The Literary Value of Sci-Fi and Fantasy

In college, I had a few college professors who confidently discredited science fiction and fantasy as not “real” literature. “Real” literature, some say, should be about the condition of man, the flow of history, and the struggles faced by everyday people. Despite what some might say, sci-fi, fantasy, and other genre literature are often about at least one, if not all of these topics.

Science fiction shapes the future. Science fiction writers came up with flip phones before scientists did! Society often molds itself to the media it creates. Or, from another perspective, a society’s media reveals where that society is headed. We can debate forever on which one is more accurate, but both point to the interconnection of media and technological advancement. Science fiction allows us to imagine what we could be and what we should be. This genre is my personal favorite for examining philosophical ideas. Cliché sci-fi devices like robots, aliens, and faster-than-light travel can give the author the opportunity to explore ideas like gender, race, and how it feels to be a mortal being seeking eternity in a seemingly finite world.

In addition to philosophical ideas about the nature of humanity and its interactions with a universe that exists outside of it, science fiction media has typically been at the cutting edge of social issues. Something like an interracial kiss is no big deal to a man who frequently goes to bed with women from another planet (cheers to you, Kirk). Gender roles don’t mean anything to a robot. And no one suffers existential dread more than a man alone in the vacuum of space. Science fiction attempts to describe what our society will become, what it once was, or how it could’ve been.

Fantasy, on the other hand, tends to focus on other things. Rather than examining man’s role in the universe and our future, fantasy (usually, not always) looks at something that ancient people could not escape, and that modern people like to pretend they have. The unknown. Mythologies, fairy tales, and urban legends all came about from mankind’s struggle to explain the unexplainable, to make sense of the mysteries that surrounded them.

There have always been things that we don’t understand, fleeting glimpses and feelings that live on the edge of our consciousness. The creeping terror of standing alone in the dark. The somber peace of pouring rain. Our environment shapes us, fights us, and guides us. Fantasy takes these feelings of mystery and magic, these ideas of powers beyond our control and things in ourselves that we don’t understand, and amplifies them a hundred times.

The suspicion that the entire world is fighting against you becomes a curse placed upon you by a malevolent magician. Always felt that you could do something really great if given the opportunity? Turns out you were destined to fulfill a world-shattering prophecy. Constantly struggling against powers greater than yourself to achieve what seems to be an insurmountable task? There are a couple of hobbits out there that have done the exact same thing.

Fantasy can in many ways feel more real than stories based on real life. As a child, I never could relate to stories about girls navigating school, boys, and friends. The situations were a bit too specific and I never saw myself in them. But I did relate to all those characters who found themselves thrust into unfamiliar worlds, even if those worlds were filled with dragons and trolls. Fantasy can take all of one’s deepest feelings and impressions about oneself and the world around them and impresses them into a new world.

Science fiction and fantasy are so often disregarded as simply books for kids. Probably because of how much they ask of a reader’s imagination, something many adults avoid using at all costs. Asking you to be willing to imagine something impossible for an afternoon should not be considered an indication that a novel is inferior. Rather, it should be seen as a chance to see the world, others, and yourself, in a completely new way.