Aliens! Green, blue, yellow, horny, gorgeous... and so not my cup of tea!
I am just judging the books by their covers - or rather by what online searches throw up for pertinent keywords concerning #scifiromance.
Judging by those search results, it seems to be a genre that awkwardly straddles the border between pulp fiction and Man Booker.
Do I think the genre is trashy? No, I don't. Not more than any other genre, anyway.
I feel , though, that romantic science fiction is a neglected niche of the genre; sniffed at by the 'real' sci-fi writers, stuffed into a corner of the literary spectrum, and treated like it doesn't belong. Or perhaps it has just not been promoted enough? Or perhaps there are too many sub -genres of sci-fi? Apocalypse, Dystopia, Utopia, Space Opera, Hard, Soft, Fantastic Realism, Time Travel, Sci-fi Horror, or horrific sci-fi... ;- )
The list is endless as the universe herself, andby no means complete...
The list is endless as the universe herself, and
Is romance too far-fetched in a science fiction background? Is sci-fi too technical? Too scientific? Too male-dominated? Is romance not suitable for science fiction? And if so, then why? Is it because we associate the romance genre with women, whereas science and technology are not? Is the divide too wide? Is this really a gender-driven issue?
Cut! We live in an age where we recognize - as a society - that STEM subjects need more women. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematicsare heavily promoted , attempting to tempt girls into STEM education.
Women working in science and technologyis not an abstract concept. In fact, it was never to begin with. Women have always been at the forefront of science and innovation. Admittedly, they didn't always get the proper acknowledgment, and there is still is - to this day - a struggle to 'make it' in this kind of industry.
We need to acknowledge that women are an intrinsic part of this formerly 'strictly male' domain.
Now back to the romance... and humanity in general .
Romantic feelings can blossom in any niche of the literary spectrum - just as they do in actual life.
Love, romance, and sex - after all - are basic requirements for procreating the species.
Okay - some future worlds have developed in-vitro solutions to this problem.* I am holding my hands up and plead 'guilty as charged' on this account.
Does that prevent my characters from falling in love? No.Of course not.
Do they fall in love with aliens? Yes, they do.
"Yikes," you might say.
Rest assured: my aliens are far from green, or scaly. They need not be. They are unique as they are, without illustrious looks, or magic abilities.
They are different but they are perfect in their realms... and in ours. Or perhaps we invaded their realm to begin with?
Cut! We live in an age where we recognize - as a society - that STEM subjects need more women. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
Women working in science and technology
We need to acknowledge that women are an intrinsic part of this formerly 'strictly male' domain.
Now back to the romance... and humanity
Romantic feelings can blossom in any niche of the literary spectrum - just as they do in actual life.
Love, romance, and sex - after all - are basic requirements for procreating the species.
Okay - some future worlds have developed in-vitro solutions to this problem.* I am holding my hands up and plead 'guilty as charged' on this account.
Does that prevent my characters from falling in love? No.
Do they fall in love with aliens? Yes, they do.
"Yikes," you might say.
They are different but they are perfect in their realms... and in ours. Or perhaps we invaded their realm to begin with?
Sci-fi, aliens, parallel worlds, alternate realities: they are perfect settings to explore human nature and the world beyond what we know and perceive.
Some of the best science fiction novels with precise and predictive scientific writing wouldn't be what they are without the elements of humanity. Think Ursula K. Le Guin, Margaret Atwood, James Tiptree Jr. (pen name of the female sci-fi author Alice Bradley Sheldon), Carl Sagan, Arthur C. Clarke, Kim Stanley Robinson, Stanislaw Lem, and Mary Shelley... just to name a few.
All of them are giants of the sci-fi genre - and all of them incorporate human feelings, struggles, and social relationships into their work; never mind how much tech and science they showcase, because for some writers, tech and science is just a job - something they know how to write about.
At the end of the day, science and fiction are both driven by creative, curious, and investigative human minds.
You can read my previous blog post on this issue here.
Some of the best science fiction novels with precise and predictive scientific writing wouldn't be what they are without the elements of humanity. Think Ursula K. Le Guin, Margaret Atwood, James Tiptree Jr. (pen name of the female sci-fi author Alice Bradley Sheldon), Carl Sagan, Arthur C. Clarke, Kim Stanley Robinson, Stanislaw Lem, and Mary Shelley... just to name a few.
All of them are giants of the sci-fi genre - and all of them incorporate human feelings, struggles, and social relationships into their work; never mind how much tech and science they showcase, because for some writers, tech and science is just a job - something they know how to write about.
At the end of the day, science and fiction are both driven by creative, curious, and investigative human minds.
You can read my previous blog post on this issue here.
* Not only the future and imaginary worlds. Our own reproductive technologies are not far behind a full in-vitro scenario. In vitro fertilization (IVF) and cloning (Dolly the sheep) are established techniques. And although IVF eggs are still carried to term in utero, it is not too far-fetched a scenario to think that - one day - mechanical, or semi-biological incubators could make pregnancy a thing of the past. Aldous Huxley already envisaged hatchery-breeding in his dystopian novel Brave New World, which was published in 1932.
