What does Brown (2001) identify as the central themes and concerns of the novel? What elements conform to the wider generic features of SF?
Brown (2001) identifies that “Science fiction is about the effect of events on individuals.” And “Like all great SF, it gives us a ‘what if’ glimpse of another world, a reality we are invited to compare with our own.” Obliviously, ‘what if’ is the central theme and concern of science fiction. Because stories usually under the specific settings. Brown said, the whole story has to provide us another world “we are invited to compare with our own.” And via the comparison, the work has different effect on individuals by their different experience and understanding.
Brown(2001) also point out that “Dick’s early novels conformed to type: he used the popular leitmotifs of SF- alien worlds, precognition, ray-guns- but employed them to his own agenda.”, “another of his concerns was what constitutes a true human being, as opposed to a fake”. I think, not only Dick’s work, most generic features of SF whether are based on an imaginary world and the “Fractured realities presented a future” (Brown, 2001) or the main characters confused by the reality, and search the answer of being human. These two elements are the most common features of SF.
Additional, all the stories are inspired from the real life, similar version that exists in the real world, and all the characters comes from the ordinary people. Real is a very important element, not only in SF, but also in other literatures.
Brown,E.(2001). introduction. in Dick, PK., The Man in the High Castle (p.v-xii).London: Penguin.
Interesting, here I thought Dick was just running with his paranoia - he was smart enough to incorporate ideologies into his work using elements of sci-fi.
ReplyDeleteI guess, I'll have to look at James Cameron's Avatar differently now....I don't want to sound racist but those blue beings were just ugh to watch. But the colonisation theme rang pretty strong throughout the film for me, so I had something to keep awake with it. lol! I'll always have Star Wars to keep me entertained though. :)