The Future Begins Tomorrow

I had a prof in college who was really big into sci fi. She was pretty much shunned by the straight literary canon types for believing that science fiction was worthy of study. Not just the classics like H.G. Wells, but the pulp fiction types who wrote simply to entertain and weren't looking into deeper social issues. That's a big no-no in serious literature circles.

Now, I love my science fiction. Have since I was a kid. I've read pretty much all the classics from Herbert to Asimov. If there is a science fiction movie that must be seen then I must have already seen it. "Star Trek" rocks my world. "The Twilight Zone," "The Outer Limits," "Dr. Who," "Blake's 7" and more are staples of my video collection. But as much as I love science fiction, I'd be hard-pressed to justify the entire genre as worthy of serious discussion. The Foundation Trilogy was a good read, but what exactly could be say about it critically? What does it say about the human condition?

Frank Herbert's "Dune" series is a brilliantly entertaining read, but you can't dissect it and look at the many levls of meaning because they aren't there. "Ooh, wasn't it cool when Maud D'ib learned to ride the giant worms?" isn't someting that should be said in a graduate seminar.

With that said, Vonnegut's work, Orwell's "1984," and Huxley's "Brave New World" are perfect examples of what science fiction can be: futurism. Novels that says something about the world at hand by looking into an extrapolated future. It can be serious, ridiculous, frightening or fantastic, but it must make us question ourselves. Otherwise,it's just mental masturbastion.