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

[vynessia361.livejournal.com]

I think part of it is the level of technology we tend to see in fantasy novels. Depending on how common magic-use is and if it substitutes at all for technological development, it can either equalize or exacerbate existing class structures. (In the historical periods most fantasy uses as a template, there already tends to be a significant divide between those with power and those without.)

For example, in The Wheel of Time, we see magic users going off and becoming powerful people in their own right, but that ability is so rare that it just adds another group of people to the "those who have power" group, rather than significantly altering the dynamic of "royals and peasants."

Um, books for the list:

Fly By Night by Frances Hardinge has some interesting political bits. (I think, anyway. I'm not sure if we're using the same definition of politics.)

There used to be a king but that ends before the book begins. ("He meant very well, and ruled very badly, and in the end they cut off his head, and melted down his crown to make coins.") Instead there's a Parliament ("The Parliament's leader ruled very like a king, but no one called him a 'king,' because names are important.") And the Realm has various Royalist factions and ruling guilds, and people discuss politics and radicalism. It's fun!

Ellen Kushner has a couple books (The titles are Swordspoint and Privilege of the Sword) that take place in a city (well, country, but we almost only see the city) ruled by nobles after they deposed the rule of kings. There's a faint undercurrent of "if the kings' divine right to rule is bullshit, what gives the nobles that power?" that I thought was rather interesting. More noticably, there's lots of maneuvering for power that is (for the most part) not portrayed as sinister. (There's also an interesting aspect of legalized assassination.)

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

I'm in the middle of writing a book in which the rulers of a certain country have always been magi-users, but changing technology makes the magic steadily less important. It's interesting, certain types of technology are an equalizing force, but others, like modern military technology are the opposite. He who controls that technology control the world. I have a fun time trying to explain to second amendment people that no matter how many guns you have, you're not overthrowing a government with nukes, guided missiles, and carpet bombs.

I mean the actual process in practice by which powerful people control others, policy making, treaty formatting, etc.

Fly by Night sounds like a fantasy version of the English Civil War and the Reign of Oliver Cromwell. I looked it up on Amazon, and I think I'll have to check it out.

I've been meaning to read Privilege of the Sword for a while, but I'm always worried about books that have degenerate bisexual characters in them. I never feel good afterwards. *Raises rather staid bi girl's flag high*

[vynessia361.livejournal.com]

Ooh, sounds interesting!

I was including how people get/maintain the power they have as well, but otherwise it sounds about right.

The thing about the Tremontaine is that he is degenerate, and he is bisexual, but he isn't degenerate because he's bisexual. (At least, that's how I read it.)

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Well, that too, of course.

Usually it tends to read the other way round, they're bisexual because they're degenerate, and I'm not sure how you avoid giving off that impression without having lots of counter examples in the story.

[vynessia361.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Well, there are other nobles that are degenerate without being bisexual, and there's at least one character that's bisexual without being degenerate, but I hadn't thought of that aspect before, so I'd have to reread it with that in mind to be sure. (The fact that a large part of the story is told from the slightly stilted viewpoint of his oh-so-proper-minded niece doesn't necessarily help.)

Okay, I just reread some parts and I still don't get that impression. I think knowing the events of Swordspoint could've helped with that, though.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

I'll probably bite the bullet and read it, I just always worry.