Soft Science-Fiction
Soft science-fiction is the genre of story in which the events occur in a future time yet little precedent is put on real science. This type of Sci-fi is most often argued to find purpose in freeing the creator from the tedium of real events. While this specification is also fulfilled by Fantasy and Alt[ernative]- history these styles are limited by the stereotypes of the genre and, in the case of Alt-history, the point of divergence from true events. Soft Sci-fi allows the writer to begin, if they wish, with a blank slate- a new planet or social construct (or both). Soft science-fiction must be considered also as ‘deep-escapism’; meaning that one of the reasons it exists is to suspend the readers’ disbelief. This futuristic placement serves to extenuate the belief of the reader, listener or watcher far more than Alt-history or Fantasy as both of those linger in the predicament of not having happened. Whereas the future is a metaphorically open book- with the potential to form just as described in the story the audience is engaged in: the audience cannot discard the story as nonsense just yet. Other than these arguments there can be made the point that a future setting is practical for the plot. The vastness of the future means that no matter how many corners the creator imagines their character into there is sure to be a laser gun, spacecraft or species that can get them out of it. The future justifies otherwise impossible or ridiculous solutions; rather than Deus ex machina more Solutio ex postero. These simplified plots make this type of story more accessible to all removing the complex fixes necessary in a hard Sci-fi story. The purpose of a soft Sci-fi story is to thrill rather than inspire and the means by which it does this are equally the plot and the setting. The audience’s reaction to the setting will be instinctively stronger than their response to the story. The setting in a soft Sci-fi story must be stronger than the plot since the audience is without the hard science to justify their credulity. The futuristic setting for this genre thoroughly engages the participant by making the point that this still, might just happen. Dystopian stories are those set in a normally nonspecific time in the future in which the focus of the narrative is based upon the socio-political structure. Although some dystopias are projected as a branch of Alt-history the ratio of these to those set in the future leans so much further towards the latter thus, in my opinion, justifying it as a major category in sci-fi. The chief message in dystopian stories is that of a social warning. The timeframe of these novels acts with specific function to alert the audience that they are responsible for either the creation or prevention of such a societal construct. Many dystopias are set in very close temporal proximity to the release of the story for example; Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships or Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift ends its story in 1715 yet was released in 1726, only 11 years between them. Although the timeframe was already in the past upon release, the faraway setting still marks the story out as a Sci- fi dystopia rather than an Alt-history. The most famous example however of the importance of proximity in these stories is Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell set in the titular year of 1984 yet was released in 1949, only 35 years between release and events. This extreme proximity to future events or, in the case of Gulliver’s Travels, the past of faraway marks out to the reader that they must not become or become like the people they are reading about. Another reason for the necessity of the future or faraway setting is that it is easier to incur the audience’s thought upon the matters raised over those that occurred in the past. The events in the future, as before said, can be stopped by the audience or at least pondered on how it might become such or not-such. Yet events in the past are treated as though nothing can be done about them. This reaction means that the audience does not engage with the world of the creator- they are incredulous. Any creator benefits from passionate positive reaction to his work either by acclaim or by increased Dystopia
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