Asian speculative fiction insights

Two posts were mentioned in news alerts today regarding Asian speculative fiction:

• Philippine Speculative Fiction
  
• Correspondences
  

The first is a collection of stories. They're all in English...so no need to rummage around to find your Tagalog dictionary.

I've read through only a couple of them; selected haphazardly using a spontaneous clicking technique. One of note: The God Equation packs a bunch of metaphysical concepts into a short read sprinkled with some action and an international flair. You get to learn one Tagalog expression (again, no dictionary needed...it's explained) and it ends with Italian to leave you with that Papal feeling.

The second post, from Yusuf Martin's blog, is an academic commentary. If you're a speculative fiction enthusiast, it's very insightful stuff and highly recommended. Martin has done a deep dive into Malaysian English language works and breaks them down quite nicely including a chronology of the genre's development.

The message of the day: if you're looking for fresh speculative fiction, look to Asia.

Getting herstory right in speculative fiction

Cultural writer Lucy Portsmouth has done an excellent job breaking down the feminist perspective here in the online magazine Seven. In addition to parsing out the writers that have avoided the stereotypes, she also breaks down trends by feminist era.

As a child of the Seventies and Eighties, the message sank in...and I personally strive to avoid the pitfalls Portsmouth mentions in my own writing. Three of these stereotypes are the:

• evil villainess
  
• hapless victim
  
• attractive, often scantily clad, in need of redemption and validation by a heroic man
  

Settling onto the couch doing a bit of self-analysis: I avoided 2 out of 3 in my recent novel Darwin's Orphans. There is a phalanx of evil-doers in my book all perpetuating unrest with violence. And there is an evil villain character -- not the leader -- she's the smart one that clearly dominates in the end...she's obviously the most resourceful of the lot. In this case, she's not a stereotypical, evil villainess. What about hapless victim? Most of the victims are male and the female pulled into the snare turns out to be very clever: again, I passed the test. The scantily clad one in need of redemption, I confess, is included in one chapter. In spicing things up, I committed a feminist misstep.

Overall though, I've got strong female characters and feel good about realistic and positive representations in the book. But, I wonder, how do your favorite authors faire in this regard?

I'm reading one of my favorite current authors now: Charles Stross. Catching up on his older books, I'm in the middle of Glasshouse and it's got hot women that Ms. Portsmouth may not respect. However, they are intelligent and full of guile...doesn't that earn Stross a few pointers? In the book before it, Accelerando, Stross also features complex, very smart women as major characters. Yet there is that hottie factor thrown in...but why is that?

My take on it: people are seeking both fantasy as well as future visions from speculative fiction. They want both intellectual stimulation as well as entertainment from their books. So, at least for the male audience, spicing the women up makes it more entertaining. That's not fair to real women, though. So, do you counter this by making the smartest, most capable characters women? Seems like a fair balance. After all, seeking balance is what the feminist movement pursues.

This writer pledges to seek that balance in female characters. As a child growing up when Gloria Steinem was in her heyday, I got the message loud and clear...and I agree with it. Hopefully, this same message will imbue the decisions that other male writers make in creating their female characters. Assuredly, Ursula K. LeGuin and other current female authors have already got this mastered.

Some fresh looks at speculative fiction

Our friends at io9.com have published a noteworthy piece assembling thoughts on near future and distant fiction in Six Writers Speculate on Science Fiction's Future.

A thought-provoking piece, it got me thinking about my recent book, Darwin's Orphans, and my newest opus which chronologically occurs shortly after it. Regardless of the concerns and warnings I just read in the io9.com article, I'm sticking to my storyline.

The most compelling argument I read to continue down the near future path came from Ursula LeGuin: "Now that science and technology move ever faster, much science fiction is really fantasy in a space suit: wishful thinking about galactic empires and cybersex - often a bit reactionary. Things are livelier over on the social and political side, where human nature, which doesn't revise itself every few years, can be relied on to provide good solid novel stuff."

LeGuin has been in my personal pantheon since I read her Dangerous Visions contribution back in the 70's. Anyone who gets respect from a crotchety, old genius like Harlan Ellison has their proverbial act together. So, when I realized that my brand of social and political storytelling in near future fiction holds water by LeGuin, I decided to stay on track.

For the readers and writers of whatever form of SF (speculative or science fiction) you relate to, check out the io9 article. It'll get the wheels turning.

Tasty paper in your future?

Speculative fiction can steal many pages out of the green movement. When imagining "what might be" as a context for stories, writers don't have to look much further than scientific finds on the environmental frontier. Especially for near-future fiction.

This thought is based on recommendations like this one: make your paper out of wheat. Yes, we may be able to truly save a tree by taking that surplus wheat and creating paper with it.

Although this is an interesting concept, the timing seems rather goofy. We are, after all, moving toward a paperless society.

Regardless of impact, handy references like WorldChanging.com can give some suggestive hints to the fiction scribes among us. If you're writing about the future -- or just like pondering it -- there's a plethora of handy references waiting for you in cyberspace.

Chabon and Gaiman

I recently picked up a couple of books that were on my reading list:

Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union
and
Neil Gaiman's American Gods.

Chabon deserves all the praises he received for his novel...it's an extremely good read. As I'm always a bit behind the critics, I can only add my own personal views...the sense of place was stark. Ask me to drive around this fictional Sitka and I'll be your well-versed cabbie. There wasn't laborious detail on the subject...just plenty of indicators and creative texture of place that made me feel like I knew this environment. It goes beyond Sitka in the book...hinterlands, outskirts, etc.

True confession: there is a passage that details travels in my book Darwin's Orphans that's familiar to what I'm describing. Only in my case, I rattled off the furtive travel moves of the antagonists in rapid succession. Chabon takes his time and layers on the details in proper doses. I learned much from his technique.

So, onto the next book. Before I began to read, I picked it up and scanned the cover and leading pages...praises from Michael Chabon for Neil Gaiman's novel. How serendipitous. "With Chabon's recommendation, this should be a good book," I thought. The outcome: it is a solid read. Even though Gaiman got my attention through Hollywood endeavors like Stardust.

Gaiman doesn't have personal nuances and relationship development down like Chabon does...but he tells a fun story. He creates a world of magical personas that makes you want to read more about his characters. I can see him creating a Hollywood franchise one day.

Check both of these books out if you haven't already...my reading list references remain good advisors.

Cool reference: opening lines in fiction

Whether you're a writer or not, a great opening line is always appreciated. In the case of this post the focus is on science fiction.

No matter, the lines are cool whether you like your stories to include space suits or leather chaps. A few that made an impression on me are:

• "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." — William Gibson, Neuromancer.
  
• "The five small craft passed from shadow, emerging with the suddenness of coins thrown into sunlight." — Scott Westerfield, The Risen Empire.
  
• "Today is the two-hundredth anniversary of the final extinction of my One True Love, as close as I can date it." — Saturn's Children, Charles Stross.
  

This last quote is by Charles Stross and he's gotten lots of attention already on this blog. It makes sense that his work stuck out yet again...he's a personal favorite of currently producing speculative fiction writers.

Thanks to Charlie Jane Anders and again to I09.com for another insightful fiction article. They've provided a few meaningful references over the past year for Darwins Orphans.

What is speculative fiction?

The people at Books Worth Reading answered this question recently. Since I continue to encounter this same question while discussing my genre of fiction, it's a good subject to occasionally revisit on this blog.

A couple of the names you read about in my blog: Vonnegut and McCarthy, also show up prominently in their list of authors in the right page gutter.

Their article sets up the big mainstream categories first but then drills down into the other powerful areas of fiction that you can't neatly categorize...and they contain great books. To add to your reading list, take a few of their suggestions to heart.

Go with Halting State

You may not have heard of Charles Stross or his new book Halting State. I know I hadn't heard of either until I read this review.

However, after reading the premise, I just ordered it online. It sounds like a good read for speculative fiction fans...especially those that prefer near-future fiction like me. Admittedly, my book Darwin's Orphans is in this very same genre, but Stross' book sounds intriguing.

For example, RFID tags tracking people's locations is already a possibility...just not in practice (or at least we don't think it is). Cars are getting close to driving themselves, so the unmanned taxi scenario described in the book is also a reasonable expectation for our near future.

There are a couple of influences here requiring full disclosure. First off, this book is being recommended by an Aussie. I've got family from north of Sydney and they've turned me on to some good books. Secondly, there's a passage in the review that echoes a concept that I featured in my own book:

• A 15-year-old caught kissing a 16-year-old on CCTV is forever labelled with a "pedophile caution" in the EU's police database.
  

My story Darwin's Orphans features social labeling whereby a database lists folks with violent tendencies.

It sounds like Stross had much of the same fun I did in writing his thriller. When you consider where society and technology are heading, folding it into a story can be an enjoyable exercise. I know it was for me. Hopefully, Stross had a good time as well.

After I finish reading the book, expect a bit of follow up commentary.

Interesting Inspirations

If you've ever pondered the inspirations of futuristic fictional ideas, this post has some cool info for you. Although the article focuses on celluloid depictions, it's still very interesting stuff.

Someone had mentioned to me in the past about George Lucas' inspiration for the turbo tank AT-AT's. Folks that hadn't heard the Lucas tidbit before likely made this connection on their own. Ditto for Stanley Kubrick's close circuit camera inspiration. There's not really much of a leap there either.

Check out the article...especially if you're a film buff. You'll start looking at hot fudge in a whole new way.

Future tech: an Escapist view

The Escapist is an online magazine that focuses primarily on games and entertainment. However, a recent post takes a tongue-in-cheek look at future technologies. It's a fun read...check it out.

In the speculative fiction community, typical technological trends get recurring attention: robotics, artificial intelligence, space travel, anti-matter, communications, flying cars, bio-engineering and more. The social implications of these technologies are oftentimes the centerpiece (think: Brave New World and bio-engineering). Joe Blancato writes about many future technologies in his article with a mix of serious portents couched in humorous delivery.

One comment on his closing thought that he may have predicted that someone would write an article like his but never did...so he had to write it: this is not actually the case. I think that he doesn't hang around in nerdy enough corners of the Web to find what he'd been seeking. Here are a few references to posts of past articles with similar predictive commentary:

• the November 12, 2007 post considers Jason Fry's Wall Street Journal article on the subject of future technology expectations
  
• on October 4, 2007, a similar article was published in The Vancouver Sun newspaper to commemorate Sputnik
  

There have been similar such essays and articles...just probably not published in a thoughtful manner for the gaming community. So, it's great that Mr. Blancato has taken the subject on in The Escapist to broaden the dialog. It's good for the speculative fiction community at large.

Musical speculation

Music hasn't played a big role in the speculative fiction classics. Writers thinking years into the future seem to have trouble imagining future musical styles. Just about every other aspect of society is taken on: marriage, technology, totalitarianism, transportation, clothing and technology...but not music.

I remember reading Vonnegut's short story Harrison Bergeron and his description of music playing and Bergeron dancing on stage. The nature of the music, however, isn't described. There is merely a mention of "grabbing the baton."

Pondering this subject, there is one obvious reason I can think of for this. Music, of all societal aspects, is the most ethereal. The feeling of society is reflected in it. Speculative fiction doesn't typically grapple with prognostications of how human sensibilities will evolve and reflect themselves through music.

On this note, I admittedly copped out when I described the music of my Darwin's Orphans protagonists as punk-hip-hop fusion. I guess since the book is set only a couple of decades into the future, I expected more of the musical mashups we hear today to continue. This may not be the case...and I consider this speculation to be one of the least imaginative in the book.

How does one effectively project where music might lead? To reflect on it, I popped the iPod earbuds in and called up some tunes. Going back a few decades, I selected Someone Saved My Life Tonight by Elton John. It was a meaningful selection for context. I remember the kid down the street getting Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy on vinyl and cranking it up on his mom's console hi-fi stereo. This was 1975 and listening to it again reminded me of the big collars on shirts, a confusing social feeling after Nixon's demise and the local teacher's strike.

But what about the music itself? Big piano sound and the drum arrangement contributing to a heavy dramatic build. Hmm, could I have realistically forecasted the likes of Nirvana or Kid Rock back then? And are these styles really all that different? A tough subject for speculation.

I guess it's just as well that speculative fiction writers leave music alone. Thankfully, it defies the imagination. It is pure. I am thankful.

Transportation speculation

One recent 2008 trend tied to speculative fiction is the future of the automobile. There have been plenty of books and movies featuring designs and technologies for future personalized transportation. However, the automotive science world has been hot lately in publications.

Wired magazine is full of stories this month for example. They talk about the Smart car and changing face of the SUV. The best article from a future perspective is The Race to Build the 100-MPG Car which is centered around the X-Prize. There is a car company named Aptera which has a pretty wild looking model...definitely looks futuristic.

The Wall Street Journal also recently published this article about future car technologies. Their focus, however, is not on fuel efficiency but automated driving technologies. Tearing a page from Lexus' parallel parking car, GM is seeking to build a self-driving automobile.

This is fascinating stuff. In my speculative fiction book Darwin's Orphans, I featured a car that automatically stopped when a dog jumped across the driver's path. Personally, I'd like to take drives out in the country at twilight without fearing a deer will leap out in front of me. A little radar to detect such things and initiate instant reactions would be a really cool feature. I'm not, however, looking forward to a car driving entirely. Sometimes it's actually fun to be behind the wheel.

Google gets into progressive energy movement

There is a rich history of energy contemplation in speculative fiction. Google is putting its money where its mouth is with its funding of its cheaper, renewable energy initiative in the non-fiction world.

Lots of energy speculation has fueled drama in fiction. The expectation that anti-matter annihilating matter will result in huge energy output is still theoretical. Nuclear fusion, too, remains an elusive power source. Yet readers of future-oriented fiction have read many stories featuring such dramatically different energy sources that the real options we have today.

Looking at the near future, I've chosen to focus on emerging alternatives. In my book Darwin's Orphans it is wave power that becomes the new, clean source of energy. With improving technologies in this arena, it seems to me to be the obvious growth technology for power.

Google didn't seem to see things the same way. Their focus is on solar and wind and this seems limited. Solar cells have been improving, yes, but they are still very far from competitive in many living environments. Wind has been growing in its use and should be but the political ramifications have been recently exposed as painful.

One reason that might be keeping Google from including wave power off it's targeted list of growth technologies is that it's a young technology. Working wave farms haven't been around nearly as long as solar or wind generators. So, perhaps wave power needs to prove itself a bit more. Another reason for Google's focus on terrestrial systems could be the coastal factor. Perhaps they fear leaving out the landlocked majority of the country -- even though most of the population actually lives close enough to a coast to consume wave power.

Whatever the reason, Google may end up adding wave power once its engineers and analysts get actively involved in their work. Wave power options are emerging to be a viable alternative with few downsides. As they prove to be extremely efficient, they might just end up being the source that's Google's "Cheaper Than Coal" alternative.

More on wave power

In this recent Darwin's Orphans blog post, new information on wave power was explored. More recent global press has leant credence to this future power source. It's not just the stuff of speculative fiction...it truly seems to be the wave of the future.

In New Zealand, this article charts a course for upcoming development in this country down under. On the west coast of the U.S., a coastal Oregon community is excited with the developments -- check out this Newport News article. Here's an interesting quote in the article: "To harness less than one-percent of the entire energy of the ocean would meet all the energy needs of the world."

If you reflect on this statement, it doesn't seem surprising. Take a trip on a 40 foot pontoon boat off the coast of Kauai. It may seem like a decent sized vessel when you climb aboard, but after a few moments out at sea you'll realize how incredibly small such a boat is. The ocean does have awesome power and it's visceral when you experience such a day on the high seas.

It actually seems quite obvious when you look at the globe that harnessing 1% of the ocean's energy could meet all of world's energy needs. The oceans cover 2/3 of earth's surface and a day at the beach reminds you that energy is what they're all about. Seems like we're on the right track with wave energy. I'm sure it will emerge more in future-oriented fiction as we steer in this direction for our power needs.

Power of the future

In today's Seattle Times, the power source of the future gets great coverage. It's high time that we're seeing real world application of wave generation concepts. The power of the oceans has impressed surfers for years so why not your local utility company?

There are a few different models of ocean power capture. The article explains how the buoy parks and sea snake principles work. In my book Darwin's Orphans, I focused on the sea snake generators. In the story, huge power generation farms solve the energy and water shortage problems of future California.

According to the Times article, however, the initial forecast is for wave power to supply up to 10% of power needs once fully implemented. But, as we all know, once a technology is embraced it can mushroom cloud into much more. Who would have expected such dramatic and fast changing computer changes as they rapidly occured following the first models of Apple PCs?

It's still very realistic for ocean power to be the wave of the future (pun intended). Compared to the power of a river for example, it is so much larger in scope. On this note, our power generation source has been ebbing and flowing off of our coasts eternally. It's high time we harness it.

Speculative Fiction: a utopian perspective

In this First Science post yesterday, Andrey Kobilnyk reflects on the changing face of utopias in speculative fiction. There has certainly been a recent twist to the kinds of future worlds writers have conjured up. This is to be expected as we are living evolution every day.

In the article, Mr. Kobilnyk also mentions distopian writings which, in my opinion, have actually gotten more attention over the past century. He doesn't mention them by name but 1984, Anthem and other books come to mind from the 20th century.

The article is a solid reflection on forces changing speculative fiction. The key point made at the end is based on the realities we've learned to face in the present -- and how they'll impact our future. Environmental impacts of science have taken center stage. They certainly need to stay there.

I tried hard to reflect on solving environmental problems in my book Darwin's Orphans even though the novel is first and foremost entertainment. I think it's the duty of every speculative fiction writer to point out alternatives that would be better for mankind.

Mr. Kobilnyk reflects on the reasons why this is happening in speculative fiction. He's on the right track. We all need to envision a better world. Reading about one helps people to live in an improved world condition...even if it only exists in ink on a page -- for now.

On the spec fiction malaise

I've linked to this blog entry from Responsible Nanotechnology and it might seem like an odd source for speculative fiction commentary. It was to me when I read it...but I guess with nanotechnology as a bastion of future possibilities, it makes sense in a way.

Anyhow, it is an interesting article that reflects on the drying up of speculative fiction from the perspective of near-future-based stories. The writers, they largely contend, are not being as gutsy as past writers about making prognostications. The dissection that follows feeds off of scientific and societal reasons for this "malaise."

I'd like to propose a different reason: the changes in the publishing industry. Over the past 5 years, writers have had various options open up to them. New ways emerged for getting their books read that didn't previously exist. I remember the first electronic books being read around my office around the turn of the millennium...incidentally, the same turning point being analyzed in Responsible Nanotechnology. Also, I started noticing the mainstream Print on Demand options surfacing by major corporations like Barnes and Noble over the past 3-4 years. So, I think that the new publishing options are the key to changing speculative fiction perceptions.

On a personal account, I had published interactive and short works in my past. So, I could have gone the route of selling my speculative fiction story idea through a traditional publisher. But they are publishing such formulaic works that I largely consider devoid of ingenuity and fresh style that it scared me to bother with them. Why would I want to climb that hill of attention gathering for my work and then face another hill of editorial battles? Publishers need to stick to the formula that sells...it's smart business. However, it's not good for the expansion of literary works.

You can have an established writer like Cormac McCarthy, who had already made a name for himself and obeyed the formulas early on in his career, break into speculative fiction with The Road and wow audiences. But what if a writer doesn't want to spend the years on this publishing exercise...that was my case. I'm too far along in life to start playing a new game and I wanted to write my book my way with a fresh voice and an unedited view of our possible future.

So, enough of the personal account...back to fitting it into the argument: with changes in publishing moving along at a fast clip, the wise speculative fiction writer is perfectly poised to publish in a future mode. After all, if you're a speculative fiction writer, you're a futurist. The future of publishing is emerging, so I want to write where it will live 5 years from now. So, I published my book in the future fashion: print on demand.

If the mainstream publishing world wants fresh speculative fiction, they'll go and find it...wherever it lives. On this note, I think Responsible Nanotechnology is seeing a genre in flux. I don't think, however, that it's going through a malaise. It's not drying up. Rather, you have to start looking in different places to find the best of it...with the obvious exception of Mr. McCarthy who is this year's speculative fiction paragon.

Fictional future sports

With a new football season on the brink, it makes this speculative fiction writer ponder the various sports ideas imagined for future worlds.

The wildest idea that I've read recently is Centrifugal Bumble-puppy in Huxley's Brave New World. The game is described as: "A ball thrown up as to land on a platform at the top of a tower rolled down into the interior, fell on a rapidly revolving disk, was hurled through one or other of the numerous apertures pierced in the cylindrical casing, and had to be caught." Sounds like a mix of batting cages combined with a carnival game.

Huxley also has more sporting fun in the form of obstacle golf. These ideas of his were quite amusing...and they differ quite a bit from my take on sports of the future.

In my book, Darwin's Orphans, I reflect on the future of sports here and there...but more from various practical perspectives. Over recent decades, one interesting aspect that's been changing rapidly is television coverage. In football, for example, there were no cameras draped over the field roughly a decade ago, nor was there a yellow line superimposed on the screen indicating the first down marker. I also explore the television coverage of the Olympics in my book...there have been huge strides in coverage over the past few decades. There is likely to be much more in coming decades as well with such a broad spectrum of sports.

With regards to football itself, I muse on the likelihood of another great quarterback coming from the cradle of great professional quarterbacks: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Rather dry stuff but still interesting to some enthusiasts. By comparison, Huxley reminds one that a speculative fiction writer can have lots more fun with the less practical aspects. Centrifugal Bumble-puppy sounds like a hoot...I wonder what the television coverage would be like?

Car company of the future

There has been plenty of press lately revolving around the groundbreaking car company of the future Tesla Motors. For good reason...they seem to have everything it takes to make a serious go of it and their timing couldn't be better.

Tech genius Elon Musk is behind it. His PayPal and SpaceX forays prove that he gets into successful ventures. We're well on our way to space tourism now and he was a major contributor to proving that it's a viable thing to do. Now, with the death knell of fossil fuel based transportation clearly sounding, we all understand that we need an alternative. Tesla motors is providing that alternative.

Sure, there have been electric cars in the past but two things plagued their chances of success: low performance and cheap gas. Now with cheap gas a permanent thing of the past, this erstwhile impediment is gone -- for good. We're finally forced to face the truth that's been evident for decades...fossil fuel is not renewable.

Performance issues are now also resolved. Check out the stats on their site. It makes every car enthusiast prick their ears when they hear 0 to 60 in 4 seconds. Couple this stat with 135 MPG equivalent and you've got everyone's attention. Just ignore the price...for now.

It's not a viable option today. Your average joe can't roll onto the lot, sign over his Durango and cruise away with a new roadster. Even after they're actively emerging from the mouth of the production line, these first cars will still be too expensive. But trust Mr. Musk and team. They will get reasonable and they will be an alternative for every man and woman purchasing a shining new vehicle.

Tesla Motors has plans with a two year timeline for a sedan in the middle price range. Keep your eyes peeled to this company's site and ears open to news of Tesla Motors. In my book, Darwin's Orphans, the mentor character advises that it takes a renegade magnate to make real change. The old school power brokers are just too encumbered and paranoid. Mr. Musk is proving this yet again with these shiny new cars of the future.

Congreve's view: chances for the unknown writer

If you're an unknown author, Bill Congreve sees your chances as pretty grim....

In this ABC Australia article, Mr. Congreve dooms most writing except for that of the name author. He sees the series novels by them as the most successful -- not a big surprise to most I'm sure.

It's good to read that he says "Not quite as dead" for literary first novels by unknowns. Perhaps the open space of on demand publishing is broadening interest in fresh material. I can only hope...my novel, Darwin's Orphans, is not being pushed by a huge publishing machine but it is literary. So, there's hope I guess.

If you're a writer, check out his assessment of your chances. If you're not, check out the article anyway...it'll tell you if you're on the trendy side of things. At least from Mr. Congreve's perspective.