I'm trying to do some work in science fiction, as in a space opera, and I'd like to bounce something off the masters in this forum.
Robert Heinlein said
I would agree with that, but the difficult part, as always, is implementation.
For example, a story of "Martian girl falls in love with Earth guy during interplanetary war", that would be just like Romeo and Juliet, and that would also be campy, because the SF version would just be substituting labels like "Martian" for "Montague" and so on. An interplanetary version of this love-story-tragedy must have something that is subtly different.
I'm not a literary expert, but I can give an example from a slightly different story line. "Enemy Mine", the novella by Barry Longyear, involved a human marooned on a planet with a reptile. They fight, but eventually learn to cooperate so as to survive, and they become friends. The reptile is a hemaphrodite, so it gives birth to a reptile, dying in the process, and it makes the human male promise to raise the child properly.
This is a good love story, and it can only happen in a SF setting, because the mother is a, well, hemaphrodite. Of course, it could also be a story of Romeo and Juliet marooned on a Pacific island, but the fact of the reptile being a hemaphrodite makes the story very different.
A similar story, no doubt inspired by Enemy Mine, is the final episode of Galactica 1980, which tells the story of one of the regular characters, Starbuck, being marooned on an island with a Cylon. Both make peace, and they are joined by a human female who gives birth to a child. The SF elements are that 1) Starbuck finds a Cylon that isn't working and he makes it work, and 2) the human female turns out to be a superior being sent to judge Starbuck.
I've done substantial research, and I know that there are predecessors to this story line, namely, "None but the Brave", a 1956 movie, as well as "Hell in the Pacific", where the characters, who were enemies, are marooned on a Pacific Island and learn to be friends. Both movies involved men, who therefore had no child and definitely did not repair their enemies.
So a good SF story would take from other genres, but it would also insert a scientific element, so that the SF version would be something that could not have happened in those other genres.
Can anyone give me feedback on this?
Robert Heinlein said
"Let's gather up the bits and pieces and define the Simon-pure science fiction story: 1. The conditions must be, in some respect, different from here-and-now, although the difference may lie only in an invention made in the course of the story. 2. The new conditions must be an essential part of the story. 3. The problem itself—the "plot"—must be a human problem. 4. The human problem must be one which is created by, or indispensably affected by, the new conditions. 5. And lastly, no established fact shall be violated, and, furthermore, when the story requires that a theory contrary to present accepted theory be used, the new theory should be rendered reasonably plausible and it must include and explain established facts as satisfactorily as the one the author saw fit to junk. It may be far-fetched, it may seem fantastic, but it must not be at variance with observed facts, i.e., if you are going to assume that the human race descended from Martians, then you've got to explain our apparent close relationship to terrestrial anthropoid apes as well"
I would agree with that, but the difficult part, as always, is implementation.
For example, a story of "Martian girl falls in love with Earth guy during interplanetary war", that would be just like Romeo and Juliet, and that would also be campy, because the SF version would just be substituting labels like "Martian" for "Montague" and so on. An interplanetary version of this love-story-tragedy must have something that is subtly different.
I'm not a literary expert, but I can give an example from a slightly different story line. "Enemy Mine", the novella by Barry Longyear, involved a human marooned on a planet with a reptile. They fight, but eventually learn to cooperate so as to survive, and they become friends. The reptile is a hemaphrodite, so it gives birth to a reptile, dying in the process, and it makes the human male promise to raise the child properly.
This is a good love story, and it can only happen in a SF setting, because the mother is a, well, hemaphrodite. Of course, it could also be a story of Romeo and Juliet marooned on a Pacific island, but the fact of the reptile being a hemaphrodite makes the story very different.
A similar story, no doubt inspired by Enemy Mine, is the final episode of Galactica 1980, which tells the story of one of the regular characters, Starbuck, being marooned on an island with a Cylon. Both make peace, and they are joined by a human female who gives birth to a child. The SF elements are that 1) Starbuck finds a Cylon that isn't working and he makes it work, and 2) the human female turns out to be a superior being sent to judge Starbuck.
I've done substantial research, and I know that there are predecessors to this story line, namely, "None but the Brave", a 1956 movie, as well as "Hell in the Pacific", where the characters, who were enemies, are marooned on a Pacific Island and learn to be friends. Both movies involved men, who therefore had no child and definitely did not repair their enemies.
So a good SF story would take from other genres, but it would also insert a scientific element, so that the SF version would be something that could not have happened in those other genres.
Can anyone give me feedback on this?