Paragraph Writing

Posted by anupam singh on May 28, 2010

WEDNESDAY MAY 26, 2010

Write a paragraph discussing your quote and your opinion of the genre. Please use a topic sentence and include detailed examples from your life experiences that support your opinion/statement.

“Science Fiction is the branch of literature that deals with the effects of change on people in the real world as it can be projected into the past, the future, or to distant places. It often concerns itself with scientific or technological change, and it usually involves matters whose importance is greater than the individual or the community; often civilization or the race itself is in danger.”
–James E. Gunn – Introduction, The Road To Science Fiction, Vol 1, NEL, New York 1977

HOMEWORK ANSWER  :

In this quote,  the author James E. Gunn has given us a definition of the genre of Science Fiction in Literature. He tells us about the areas of life that are dealt with in the literature of this genre. The subject matter of Science Fiction is the examination and exploration of the real world at another point in space-time with special reference to a different State of Scientific/ Technological Development – a state-of-affairs that the readers of the time may not be able to imagine or foresee without the help of Sci-Fi Literature. Therefore, by virtue of the subject matter of this genre, the issues dealt with and the scenarios explored are often wide-ranging –that is, on the scale of the Human Race or Planetary Evolution –and may even warn us of dangers foreseen.

This genre might very well be classified as Fantasy were  it not for the fact that its premises and conclusions are strongly rooted to Known Scientific Facts (although considerable license is taken by the Sci-Fi authors with regard to the ‘scientific facts’ !).

In my opinion, this genre can very easily be classified as a sort of half-way house between Fantasy and a Scientific Treatise. And it is because it is neither the one or the other that I, personally, have never been overly-attracted to the genre is general although there are some authors whose works I have heard (or read about) that are considered very good. I grant that Sci-Fi has its place, even importance in literature; but it is not my cup of tea.

I prefer, to stretch the metaphor further, either tea or coffee but not a mixture of both !

TOPIC SENTENCE : Science Fiction often ends up being nothing more than a Red Herring or a False Alarm at best and suffers from ‘The-Sky-is-Falling” Syndrome at its worst.

My disillusionment with predictions and prognostications in general regarding the “Fate of The Human Civilization’ is built upon ‘famous’ predictions as the one made by Socrates when he lamented the introduction of ‘Writing” and declared that people’s capacities to memorize things would be severely affected.  If that one by Socrates was not a ‘False Alarm’ then what is? Also, another example could be H.G. Wells’ fictional account of little green men attacking the earth in War of the Worlds. We all know what happened when Orson Welles, with all his genius and understanding of the audio visual medium, read it over the radio !

Another facet of Sci-Fi that I would like to highlight in support of my Topic Sentence is, that : the very fact that most Science fictional works are posited so far in space and time makes their predictions and warnings irrelevant and, nearly always, dead wrong. I say this because the human race has a remarkable resilience and sustainability built-in into its scientific genius and evolutionary DNA. We have shown –otherwise we wouldn’t be here –that we know How To Survive. Whatever happened to the thesis of MAD : mutually Assured Destruction ? It was, for decades, a Most-likely Scenario !

On a personal level, the closest I have come to Science Fiction is when my mother warns me of using my mobile too much because “I will get brain tumor”.

Come to think of it, maybe that is the real reason I do not like Science fiction too much !

END OF HOMEWORK ANSWER