineers doesn't help. My dad's an optical physicist, so quantum mechanics is something he works with, but he will shout until he's blue in the face that there is no evidence for string theory, it's people trying to fit the universe to the math and not the other way around. The "knowledge" is still hotly debated.

My dad speaks three languages and has a passionate love for literature. He also spent some time auditing one of my master classes while we were debating the finer diplomatic points of developing and implementing missile defense technology, which is his job, which given how many people in his own field pay no attention to the ramifications of their own work, really brought it home to him why there are political scientists like me. And the guys from work who met me at work parties were extremely condescending, and when I'm there, Dad lets me rip into them in highly technical language with data to back me up, and when I'm not, he tells them to go to hell for me. They're very actively distasteful, the other guys at his work, no idea why.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

At the elected level, a lot of the Libertarians in power are Randian, which is why they come to mind, and outside of Libertarian heartlands like Alaska, the tea party mentality rules. Demographically, the tea party is above average in socioeconomic status, very white, and almost exclusively baby boomers. When you suggest cutting anything that benefits them right now (farm subsidies, which are the opposite of Libertarian, or science spending for the ones who work in defense, things like that) all of a sudden the shoe is on the other foot. The root of their ideology, as best I've been able to tell, is that yes, they really should be getting all the benefits of society, and those government types, poor people, and immigrents are sealing it from the real Americans like them. If the government were gone, there would be none of this "forced equality" (i.e. socialist fascism, what?) and they (already well off white people) would naturally rise to the top. In Alaska, the long term anti-government feelings make the discussion entirely different than it is here in the bottom forty-eight. And your Libertarianism is much purer and gentler for it.

The thing that gets me about Alaska is that the state government is heavily subsidized by the state's oil, which means that everybody is benefiting from that resource. If it were in private hands, all those benefits would go away.

[abricot-vert.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, the fun physics. Well, that's what I always used to call it in my head when we did it, but considering that was two years ago...:) With string theory, isn't part of the problem that certain elements work and make sense, but other don't fit at all?

You're dad sounds like a pretty amazing guy. Three languages? I can barely manage two. Eee, it scares me a little how much some politicians ignore the science which is desperately needed and impacting daily life, and vice versa.

See, I've never gotten this distain for humanities. I'm pretty sure we wouldn't be doing any advanced science at all without the ability to communicate and understand one another.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Yes, this is one problem. Another is that there is no evidence for or against it, except that it makes the equations look good. Instead of thinking maybe there's a mistake in the equations, they think "let's create this theory to explain the discrepancy!"

I speak four, and we all blame my dad for this, even though our only overlapping language is English.

See, I've never gotten this distain for humanities. I'm pretty sure we wouldn't be doing any advanced science at all without the ability to communicate and understand one another.

This, so much. I think most of them, when learning the scientific method had the "this is the only way to learn concrete scientific facts" drummed into them so hard that they forgot that there were other kinds of facts and truth than the scientific sorts. We can't do an experiment to see if Napoleon lost at Waterloo, but we know it happened, and how do I prove that Mayim means water in Hebrew? Yet this is true. And I certainly know that if I desecrate a site that someone holds sacred, it will hurt them, even f there is no proof that it is sacred.