English Extension Course 1
Module A: Genre, Elective 3: Speculative Fiction
“Above all, (speculative) fiction is about what happens to us
when we run into places and situations that just aren’t
Kansas.”1
This material was written by Matthew Brown and Simon Brown. Matthew, a NSW
English Teachers’ Association member, is Deputy Principal at Wagga Wagga High
School.
When you commence your study of the speculative fiction genre study for the English
Extension 1 course it is most important to closely consider pages 89–91 from the
English Stage 6 Syllabus:




the context of the module description
course objectives
content
outcomes.
We are told that this module requires us to explore and evaluate notions of genre.
We need to develop an understanding of the conventions and values associated with
the generic form, with particular reference to the specific study of the speculative
fiction elective. Additionally, the speculative fiction elective must be considered in the
context of the Module descriptions, Course Objectives, Outcomes and Content.
Directing your study of the speculative fiction elective to ensure you cover the
outcomes of the syllabus is essential. You may find it useful to rework the table of
Objectives, Outcomes and Content to clarify the intent of the study for this particular
elective. For example, the first objective and outcome direct you to: Develop a
“knowledge and understanding of how and why” speculative fiction texts are valued,
to distinguish and evaluate these values so that we can: identify aspects of these
“texts that reflect and shape values”; consider the “ways that values” in these texts
“can vary”; and evaluate the “effects of changes in perceived values.”
The text list provides further clarification and guidance to our approach to this
elective. We are told that, “speculative composers ask us to imagine alternative
worlds, which challenge and provoke controversy and debate about possibilities in
human experience. These worlds and experiences are represented in science fiction
and fantasy texts or in a blurring of the two. Such texts are linked by continuing
speculation about ‘what may be’ and ‘what might have been’. Students should
explore the range of myths, experiences and worlds represented and investigate the
philosophies that underpin them.”2
It is important to break down the parameters of the expectations of these statements.
1
2
C J Cherryh, “Where Science is Taking Us”, www.sffworld.com/authors/c/cherryh_cj/interviews/200001.html
NSW Board of Studies, Prescriptions 2004–2006
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 1 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
Test your understanding, appreciation and conclusions in relation to this description
of the elective with your chosen prescribed texts as well as the additional texts that
you select for study.
You are required to study at least three of the prescribed texts as well as other
texts of your own choosing.
Prose fiction

Atwood, Margaret, The Handmaid’s Tale, Vintage, 1996, ISBN 0099740915

Cherryh, C J, Cyteen, Warner Books, 1988, ISBN 0446671274

Herbert, Frank, Dune, Hodder & Stoughton, 1993, ISBN 0450011844
Film

Jackson, Peter, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings, New Line
Cinema, 2002
In your responding and composing you need to explore, analyse, experiment with
and critically evaluate the prescribed texts you have chosen. Consider your
combination of texts carefully, as you need to complement your selection of
prescribed texts by comparison and contrast with your additional text choices. You
should explore the variety of texts available in the speculative fiction genre as well as
a range of contexts and modes. Note the various lists provided and consider the
additional texts referred to within this document.
It is not our purpose here, to do more than introduce the need for you to complete a
general study of genre, thus placing the work you do with speculative fiction in
context. The conclusions that you draw about speculative fiction should arise from the
wider discussions, research and consideration that you give to the purpose of the
Module. The discussion devoted to providing definition and clarification of the
speculative fiction genre, is a consequence of the need for genre theorists to gather
texts in categories. The purpose of this process of identifying and codifying texts into
genres allows us to discuss their value in particular ways. In his introduction to The
Year’s Best Science Fiction, Gardner Dozois noted that some commentators wished
to place the 1997 film Titanic in the genre of SF, as technology is central to the
unfolding story and “because it has really neat special effects.”3 It is possibly worth
debating that if such a view had wide or popular acceptance, the realm of speculative
fiction would broaden to such a point that the genre’s label would no longer have a
clarifying purpose. Kerry-Ann O’Sullivan, Macquarie University (2000), gathered the
following definitions of and observations about the study of genre:
Genre shapes, and is shaped by, cultural attitudes and societal influence.
Contemporary theorists of genre tend to follow the thinking of philosopher Ludwig
Wittgenstein who thought of genre in terms of “family resemblances, a set of
similarities some (but by no means all) of which are shared by those works classified
together.”4
Additional definitions include:

“Genres are categories set up by the interaction of textual features and reading
3
4
Gardner Dozois (1998) The Year’s Best Science Fiction
Murpin and Ray (1997) in The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 2 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au


practices, which shape and limit the meanings readers can make with a text.” 5
“…the classification of literary works on the basis of their content, form or
technique.”6
“... established categories of composition, characterised by distinctive language or
subject matter. The most widely recognised are poetry, drama and the novel...”7
The traditional view of genre has tended to see literary genres as fixed forms
whereas contemporary theory emphasises that generic forms and functions are
dynamic. This contemporary view of genre is most appropriate in your study of
speculative fiction. Many new texts have influenced changes to our understanding of
the genre and created a multitude of sub-genres. There are a number of factors
constantly at work on the development of generic concerns: authorial and
technological experimentation, economic and social changes, readership demands,
and the shifting status of individually defined genres.
Genres cannot be treated in isolation from social realities, nor are they separate from
the people who use them; they are not neutral categories. Quite different
understandings of the speculative fiction texts arise when we place these texts within
their specific cultural and historical contexts. Our analyses of these texts is also
dependent on our context; the awareness of the critical relationship between the
composer and responder. Recent critical interest in genre has focused on the role
that “generic assumptions have played both in shaping the work that an author
composes, and in establishing expectations that alter the way that a reader will
interpret and respond to a particular work.”8
Common issues of exploration for the prescribed texts
Part of the study that you undertake in this elective, will be to examine what makes
the prescribed texts similar and where their own particular qualities set them apart.
Roland Barthes, refers to “a kind of implicit contract between writer and reader” but
he also recognises that “the writer may play against, as well as with, the prevailing
generic conventions.” You need to identify these qualities in your responses to the
prescribed texts as well as in your wider reading and viewing. The following points
may be useful starting points for discussion and investigation:

The use, misuse, abuse and absence of power
o
Tolkien recognised a different threat: the uncontrollable growth of power
ideologies and institutions, the unshakable thirst for control and dominance.9
o
“Taking it. Holding it. Using it.” Ariane’s power principle from Cyteen (614)
o
“Power and fear – fear and power!” Baron Vladimir Harkonnen in Dune (216)
o
Men … “above all desire power.” Prologue, The Fellowship of the Ring
o
As an example of the absence of power: Offred states, while preparing to take
a bath that, “I don’t want to look at something (her body) that determines me
so completely.” (73)

Genetics and or breeding are a feature of all of the texts
5
Brian Moon (1992) in Literary Terms: A Practical Glossary
Murpin and Ray (1997) Ibid.
7
David Crystal (1987) in The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language
8
MH Abrams (1981) A Glossary of Literary Terms: The Fourth Edition
9
Casey Fredericks, (1982) The Future of Eternity: Mythologies of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Indiana
University Press
6
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 3 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
“We Bene Gesserit sift people to find the humans.” in Dune (16)
“My fighting Uruk-hai.” Saruman’s specially bred creatures from orcs, which
had at one time been elves who had been ‘turned by the forces of darkness’.
o
The specifically bred azi are an essential part of the narrative of Cyteen.
o
The handmaidens have been selected because of their capacity to have
children and this is an essential part of the narrative of The Handmaid’s Tale.
The misuse of technology, generally as connected to power, is a common feature
of all these texts
o
Technology assists in bringing about the social revolution which is the world as
described by The Handmaid’s Tale. Atwood shows how “technological
expansion” could amplify social and environmental instability, making us
vulnerable to a government takeover by extreme right-wing religious
fundamentalists. These religious fanatics halt the spiralling technological and
industrial expansion.
o
“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would
set them free. But this only allowed other men with machines to enslave them.”
Dune (17)
o
“The rate of growth that sustains the technological capacity that makes
civilisation possible is now exceeding the rate of cultural adaptation … the end
will become more and more like the beginning, scattering of tribes of humans
across our endless plain, in pointless conflict.” Cyteen (472)
o
“The modern world is a machine and technologically driven world—we live in
environments that are increasingly transmuted by us and for us by
technological developments. Ultimately we feel more physically comfortable in
this world than we do either intellectually or emotionally. There is a sense of a
yearning for the natural harmony of our earlier existence, one not
overwhelmed by technology.”10
o
“But the assumption, in fact, manifests how through science and technology
humans dehumanise themselves.” Extrapolation can lead to revelation of more
extreme effects of human success, the ultimate being humanity’s selfdestruction.11
The nature of the tension that is generated is an essential part of each of the
prescribed text’s atmosphere. This tension emerges from the nature and structure
of the narrative. Each text creates tension in very particular and effective ways.
Each text gives the impression that it is an account of actual historical events. The
composers use a range of types of text to support their creation of verisimilitude
o
The Fellowship of the Ring uses a prologue of the history of Middle-earth.
Later, Gandalf leaves the Shire in a desperate attempt to find more information
about the Ring. He enters the archives to discover a parchment dated “In the
year 34:34 in the Second Age …” which accounts for the Ring’s use by Isildur,
its first and last human owner.
o
Cyteen employs a myriad of newspaper, interview, records of current affairs,
archival details, diary and reportage texts to present the history and scientific
background for particular chapters or as divisions between critical
developments of the events.
o
Dune uses excerpts from ‘collected sayings’, journals and histories of Princess
Irulan to introduce each of the chapters.
o
o



Patricia Warwick (1977) “Images of the Man-Machine Intelligence Relationship in Science Fiction” in Many
Futures, Many Worlds: Theme and Form in Science Fiction
11
Karl Kroeber (1988) Romantic Fantasy and Science Fiction, Yale University Press
10
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 4 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
Atwood hints a number of times through the text that we are listening to
Offred’s account of her experiences as a handmaid, which is confirmed in the
final chapter of The Handmaid’s Tale.
Being closely observed or spied upon is an important element of the building
tension and fear that are produced in The Fellowship of the Ring, Cyteen and The
Handmaid’s Tale
o
Saruman describes the image of Sauron as “A great eye, lidless, wreathed in
flames.” In The Eye of Power, Foucault defines the essential institutional
model as Bentham’s eighteenth-century architectural device of the
‘Panopticon’, a ring-shaped building enclosing a tower that oversees cells that
might contain a convict—or a lunatic, a patient, a worker, or a student. It is the
same model used by Tolkien to locate the nature of Sauron’s power. “The
ultimate form of visibility locates within the individual … an inspecting gaze, a
gaze which each individual under its weight will end by interiorising to the point
that he is his own overseer, each individual thus exercising this surveillance
over, and against, himself.”12
o
Grant and Justin are under constant supervision as is the younger Ari in
Cyteen.
o
In The Handmaid’s Tale there are references to the Eyes and the Aunts. The
handmaidens’ behaviour and actions are very carefully monitored.
The issue of class or status as a consequence of birth emerges as an issue in all
of the prescribed texts
o
A common irony of much science fiction is that the twentieth century
technological revolution, whether it succeeds or self destructs, is the
increasing “polarising effects of capitalism and patriarchy, leading to a society
of even more rigid class and gender divisions.”13
o
“The Duke felt in this moment that his own dearest dream was to end all clear
class distinctions and never again think of deadly order.” Duke Atriedes in
Dune (78)
o
A man’s status is defined by whether he is “issued with a woman”. The
Handmaid’s Tale (19)
There have been strong elements of social satire, the cautionary tale have
marked the genre’s history.14
Politics is central to each of the texts: Dune, Cyteen, The Handmaid’s Tale and
perhaps somewhat surprisingly, also in The Fellowship of the Ring, through the
development of alliances and the initial formation of the Fellowship which was
very much a political act.
Religion: Dune and The Handmaid’s Tale.
Myth making: Dune, Cyteen and The Fellowship of the Ring and arguably The
Handmaid’s Tale.
o
“Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in part
upon the myth-making imagination of humankind.” Collected sayings of
Muad’Dib, Dune (123)
o
“Much that once was is now lost …” and “History became legend, legend
became myth …” Prologue, The Fellowship of the Ring
Creation of a sense of wonder.
o







12
Chance, Jane (2001) The Lord of the Rings: The Mythology of Power, Uni Press of Kentucky
Alice Adams, Reproducing the Womb (1994) Cornell University Press
14
Bill Menary (1991) The Mental Travellers: Four talks on speculative fiction, Adelaide (Consider the accuracy
of this statement for most modern fantasy.)
13
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 5 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au






Creation of a new world or setting for the composer to explore the themes and
characters that they establish.
The nature of the presentation of characters: In The Fellowship of the Ring and
Cyteen there is an ensemble of characters, whereas in Dune, Paul Atriedes and
in The Handmaid’s Tale, Offred is each clearly the major protagonist.
The importance of trade and economics in general in science fiction
o
“If you want profits you must rule.” Muad’Dib’s secret message to the
Landsraad, Dune (372)
o
“Trade and common interests have proven, in the end, more powerful in
human affairs than all the warships ever launched.” Cyteen (4)
Speculative fiction has had as a common thread “disquiet about human societies
and where they are headed”.15
What science fiction and fantasy allow is for the world of the hero to live on. 16
Perceptions of freedom
o
The distinction between ‘freedom to’ and ‘freedom from’ The Handmaid’s Tale
(34)
o
“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would
set them free. But this only allowed other men with machines to enslave them.”
Dune (17)
o
“They fought for the freedom of Middle-earth.” Prologue, The Fellowship of the
Ring
o
“The power of truth and its liberation from hegemony are indeed the great
themes of The Lord of the Rings.”17
Terms and definitions for Speculative fiction: What unites
and divides Science Fiction and Fantasy?
The opening of the very long running US television series The Twilight Zone perhaps
captures the scope of the genre of speculative fiction:
“There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as
vast as space and timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and
shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears
and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area
which we call the Twilight Zone.”
The manner of the matter-of-fact American accented delivery of this opening now
creates a sense of mirth but also recognition of some accuracy, as there is no doubt
that the breadth of our imaginative capacity is at the core of the speculative fiction
genre.
There are a multitude of definitions for speculative fiction, science fiction and fantasy,
that have been generated in an attempt to manage the discussion of the genre. While
some analysis of the genre’s many definitions follow, you should return to the
expectations of the elective as prescribed in the Syllabus: “Such texts are linked by
15
Ibid.
Casey Fredericks (1982) The Future of Eternity: Mythologies of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Indiana
University Press
17 Jane Chance (2001) The Lord Of the Rings: The Mythology of Power, Uni Press of Kentucky
16
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 6 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
continuing speculation about ‘what may be’ and ‘what might have been’.”18
Consider the following three definitions as a starting point in your analysis of the
speculative fiction genre:
“The major distinction between fantasy and science fiction is, simply, that science
fiction uses one, or a very, very few new postulates, and develops the rigidly
consistent logical consequences of these limited postulates. Fantasy makes its rules
as it goes along ... The basic nature of fantasy is ‘The only rule is, make up a new
rule any time you need one!’ The basic rule of science fiction is ‘Set up a basic
proposition—then develop its consistent, logical consequences.”19
“If anyone were to force me to make a thumbnail description of the differences
between SF and fantasy, I think I would say that SF looks towards an imaginary
future, while fantasy, by and large, looks towards an imaginary past. Both can be
entertaining. Both can possibly be, perhaps sometimes actually are, even inspiring.
But as we can’t change the past, and can’t avoid changing the future, only one of
them can be real.”20
“Science fiction is something that could happen—but usually you wouldn’t want it to.
Fantasy is something that couldn’t happen—though often you wish that it could.”21
Bold statements assessing the values of speculative fiction should be discussed, if
not challenged. (This is equally true for many of the views that you read in this
outline; regardless of the source.) Assess the truth of Karl Kroeber’s viewpoint that
SF, unlike fantasy, has a reluctance to look inward. He believes that fantasy is not a
self-questioning, self-challenging genre. Such views about speculative fiction are
often presented with particular texts and or contexts being given prominence. You
should consider the nature of the terms used: what sense of ‘inward’ is meant in this
statement? ‘Not self-questioning’—by comparison with which other genres and with
what texts in mind? Are these views a reasonable assessment of the film, The Lord
of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring or the other fantasy texts you will access? Are
these statements a reasonable assessment of the any of the prescribed science
fiction texts or the other SF texts you will access?
While rates of publication of written speculative fiction texts are difficult to determine,
Dozois noted that almost one thousand new speculative fiction texts were published
in 1997 and this in turn was reasonably consistent with the earlier 1990s as well as
the expectations for the future stability of the genre. The nature of this fiction varied
from “the hardest of hard science fiction through wild baroque Space Opera and
sociological near-future speculation to fantasy of a dozen different sorts …”22 Again,
what do such details reveal about the genre?
18
NSW Board of Studies, The Prescriptions 2004–2006
John W. Campbell, Jr, Introduction, Analog 6, Garden City, New York, 1966 from “Definitions of Science
Fiction”, Neyir Cenk Gökçe (ed.) http://www.panix.com/~gokce/sf_defn.html
20
Frederik Pohl, Pohlemic, SFC, May 1992 from “Definitions of Science Fiction” Neyir Cenk Gökçe (ed.)
http://www.panix.com/~gokce/sf_defn.html
21
Arthur C Clarke, The Collected Stories, Gollancz, 2001
22
Gardner Dozois (1998) The Year’s Best Science Fiction
19
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 7 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
There are fundamental differences between the way science fiction and fantasy deal
with realism. Kroeber refers to the “replicable and unmythic character” of science
fiction as well as the genre’s adherence to realism. To make his point he compares
the way HG Wells uses a flower in The Time Machine to Coleridge’s poetic
speculation on a flower. With Wells’s use of a flower, we are asked to imagine it is
real as it is brought back to the protagonist’s present from the distant future as proof
of his journey, a scientific proof. On the other hand, Coleridge’s poetic use of a flower
refers to “something belonging nowhere in our botany.23” Kroeber’s observation
about the unmythic character of SF is disputed by Wolfe who determined that “SF as
a genre serves the function of a modern mythology” as he associates the building of
myth with the creation of a sense of wonder, which is central to the SF composer’s
success. 24
Speculative fiction
Speculative fiction is a catch-all category first used by science fiction writer Robert
Heinlein in 1947. Heinlein used it to describe a subset of science fiction, but since the
1960s the term has come to encompass the genres of science fiction, fantasy and
horror. In turn, these genres—as they exist today—were largely created by American
publishers essentially as marketing pigeonholes during the era of the pulps25
between the 1880s and the 1950s.
It could be said that speculative fiction deals with the fiction of the ‘fantastic’, but in
some ways that is both too inclusive and too exclusive; too inclusive because it can
be argued that such a definition would also include such genres as magical realism
and even —at a stretch —historical fiction; and too exclusive because it does not
properly describe the extent and depth of modern science fiction, fantasy and horror.
Others have argued “science fiction depends more on intellectual ingenuity, and
fantasy more on imaginative freedom.”26
Speculative fiction is interested in connections and implications rather than just
‘hardware’, more interested in the response and behaviour of individuals or a group
of people to new technology or science, the effects of the meeting between people
and the fabled meeting of new races, whether based in the worlds of fantasy or
science fiction.27
Having said that, it is also important to note that speculative fiction exists as a subset
of fiction, not entirely separated from other subsets such as detective fiction, romance
fiction, mimetic or ‘realistic’ fiction, westerns, and so on. In fact, definitions for
speculative fiction change from reader to reader, author to author and indeed,
publisher to publisher. It is probably best to see speculative fiction as having no fixed
axis and borders that are constantly shifting and easily crossed.
23
Karl Kroeber (1988) Romantic Fantasy and Science Fiction, Yale University Press
Gary Wolfe “The Known in the Unknown: Structure and Image in Science Fiction” in (1977) Many Futures,
Many Worlds: Theme and Form in Science Fiction, Kent State University Press
25
Pulps is the generic name for magazines invariably printed on short lived paper made from cheap chemically
treated wood pulp, a process developed in the 1880s. In the US it also came to represent a magazine size,
typically 25 cm by 18 cm, even when the quality of the paper improved.
26 Robert Canary (1977) Science Fiction as Fictive History” in Many Futures, Many Worlds: Theme and Form in
Science Fiction, Kent State University Press
27
Bill Menary (1991) The Mental Travellers: Four talks on speculative fiction, Adelaide
24
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 8 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
In the context of the genre module of the English Extension 1 course, the speculative
fiction works under consideration comprise three books that would typically be
classified as science fiction and one film that is indubitably fantasy, and both terms
are discussed in more detail below.
The module explains that “speculative fiction composers ask us to imagine alternative
worlds, which challenge and provoke controversy and debate about possibilities in
human experience”; without disagreeing, it is important to note that the traditional
function of speculative fiction is to entertain, irrespective of how such works are later
interpreted, a reflection of the various genres’ modern roots in the era of the pulps,
and better explains the success of speculative fiction in areas such as children’s and
young adult publishing. More specifically, unlike more ‘mainstream’ fiction,
speculative fiction—like much popular fiction—tends to reflect a reader’s desires
rather than a writer’s experiences, and chief among those desires in speculative
fiction is the need to bring order out of chaos, to strike a balance, to bring symmetry
to an asymmetric world. In effect, speculative fiction allows the reader to live in a
world where order is the natural state of creation, imitating the order we strive to find
in our personal lives. In reality, of course, the world at large is chaotic and
unpredictable, and we find refuge among family and friends where the world’s chaos
can most easily be kept at bay. In speculative fiction, the struggle to bring order out of
chaos contrasts with the real universe, where nothing is more certain than the
triumph of entropy.
The iconic images of fantasy and science fiction are not as illusive as most literary
symbols nor as universal as archetypes. Symbols become an image of the stand, the
wall, the line between the known and the unknown universe. The interior of the
spaceship is the closed, known universe—an image of the known world, space the
unknown; whereas, if the spaceship is of an alien origin, the interior becomes the
unknown universe. While this dichotomy of expectation is apparently simple, perhaps
even superficial, it is the sophisticated use of this principle that marks an
accomplished SF composer.28 The dragon was at one time imbued with specific
emblematic meaning and the image transcended symbolic value to become a source
of mystery. The same could be argued for the unicorn and other creatures of
mythology.29 But the dragon became more than iconographic image as it moved
towards an aesthetic shorthand for something both terrible and mysterious, which
has to be overcome.30 This is at the heart of the St George image which remains well
known and while the background of the story is probably long forgotten, the image
continues to resonate. Interestingly, several films have challenged this traditional
view of the dragon, the inversion of expected roles being the cleverest element of
these texts.
Other texts:
The following texts do not clearly fit under the title science fiction or fantasy, yet they
contain elements of both:
Gary Wolfe “The Known in the Unknown: Structure and Image in Science Fiction” in (1977) Many Futures,
Many Worlds: Theme and Form in Science Fiction, Kent State University Press
29
I would include the lion in this iconography as well
30
Brian Attebery (1992) Strategies of Fantasy, Indiana University Press
28
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 9 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
Ursula Le Guin (1966) Rocannon’s World Ace Books (Prose fiction)
Thomas More (1518) Utopia, Penguin (Fiction/non-fiction)
Psygnosis, Myst, Riven: The Sequel to Myst and Myst III (Computer games)
Sally Potter (1995) Orlando, Columbia (Film) [Already set for the HSC]
Rod Sterling (1959-65) Twilight Zone, Universal Studios (Television series, stories
were generally SF in nature.)
Jonathan Swift (1726) Gulliver’s Travels (Prose fiction).
Science Fiction
“Once upon a time and not so very long ago, science fiction found its inspiration in
the near solar system: landing on the moon was science fiction. Landing on Mars
was outright fantasy.”31
“The future does not exist except as a philosophical construct … science fiction
writers have to invent it.”32
Science fiction is a term invented by pulp publisher Hugo Gernsback, developing
initially from “scientific fiction” to the clumsy “scientifiction” and finally to the familiar
form33, but as a marketing term science fiction was hardly used in the US until the
1930s and almost not at all in the UK until the 1950s.34 Since then the term has been
abbreviated to SF, sci-fi and skiffy, the last two particularly applying to space opera
such as Star Wars. Sci-fi tends to be the term used by non-readers, especially in the
general media.35
The definition of science fiction has been debated and developed over the decades
as the field itself has evolved from its pulp origins. Many such definitions of science
fiction can be found at
www.mtsu.edu/~english/305/Accessories/305OnlineSFDefinitions.html. A discussion
of the merits of many of these definitions could be a valuable clarifying process for
your own study of one part of the genre. Ultimately most definitions never quite
capture all the possibilities, but they do generally make clear that this is a genre of
ideas, “the relevance of which is based on its conviction that science is coterminous
with the human condition.”36
Isaac Asimov divided science fiction into three broad categories: “gadget, adventure
and social”.37 He differentiated between the three types using a simple analogy:

a gadget SF story might focus on the invention of a car and its workings;

adventure would require the car’s inventor to enter an adventure, probably
reluctantly, to typically save his daughter or girlfriend shrewdly employing the
C J Cherryh, “Where Science is Taking Us”, www.sffworld.com/authors/c/cherryh_cj/interviews/200001.html
Brian Aldiss as quoted by Bill Menary (1991) The Mental Travellers: Four Talks on Speculative Fiction
33
Perhaps first used in a publication in Hugo Gernsback’s editorial to # of Science Wonder Stories (June 1929)
34
Before the pulps, when Jules Verne and HG Wells established many of the tropes of science fiction, works in
the genre were called “scientific romances”.
35
Sci-fi was a term invented by Forrest J. Ackerman (an early science fiction fan and editor) in 1954, and was a
play on the term hi-fi.
36 Thomas Wymer (1977) “Perceptions and Values” in Many Futures, Many Worlds: Theme and Form in
Science Fiction, Kent State University Press
37 Beverly Friend (1977) “Virgin Territory: The Bonds and Boundaries of Women in Science Fiction” in Many
Futures, Many Worlds: Theme and Form in Science Fiction, Kent State University Press
31
32
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 10 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au

invention to secure her release; and finally,
a social SF narrative would look beyond the car to the ramifications of its
invention.
Of these three definitions, the last most effectively describes the nature of the prose
fiction that needs particular emphasis in our assessment of where the science fiction
genre has headed; some may argue, matured or evolved.
The fact that SF dates and its definition remains alterable with time, is also a
reflection of the changes to our real world. The nature of SF is to reflect upon the
context of the time. Herbert’s Dune explores the issues of the environment and our
need to be more cautious of our use of precious, limited resources. Cherryh’s Cyteen
clearly reflects the contemporary issues associated with cloning and the novel
comments on the capacity of science to forge ahead of our recognition, let alone the
resolutions to the legal, ethical and moral issues that emerge. Atwood comments on
a range of social issues that were most topical in the 1980s. Her most recent foray
into SF, Oryx and Crake as with Cyteen, explores the moral and ethical quagmire
that cloning presents.
Karl Kroeber38 highlights the importance of Shelley’s Frankenstein as the twentieth
century science fiction prototype. The corruption of the experiment by Frankenstein
results from the development of the monster’s reasoning intellect. The creature
comes to recognise that men are usually esteemed for wealth, power, social position,
physical beauty, which in turn leads the creature to become self-reflective. People’s
rejection of his natural goodness transforms him into a monster. The novel
demonstrates how our ‘modern’ scientific, technological society dehumanises itself—
we are ‘self-destroyers’, which emerges from our own creations.
“SF is a genre that most vividly reflects the increasing devaluation of individuality and
resistance to social arrangements founded on respect of heterogeneity.” 39 This is
certainly a thematic concern of The Handmaid’s Tale as well as being relevant in
Cyteen and, arguably, in Dune. John W Campbell distinguished the intent of the
narrative by emphasising science fiction’s genuine effort to a form of prophetic
extrapolation. This extrapolation draws inferences from what is known and accepted,
and the most primary of these is that man dominates the earth.40 Further, it has lead
to the revelation of the more extreme effects of human success—the ultimate being,
humanity’s self-destruction.41 Atwood, Cherryh and Herbert’s novels are concerned
with the prophetic extrapolation of humanity’s moral and ethical decay rather than
self-destruction.
Science fiction emerged in the nineteenth century as a literary response to a world
which was becoming increasingly influenced by the developments in technology and
science. One only needs to look at the impact on society of scientific thought as well
as invention. The development of the steam locomotive contributed to our sense that
we were breaking down distance and thereby time. Darwin’s theories of evolution
were revolutionary; many thought placing science in direct conflict with religious faith.
38
Karl Kroeber (1988) Romantic Fantasy and Science Fiction, Yale Uni Press
Ibid.
40
Bill Menary (1991) The Mental Travellers: Four Talks on Speculative Fiction
41
Karl Kroeber (1988) Romantic Fantasy and Science Fiction, Yale University Press
39
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 11 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
It is in this context that it is possible to see that many early SF stories were a “play of
the human imagination attempting to make meaning of this new universe, one
defined by a scientific world view.”42 Brian Aldiss suggests SF is not just concerned
with man’s relationship to the universe — “but man’s unstable relationship to his own
ever increasing knowledge, the primary disturber of his condition in the world.” 43
In the very beginning, Hugo Gernsback defined a science fiction story as one where “
… the scientifically impossible will not be published … the educational motif will
always be uppermost in our minds. We must instruct while we entertain … an author
may have poetic license in letting his imagination soar skyward, (but) he should keep
away from pseudo-science … today’s scientific ‘pipe dreams’ are tomorrow’s
actualities.”44
But the ‘educational motif’ and the rejection of the ‘scientifically impossible’ proved
increasingly inconvenient as the market exploded in popularity, especially during the
depression years, and many, perhaps even most, of the science fiction stories
published during the era of the pulps were borderline fantasy.
In the late 1930s the better writers and editors in the field began to impose a greater
scientific discipline, and real attempts at predicting the future, especially of space
travel, were made by authors such as Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov and Robert
Heinlein. Many critics have noted the importance of the spaceship in SF from this
period and once again in the 1970s.
In the 1960s the field was hit by what became known as the ‘new wave’, where the
emphasis shifted from technology to people, and where the exploration of science
gave way to the exploration of our own species’ psychological and emotional limits.
Beginning principally as a British movement, it soon spread to the United States,
reaching its peak in the science fiction of the 1970s.45
Isaac Asimov noted that ‘hard science fiction’ had begun to recede in significance
from about the early 1960s. For Asimov the term ‘hard science fiction’ meant “stories
in which the details of science play an important role and in which the author is
accurate about those details, too, and takes the trouble to explain them clearly.”46
The emotional story moved to the forefront while science was relegated to the
background. Literary style, not physical theory was given emphasis; “experimentation
in form not in the laboratory; the wrenching of souls, rather than of minds.” 47
Today the field has been dramatically changed by the enormous success of science
fiction in other media, particularly on the screen and in computer games. Until the
release of Star Wars in 1977, the genre made almost no impact outside of its still
Patricia Warrick (1977) “Images of the man-machine intelligence relationship in science fiction” in Many
Futures, Many Worlds: Theme and Form in Science Fiction, Kent State University Press
43
Casey Fredericks (1982) The Future of Eternity: Mythologies of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Indiana
University Press
44
Editorial (1929) to #1 of Air Wonder Stories
45
In the Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction (cons ed Robert Holdstock, London, 1978), British writer Christopher
Priest described ‘new wave’ as a rebellion against “the power fantasies and speculative notions of the old science
fiction”.
46
Isaac Asimov (1971) The Hugo Winners 1963–1967
47
Ibid.
42
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 12 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
limited readership (principally male, principally white, and typically English-speaking
and well educated), while films like Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
were the exception that proved the rule. Since Star Wars, however, science fiction
films (together with the mutant offspring from the genre’s breeding with fantasy,
“science fantasy” film such as The Fifth Element (1997) and Reign of Fire (2002)) not
only dominate box office takings the world over, but have also so strongly influenced
our expectations of entertainment and popular culture that the context of terms like
“Beam me up, Scotty” and “May the force be with you” are almost universally
understood. The motifs of screen science fiction have become cultural motifs, and
social commentators often claim (and sometimes opine) that we are living in a
‘science fiction’ world.
The effect of science fiction in and through computer games is harder to judge, but
may well be more important than the effect of science fiction films. The computer
games industry already makes more money than Hollywood, and culturally reaches a
far wider audience and draws from a far wider source of writers and artists. A science
fiction computer game is as likely to come from developers in Poland,
Czechoslovakia, Japan or Russia as from the United States, the UK or Australia.
The popularity of science fiction on the screen and in computer games has also
eroded traditional cultural barriers. The world’s biggest science fiction magazines, in
terms of print runs, are published in China and Japan. The Japanese comic book art
form of ‘manga’ and its cinema descendant ‘anime’ (with stories that are almost
always science fiction or fantasy or science fantasy—the borders are even more
blurred in Japan) now have a worldwide audience and influence.
Science fiction today is so large, so conflated, that any hope of a true or lasting
definition remains impossible.
“Science fiction is, of course, famous for resisting definition. For decades, each new
attempt has been greeted with the sort of responses that in the real world are
reserved for flaky proofs of Fermat’s Last Theorem or claims of cold fusion using
household cleansing agents – everything from undisguised guffaws to fatal nitpicking.
When the dust dies down, we are pretty much left with the purely functional and
largely circular definitions of the marketplace…”48
Perhaps the best description is that proposed by the late American writer and editor,
Damon Knight, who said that “Science fiction is what we point to when we say it.”
The scope and detail of the worlds created in science fiction are extensively varied.
Arthur C Clarke may well have the record for the shortest published science fiction
short story:
‘siseneG’ which is provided in its entirety below:
“And God said: ‘Lines Aleph Zero to Aleph One – Delete.’
And the Universe ceased to exist.
Then she pondered for several aeons, and sighed.
48
Gary Wolfe (June 1996) Locus, Vol 36, No 6, p 15.
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 13 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
‘Cancel programme GENESIS,’ She ordered.
It never had existed.”49
But clearly this story is an exception, as the settings for science fiction can often be
complex and dense. All of the texts set for study for the HSC have relatively complex
imaginary worlds. Debatably, the easiest to appreciate is Atwood’s, as the historical
and cultural context is closest to our present. However, each of the other texts’
success depends largely on the capacity of the composer to establish and maintain
believable imaginary realities. The nature of the stories created reflects the size of
the worlds that are often, if not generally the settings for science fiction texts. Douglas
Adams appreciated this feature of SF as he comically observed, “Space … is big.
Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is. I mean
you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that’s just peanuts to
space.”50 “Eternity is gravy”.51
Simplified or generalised statements about the nature of the language used by
science fiction composers need to be closely examined. However, it also important to
give close consideration to the nature of language usage in you selected texts.
Kroeber has commented that science fiction uses language in “unrecursive narrative
forms and a direct style of reportage because it extrapolates from scientific and
technological conditions favouring such modes of representation as closest to
reality.”52 You should assess the appropriateness of this conclusion with your own
prescribed texts. Find moments that reflect typical stylistic qualities for each of your
prescribed and additional selected texts.
Other texts that will support your wider response to the genre
Isaac Asimov, Foundation series begun in 1951 now published by Doubleday
Paul Byrnes (May 17–18, 2003) “Fritz the cat” in The Sydney Morning Herald, (A
review of the latest release of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.)
Arthur C Clarke (1954) Childhood’s End, Pan (Prose fiction)
Terry Dowling (Story) (2001) Schism, Project Three Interactive (Computer game)
BBC (1963–1996) Dr Who BBC (Television series) [Terry Nation was the central
creator of many of the storylines of the earlier series]
Joe Haldeman (1976) Forever War, Orbit (Prose fiction) [Written in part, as a
response to Heinlein’s Starship Troopers.]
Robert Heinlein (1959) Starship Troopers, NEL (Prose fiction)
Robert Heinlein (1961) Stranger in a Strange Land, NEL (Prose fiction)
Stanley Kubrik and Arthur C Clarke (1969) 2001: A Space Odyssey, Warner Bros
(Film)
Keith Laumer (1967) Galactic Odyssey, Mayflower Paperbacks (Prose fiction)
Fritz Lang (1927–2002) Metropolis and Metropolis Re-release (film)
Ursula LeGuin (1974) The Dispossessed Granada (Prose fiction)
George Orwell (1949) Nineteen Eighty–Four (Prose fiction and film) [Presently set for
HSC]
Gene Rodenbery (Creator), (1966-1969) Star Trek, Paramount (Television series)
Arthur C Clarke (1984) “siseneG” in Analog
Douglas Adams (1970) The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, Pan
51
Attributed to Arthur C Clarke
52
Karl Kroeber (1988) Romantic Fantasy and Science Fiction, Yale University Press
49
50
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 14 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
[Excepts from the more recent series may also be of some value.]
Carl Sagan (1997) Contact Warner Bros (Film and prose fiction) [Film presently
already set for HSC.]
J. Michael Straczynski (1993–2002) Babylon 5 Warner Brothers (Television series)
Jules Verne (1869) Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Any edition (Prose
fiction)
HG Wells (1897) The War of the Worlds (Prose fiction, film, radio play and opera)
John Wyndham (1951) The Day of the Triffids and his collected short stories,
Penguin (Prose fiction)
Fred McLeod Wilcox (Director) (1956) Forbidden Planet, MGM (Film)
Fantasy
As already noted, the border between science fiction and fantasy is often nebulous. A
simple but useful distinction is that “ … SF is unreal but natural, as opposed to the
remainder of fantasy, which is unreal and supernatural. (Or, simpler still, SF could
happen, fantasy couldn’t.)”53 Fantasy and mimesis (the representation of the real
world in art, poetry, etc) are fundamental operations of the narrative imagination. “…
if the world were a simpler place and its rules less ambiguous, we might say that
mimesis tells what is and fantasy tells what isn’t.”
“Fantasy is a sophisticated mode of story telling characterised by stylistic playfulness,
self-reflexiveness, and a subversive treatment of established orders of society and
thought. Arguably the major fictional mode of the late twentieth century, it draws upon
contemporary ideas about sign systems and the indeterminacy of meaning and at the
same time recaptures the vitality and freedom of non-mimetic traditional forms such
as epic, folktale, romance and myth.”54
Fantasy has no doubt been with us ever since we began inventing stories. The first
‘fantastic’ literature was collective, its symbols shared by an entire culture. David
Pringle refers to the religious element of ancient fantasy; a yearning for “a larger
sense of belonging in a universe as a whole.”55 Nearly all modern fantasy has raided
the inventory of traditional narratives. We recognise that for example, the ancient
Greek myths and legends, tales of heroes remain, often subliminally, elements of our
culture and re-emerge in many contemporary fantasies. The early myths were
directed at explaining a complex world, allaying fears, confronting our desires, joys
and sorrows. They were filled with gods and heroes (rarely heroines) of, naturally,
‘mythic proportions’ as well as monsters and creatures which suggested the likely
imminent death of the central character of the story. The stories make connections
with “recurrent emblematic or iconic images that act as cultural triggers.”56 Writers
have borrowed these symbols, structures and motifs from the recorded texts of oral
cultures. It is possible to relocate the Odyssey in a range of alternate contexts.
“Realistic fiction is similarly dependent on the devices of past storytellers, but fantasy
53
Grolier Science Fiction: the Multimedia Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction, eds John Clute & Peter Nicholls,
1995.
54
Brian Attebery (1992) Strategies of Fantasy, Indiana University Press
55
David Pringle (1998) The Ultimate Encyclopaedia of Fantasy
56
Gary Wolfe “The Known in the Unknown: Structure and Image in Science Fiction” in (1977) Many Futures,
Many Worlds: Theme and Form in Science Fiction, Kent State University Press
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 15 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
is less able to disguise its dependence.”57
It is also possible to appropriate the ancient oral tales and create a commentary
which is more significant to a modern audience. John Gardner’s Grendel (1971) is a
parody of the Beowulf legend, told in first person narrative and from Grendel’s view
and voice. In this text men are crueller to one another than animals could ever be.
Grendel loathes the transformational power of the poetic song. Garner appears to
recognise “the paradoxical duality of twentieth century man’s attitude: his need for
heroes and for the meaning and structure heroes provide to human experience; and
the fatalistic recognition that heroes don’t exist anymore, that they are, properly,
fantastic and impossible.”58
Modern fantasy has four main progenitors:
1. the world’s supply of myths, legends and religions
2. the revival of interest in folk stories and traditions in nineteenth century Europe
3. the creation of “sword and sorcery”59 in the American pulps
4. and the overwhelming success of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, first
published in 1954–55 and dominant within the genre from the 1960s.60
The primal forms of fantasy, the fairy tale and heroic epic, deal with issues that are
the expected features of Bildungsroman—such as education, personality, morality,
duty and relationships. The legends about the fairies, myths, stories about the
supernatural and magical were a way for these tales to describe for the people for
whom these stories were originally created, to explain the powerful, mysterious and
unknown. “A perceptive writer of fantasy can take hold of remembered legends and
extract the truths that remain in them.”61
Kroeber suggests that modern fantasy responds to the dominance of technology in
our world by simply looking back, trying to “recover a lost sense of otherness.”62
Fantasy is in fact a primary form of literary self-reflexivity; it involves the composer in
‘self-enchantment’, which leads the fantasist toward a discourse distinct from the
realistic, rationalistic, expository forms that typify most SF.
The market place has tended to push fantasy to formula. So much so that Attebery
suggests a model that is often unquestioningly followed.
“Take a vaguely medieval world. Add a problem, sometimes more or less
ecological, add a prophecy for solving it. Introduce one villain with no particular
characteristics except a nearly all-powerful badness. Give him or her a
convenient blind spot. Pour in enough mythological creatures and nonhuman
races to fill out a number of secondary episodes: fighting a dragon, riding a
winged horse, stopping overnight with the elves (who really should organise
57
Brian Attebery (1992) Strategies of Fantasy, Indiana University Press
Casey Fredericks, (1982) The Future of Eternity: Mythologies of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Indiana
University Press
59
A term coined by American speculative fiction writer Fritz Leiber in 1960.
60
In the future, the success of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books may also prove to be of seminal importance in
the development of the field, particularly regarding young adult and children’s fiction, but it is far too early to
predict with any reasonable accuracy.
61
Brian Attebery (1980) The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature, Indiana Uni Press
62
Karl Kroeber (1988) Romantic Fantasy and Science Fiction, Yale Uni Press
58
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 16 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
themselves into a bed and breakfast association.) To the mixture add one naïve
and ordinary hero who will prove to be the prophesised saviour; give him a
comic sidekick and a wise old advisor who can rescue him from time to time
and explain the plot. Keep stirring until the whole thing congeals.”63
While such a formula allows us to identify a text as fantasy, it also trivialises the intent
and process. It would be valuable to investigate and discuss how much of the most
powerful and satisfying fantasy texts move away from such neat formulas as
proposed here. The Lord of the Rings storyline may be recognised in such a formula
and yet the novel and film The Fellowship of the Ring are more than this. What is it
that Attebery has not identified?
In any work of art we expect some significant meaning and form if we are to retain
interest in it. Gaston Bachelard argues that we adapt to the reality of the fictional
fantasy context. He refers to this cognitive thought as ‘reality function’. 64 Further, he
argues that for some kinds of fantasy, the conceptual structure of the narrative
moulds our attitude toward the impossible. Wolfe has established eight points which
he proposes is the process by which fantasy sustains our involvement and
acceptance of the impossible:
1. cognition of the impossible: our recognition of the impossibility, the breaking of
rules that control our ‘real’ lives
2. location of the impossible: an awareness that new reality lies somewhere
between a personal psychological fantasy and the culturally shared myth
3. delimitation of the impossible: which assures us that the narrative has controls,
there are rules that limit the extent of the fantastic
4. feeling of the impossible: the affective sense of ‘otherness’, our emotional
investment in the story
5. awareness of the affective significance: the promise of meaning emerging
from the emotional investment
6. awareness of cognitive significance: where our cognitive concerns become
those of the text rather than the impossibilities of the narrative
7. belief: emerges from the interaction between the emotion and the intellect
8. deeper belief: which allows us to see the significance of some fantasy works
as having value and validity in the ‘real world’, generally expressing the
composer’s most fundamental and genuine convictions.65
The reality of our world is just not big enough for our imaginations, so we invent new
worlds, with new laws and new beings; sometimes to account for or explain the real.
There are the quite evident references to WW1 in Tolkien’s original novel, which,
while Tolkien denied any parallels, Peter Jackson states that he accessed this
historical connection in his films.66 It is worth remembering that DH Lawrence advised
that we should “trust the tale not the teller”. The obvious engagement with the
imagination motivates the responder with the effect of dislocating our primary sense
of reality. In an effective fantasy text, we never entirely lose our sense of the
63
Brian Attebery (1992) Strategies of Fantasy, Indiana University Press
Gary Wolfe (npd) The Aesthetics of Fantasy Literature and Art, University of Notre Dame
65
Ibid.
66
Peter Jackson, ‘J.R.R. Tolkien: Creator of Middle-earth’ in the Appendices Disc 3, Special Extended version
of The Fellowship of the Ring
64
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 17 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
wondrous or impossible, even after the marvels and magic have become
commonplace. Peter Jackson was alert to his need to maintain our pleasure of the
building of wonder. We see Middle-earth through the eyes of the hobbits, whose
‘normal’ reclusive natures are abandoned to the delight and fears of the larger world.
“Fantasy invokes wonder by making the impossible seem familiar and the familiar
seem new and strange.”67 When you put a unicorn in a garden, the unicorn becomes
a reality and the garden becomes enchanted. Added to this, each point of reality
gives the fantasy an anchor in our world; provides the verisimilitude that is critical for
the fantasy’s effectiveness. “The delight in fantasy is not disordering, but in
reordering reality.”68 While so much of Bilbo’s birthday party was extraordinary and
fantastical, the importance of this setting is how comfortable we are with this world;
there is much that we see in this scene that we know—the relatives, the
entertainment (other than what the fireworks can do) the pleasure and the developing
personal friendships. This pleasant, often amusing introduction to the hobbits’ world
contains largely shadowed suggestions of what is to follow ending with Bilbo’s
vanishing ‘trick’ which introduces the sense of there being much unsettling change for
this community in the time ahead.
Generally, the most successful works of fantasy in modern times – particularly for
children and young adults – strongly feature an idealised rural English landscape,
idealised because this landscape contains several features of the English
countryside—groves, downs, moors, valleys, gently rolling hills, hedgerows,
farmland, villages and hamlets, new forests and wild woods—that are never found
together or close by in the actual English landscape. Examples include Tolkien’s The
Lord of the Rings, Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series, Kenneth Grahame’s
Wind in the Willows, J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, C. S. Lewis’s Narnia books,
almost anything by Alan Garner, and so on. Exceptions to the rule include L. Frank
Baum’s Wizard of Oz stories, Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea books, and, interestingly,
books by British writers such as Philip Pullman and China Miéville, who instead of
England’s rural idyll concentrate on replicating versions of London, the city that
before Manhattan most spoke for humanity’s urban evolution, and the London they
reflect and morph is invariably a 19th century version of the city, either the somewhat
fictional London of Dickens or the later and almost completely fictional London of
Sherlock Holmes, both versions defined to some extent by grime and poverty. It is
also important to note that the rural England portrayed in fantasy is almost never
historical, but the kind of landscape described and loved most by those in Victorian
and Edwardian times, a largely ‘ordered’ country that forgoes both the grim industrial
reality of the city and the forbidding grim reality of untamed nature, the romantic and
medievalised landscape first made popular by Sir Walter Scott. Even the societies
and cultures depicted in much ‘medieval’ fantasy is actually a late Victorian image of
the Middle Ages, more William Morris than Chaucer.
These points are important not because it shows that much fantasy fails any test of
historic accuracy (something fantasy does not pretend to strive for, anyway) but
because it reflects some ideal for the authors of the various works, an ideal obviously
popular with readers. Again, it shows that speculative fiction deals with ‘desire’ rather
than ‘experience’, and this particularly applies to fantasy. It also indicates that
67
68
Brian Attebery (1980) The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature, Indiana Uni Press
Ibid.
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 18 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
modern fantasy is very much a response to city living, a yearning for something leafy,
green and wide open rather than something sooty, grey and bricked-in.69 It also
satisfies the reader’s urge to experience, however vicariously, the life of a hero; often
the heroes are ordinary beings thrust into extraordinary situations who learn to rise to
the occasion. Much of the inspiration of both novel The Lord of the Rings and film
The Fellowship of the Ring is the very ordinariness of the hobbits, who reflect a
perception that, if put to the test, we too would be sufficiently brave to “drink from the
poisoned chalice”, to be part of something bigger than ourselves. The scene in
Rivendell, where Frodo accepts special responsibility for leading the fellowship as the
‘ring bearer’ embarrasses the other more ‘heroic’ characters with his capacity to be
self-sacrificing, allowing the needs of the many outweigh his personal fears.
Gandalf’s face reveals that this offer, was an expectation borne of his particular
appreciation of the hobbits’ character.
“Pure fantasy … seems to deal in the fulfilment of desire … in the sense of the
yearning of the human heart for a kinder world, a better self, a wholer experience, a
sense of truly belonging. To use the ancient metaphor … fantasy seeks to heal the
waste land.”70
Unlike science fiction, fantasy has never really had to fight for market share, either in
print or on the big screen. Although not traditionally a big seller, fantasy books have
always been in print from the end of the nineteenth century, starting with William
Morris and continuing into the new century with Lord Dunsany, E R Eddison, David
Lindsay and Rudyard Kipling’s stories set in India. Interest in folklore began even
earlier, with the publication of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s collections of German folk
tales in 1812–13.
Fantasy was well represented on the big screen, too, with films like The Wizard of Oz
(1939), The Thief of Bagdad (1940), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) and a raft of
animated films from the Disney studio. Modern fantasy got its big kick from two
sources, and these reflect the division of modern print fantasy into two main types:
‘sword and sorcery’ and ‘high fantasy’ (sometimes called ‘epic fantasy’ or –
somewhat hopefully – ‘pure fantasy’). The great fantasy and Horror pulp writers of the
30s, such as Clark Ashton Smith, started a tradition that more or less still exists in the
market today—sword and sorcery. The most famous exponent of the sword and
sorcery tradition was Robert E. Howard, who before committing suicide at the age of
30 had created probably the most frequently imitated and most influential fictional
character in Modern American fantasy, Conan the Barbarian.
Ultimately more important than the pulp source for modern fantasy was the more
academic, more studied and more formal approach taken by those writers who strove
to create ‘secondary worlds’. This tradition started with William Morris at the end of
the nineteenth century, but found full expression with two Oxbridge writers infused
with a love for language, medievalism, romance, religion, and who had experienced
the horrors of the First World War. C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien have shaped not
only the most common idea of modern fantasy, but also the most expected image of
modern fantasy. Tolkien in particular, with his fully realised secondary world of
Middle-earth, has transformed how fantasy is written and read in the English
69
70
The historical response, of course, was the creation of the suburban home, with its lawns and gardens.
David Pringle (1998) The Ultimate Encyclopaedia of Fantasy.
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 19 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
speaking world.71 Furthermore, the influence Lewis and Tolkien have on readers
starts at a very young age because that is when most readers first encounter Lewis’s
Narnia books and Tolkien’s The Hobbit, the precursor to The Lord of the Rings.
What effect Peter Jackson’s films based on The Lord of the Rings will have on how
fantasy is read and viewed in the future cannot yet be said, but their success—
together with the success of the Harry Potter films—will undoubtedly help form the
shape fantasy takes in the 21st century.
As with science fiction, the most important future influence on fantasy may well be
computer games. It sometimes seems that those computer games not based on a
science fiction premise are based on a fantasy premise. Interestingly, science fiction
games tend to be tactical and even strategic in nature, variations of traditional wargaming, while fantasy games tend to be first person and role-playing in nature (a
version, perhaps, of a fantasy reader’s desire to experience the life of a hero). This is
not a hard division, since there are plenty of examples of border crossing, but it may
suggest another way of approaching the differences between the two genres.
It may well be that the future not only of science fiction and fantasy, but the whole of
speculative fiction and closely related genres such as magical realism and alternate
histories, will be determined by companies that produce software rather than
companies producing books or films.
Other texts that will support your wider response to the Fantasy
Richard Adams (1972) Watership Down, Penguin (Prose fiction)
Ralph Bakshi (1977) Wizards (Animated film)
L Frank Baum (1939) The Wizard of Oz, Warner Bros (Film)
Beowulf, (c.725) (in translation,) Penguin (Poem, prose-poetry in translation)
Edgar Rice Burroughs (1912) Tarzan of the Apes (Prose fiction)
James Cameron (1984) Terminator, MGM (Film)
Isobelle Carmody and Steven Woolman (2001) Dreamwalker, Lothian Books,
(Illustrated story)
Lewis Carroll (1865) Alice in Wonderland (Prose fiction)
John Clute and Peter Nicholls (eds) (1995) Grolier Science Fiction: the Multimedia
Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction, St Martin’s Press
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798) “Kubla Khan” (poetry) [Presently set for HSC]
Charles Dickens (1843) A Christmas Carol (Prose fiction)
Gordon R Dickson (1976) The Dragon and the George (Prose fiction)
Walt Disney (1941) Fantasia (Animated film)
Walt Disney (1937) Snow White (Animated film)
Ted Elliott (et al) (2001) Shrek, Dreamworks (Animated film)
Tim Elliott (April 27–28, 2002) “It’s time fantasy fiction took a reality check”, in The
Weekend Australian Financial Review
James Gurney (1992) Dinotopia, Crawford House Press, (Illustrated fictional
history/sociology)
Jim Henson (1982) Dark Crystal, Columbia (Film, Henson puppetry)
John Keats (1819) “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” (Poetry)
Mervyn Peake (1950) Gormenghast, Penguin
“ … the greatest problem for writers working in (Tolkien’s) gigantic shadow is how to assimilate or escape the
influence of The Lord of the Rings.” (Pringle, op cit, p 173)
71
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 20 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
David Pringle (ed) (1998) The Ultimate Encyclopaedia of Fantasy, Reader’s Digest
JK Rowling (1997–2003) Harry Potter series, (Prose fiction and film)
Ridley Scott (1979) Alien, 20th Century Fox (Film)
TH White (1939) The Once and a Future King (Prose Fiction)
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Drama)
William Shakespeare, The Tempest (Drama) [Already set for HSC]
Louise Van Swaaij and Jean Klare (1997) The Atlas of Experience, Bloomsbury72
The works and their context
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
While Atwood may prefer the term speculative fiction as the term science fiction
“conjures up notions of Martians and space travel”73 there is no question that The
Handmaid’s Tale is powerful science fiction. If as Canary suggests “… science fiction
is social experimentation on paper”74 then The Handmaid’s Tale is one of the more
interesting and challenging experiments to be experienced. That The Handmaid’s
Tale75 is overtly political in nature and intent, and deals with human rather than
technological problems, does not separate it from similar but lesser known works in
the canon of science fiction. What does set it apart is, first, that it is a successful
fiction novel by a ‘mainstream’ writer, and that, second, it was filmed as a speculative
piece without a multimillion dollar special effects budget.76
The first point demonstrates, if a demonstration was needed, that there is nothing
particular or coded about science fiction that makes it difficult for a non-SF writer to
tackle despite a litany of failed examples. Having said that, however, a mainstream
writer who dives into the genre without some background understanding of what has
come before may be condemned to repeat what has already been done. Lack of
familiarity with the genre may also result in using terms and language that is at best
dated and at worst embarrassingly clunky.
The second point demonstrates that science fiction on the big screen, as it does so
often in the written word, can happily exist without aliens, spaceships and robots.
This has been demonstrated before, with films like Charly77 in 1968, (for which Cliff
Robertson won an Oscar for best actor), and shows that Hollywood has the collective
memory of an amnesiac.
72
Maps of imaginary places that would be useful stimulus for composing various types of speculative fiction.
“She who laughs last” (May 3–4 2003) an interview with Margaret Atwood in SMH.
74
Robert Canary (1977) Science Fiction as Fictive History” in Many Futures, Many Worlds: Theme and Form in
Science Fiction, Kent State University Press
75
It is important to remember that much of recent critical material published in NSW on The Handmaid’s Tale
has been with a focus on the previous syllabus and examination. The novel had been in a 3 Unit elective titled
‘Utopias and Anti-Utopias’. While much of the critical comment may still have value, you will need to establish
its relevance to the study of genre and the Speculative Fiction Elective.
76
It might just be that this filmed version of the novel goes some way to addressing Dozois’s speculation; “I
wonder if we’re going to hit a time when wonderful special effects will be so cheap and so common and so
widespread that having them in your movie won’t be enough to get people to come and see them anymore? If,
instead, the Great Special Effects being given, you’ll have to start putting things like a great story and great
characters and great dialogue and actually intriguing ideas in it in order to lure an audience to the theatre.”
77
Based on the novella Flowers for Algernon
73
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 21 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
The Handmaid’s Tale is both a dystopian and a feminist text, and an example of how
science fiction enables a writer to engage and explore both ideas. Dystopias, of
course, are almost always discussed within the context of science fiction, since they
deal with societies worse than our own and usually set in the future. Such tales can
be cautionary or metaphoric. Political texts tend to use dystopias as a metaphor,
such as George Orwell’s 1984 and Yevgeny Zamiatin’s We, but it can be argued that
Atwood is using the dystopia in her novel for both purposes: a metaphor for the way
women have been—and often still are—regarded, and a warning about the male
control of biological processes. “… it extrapolates from the present to show us how
the future could be.”78 If the metaphor dominates the telling it is the warning that
stays in the mind, a very science fictional achievement.
As an example of feminist science fiction, it lags behind works by seminal women
writers in the field such as Joanna Russ, Suzy McKee Charnas and James Tiptree Jr
(the pseudonym of Alice Sheldon). More recently, Australian writers such as Tess
Williams are making their mark with notable works of feminist science fiction, or
perhaps more accurately with science fiction works written with a feminist sensibility.
Margaret Atwood’s novel can also be looked at as an example of Canadian literature,
and more specifically Canadian science fiction, a distinct subset of international
science fiction with its own flavour and champions, and a reputation for high
standards and a predilection for intricate and often pessimistic story lines; a ‘grave
new world’.79
The overwhelming nature of the totalitarian world of Gilead is one of the remarkable
features of The Handmaid’s Tale. Offred’s descriptions of her society and the rituals
that have been so thoroughly and systematically implemented rob individuals of hope
of change. Memories of the past are to be forgotten. Offred is told “to clear (her) mind
of such … Echoes.” (296) The text becomes an appeal to the future to hear her
account, “I’ll pretend you can hear me” (49); a desperate wish that her warnings be
heard. “I tell, therefore you are.” (279) Her adoption of a forbidden public role when
she narrates her own story implies the possibility of some forms of resistance.80
Offred believes “If it’s a story that I’m telling you, then I have control over the ending.”
(49) However, even the reassuring news in the novel’s epilogue that Gilead failed is
undercut by the evidence that the patriarchy is alive and well. In the final chapter
‘Historical Notes’ Professor Pieixoto as keynote speaker ensures that we recognise
that the patriarchy still dominates as he directs his audience away from the warnings
embedded in Offred’s account of life in Gilead. He tells the audience “Our job is not to
censure (the Gileadeans) but to understand.” (315) We are left with a hollow feeling
as the novel ends with “Are there any questions?” (324) and there is the sense that
sadly, there are none as no-one was ever listening. A melancholy forewarning.
Other texts
Margaret Atwood (2003) Oryx & Crake, Doubleday
The Margaret Atwood Home Page http://www.web.net/owtoad/toc.html
Justine Larbalestier (2002) The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction, Wesleyan
University Press (Non-fiction)
“She who laughs last” (May 3–4 2003) an interview with Margaret Atwood in SMH.
A term coined by Arthur C Clarke in his assessment of much recent SF publication.
80
Alice Adams (1994) Reproducing the Womb, Cornell University Press
78
79
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 22 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
Helen Merrick & Tess Williams (eds) (1999) Women of Other Worlds: excursions
through science fiction and feminism, University of Western Australia (Short stories)
Joanna Russ (2000) The Female Man, Beacon Press
Volker Schlöndorff (Director) (1990) The Handmaid’s Tale, MGM (Film)
James Tiptree Jr (1990) Her Smoke Rose Up Forever, Arkham House Publishers
(Collection)
Tess Williams (npd) Sea as Mirror
Cyteen by C. J. Cherryh
Annotations of new HSC texts, such as Cyteen, can be found on the Board of Studies
web site.81 The relevant details provided for C J Cherryh’s Cyteen, are:
Merit and cultural significance

This novel is regarded as a modern science fiction classic. It is set in a future
world where genetic engineering and political intrigue are crucial elements of the
story.

Cyteen is an intense and complex book with predictions for the future which need
exploring.
Needs and interests of students

Cyteen allows students to analyse their own society in the light of the issues
raised about genetic engineering and political and psychological manipulation.

The combination of murder mystery and science fiction epic is appealing.
Opportunities for challenging teaching and learning

Cyteen is a lengthy exploration of a possible future which offers opportunities for
students to reflect on their own values.

The complexity of the novel with its mixture of different genres and voices
provides opportunities for sophisticated textual and structural analysis.

The issue of what it is to be human and the extent to which humanity can or
should be programmed will provide stimulating classroom debate.
C. J. Cherryh is the barely disguised pseudonym for Carolyn Janice Cherry. 82 She
won recognition for her work very early in her career, and, unusually for an American
science fiction writer of her generation, has written more novels than short stories.
Cherryh believes that her writing should condense, codify, sift the time stream for
useful things, and turn an era of change into a human experience. Cyteen is such a
‘human experience’; it is a political novel that deals with genetic manipulation, cloning
and, rarely for a political novel, with politics itself. Politics is often the motivation of
central characters’ actions but the actual nature of the political relationships and
goals remain obscure. Ariane tells an interviewer, “… politics is no more than a
temporal expression of social mathematics.” (222) It is sufficient to recognise that the
war being fought was “cold again” and conference table “negotiators tried to draw
lines biology did not.” (6) Cyteen contains several subplots and nuance, filled with
detail, which are interrelated, creating a novel of epic scale.
Future histories, such as Cyteen, enable writers to explore more deeply the political,
81
Board of Studies Annotated Texts for 2004-5 HSC
www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/pdf_doc/annotations_texts_2004_05.doc
82
She may have changed the spelling of her last name to help avoid confusion with her brother, science fiction
cover artist David A. Cherry.
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 23 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
social and economic issues over a range of peoples, communities and epochs.
Perhaps even more importantly in the context of science fiction, future histories allow
writers to weave their tales into a huge tapestry, giving the narrative a sense of
grandeur and individual stories a pseudo-historical context that adds gravitas and the
impression of extraordinary depth. Cyteen is set in C. J. Cherryh’s Merchanter
universe (a couple of generations after the concluding war, as narrated in a prequel,
Downbelow Station, but this novel is a distant backdrop, which does not need to be
read to appreciate the intent of this novel. Cyteen is an extensive and meticulously
structured examination of the study of power and the claustrophobic effects of its
mismanagement.
The exploration of the use and abuse of power underpins much of the novel.
Exercising political power is central to appreciating Ariane’s behaviour. Ariane
informs the younger Ari in one of her many tapes to guide her upbringing that there
are three parts to power, “Taking it. Holding it. Using it.” (614) Justin’s greatest fears
are linked to his belief that Ariane considered that, “Life was not enough to trade a
soul for. But power …” (75) The thought that this was Ariane’s controlling philosophy
influences Justin’s behaviour throughout the narrative as, even after Ariane has been
‘murdered’, her influence lingers. To be as politically successful as Ariane had been
and as Ari clearly was going to be, required a ruthless determination, a sense of her
place in the universe above and controlling the interests of others.
Cyteen is also an example of one of the most significant features of much science
fiction, a feature first established before the Second World War in the pulps and
carried on enthusiastically by writers in the genre ever since. ‘Future Histories’
describes an overall narrative structure some writers employ to link many, if not most,
of their works. This is not the same as a ‘series’, where several novels may belong to
the same story arc, but an attempt to bring together different stories (and even
different story arcs), different characters and sometimes different species under a
coherent historical progression. Many future histories deal with the rise and fall of
empires and races, planets and economic systems; some stretch over only a few
centuries, while others encompass the whole life of the universe.
A central concern of Cyteen is directly related to a long term interest of Cherryh as
she trained as an archaeologist, and her most intense scholarly interest has been the
evolution of technology and its effect on civilization. Technology is used in Cyteen to
create the artificial underclass, the azi, who are both more and less chattel slaves.
Denys tells the young Ari that the azis Caitlin and Florian are “part of your birthday.
But you mustn’t tell them that: people aren’t birthday presents. It’s not nice.” (266)
The azi do not have the capacity to adapt to new or unexpected situations as they
are incapable of dealing with circumstances that was not part of their programming.
The irony is that they remain highly intelligent and sensitive. Their relationship with
their human-masters is paramount in their programming and behaviour. Originally the
azi were produced to create a population quickly, their skills and abilities are
predetermined before birth, as they are each produced with particular tasks in mind.
A key to unlocking this element of the novel is to appreciate how Cherryh has
accessed previous writing on the themes of genetic manipulation. Huxley’s Brave
New World echoes and is shadowed in Cyteen as well as the earliest modern SF
text, Frankenstein. Frankenstein is a critical foundation stone of a type of speculative
fiction. Cyteen echoes the concept of creating humanity or at the very least,
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 24 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
manipulating its essence through the abuse of scientific principles. Cherryh’s
frightening caveats accesses both sides of the nature vs nurture debate.
The novel is a study of the effects on a society of the relationship of the ‘natural born’
psychology to manufactured and tailored minds. Cherryh plays off one character’s
collection of concerns against another’s demonstrating a considerable (and very
speculative) understanding of the depths of psychological intervention. The novel’s
introduction leads us to “Imagine all the variety of the human species confined to a
single world …” (1) This statement simply describes our present situation and yet
Cherryh creates the impression that such a circumstance is somehow a precarious
one. Cherryh flags the most definitive change to our known world when she informs
us that, “ … basic human thinking had changed: biological parentage was a trivial
connection.” (7)
Mix and match humanity results from the detailed development of genetic
manipulation. Reseune has taken the social experiment further, as with the younger
Ari we also see the ‘system’ wholly control her nurturing as well. This is achieved
through monitoring all the people with whom Ari comes into contact, as well as
through the ubiquitous taping sessions that flood the mind with pasteurised and
homogenised information and sensations. (142) The ultimate result of this movement
of humanity is the lack of control and awareness of self. Justin “would never in his life
be able to know if certain thoughts were his …” (157) which should then be
contrasted with Descartes conclusion about what makes us human, “I think, therefore
I am.” The young Ari refers to her having only “the illusion of memory.” (589) There
are moments of hope suggested in the more reasonable human that the young Ari
becomes but this is balanced against the realisation that much of the behaviour of
this society remains unchallenged. The references and teaching notes of the older
Ariane to the younger highlights the corruption of young Ari’s individual selfdiscovery. We are left wondering whether she is in fact a new person or simply a
replicate in every sense of the term.
The frightening consequences of this development on Cyteen are further emphasised
by appreciating the implications of Grant’s statement that he does not understand
good and evil. (231) Grant was one of the most sophisticated and self-aware azis, yet
this essential element of our humanity is absent from his moral consciousness.
Exacerbating this dilemma is the realisation that Justin, whose essential goodness
and honesty remain unquestioned by all other characters including the older Ariane,
works to improve the azis’ existence by wishing to provide them with the capacity to
experience joy; making them more human but still not entirely human—he never
actually questions the morality of the continuance of the system.
Other texts
C. J. Cherryh's web site: www.cherryh.com
Shejidan: An Unofficial Cherryh fan site:
http://members.tripod.com/shejidan/main.html
Maps of C. J. Cherryh's Fiction: www.solstation.com/cjc-maps.htm
An alternative fan site: www.dancingbadger.com/cherryh.htm
Aldous Huxley (1931) Brave New World, Penguin [Already set for HSC]
Mary Shelley (1816) Frankenstein (Prose fiction)
Ridley Scott (Director) (1982) Blade Runner, Warner Bros (Film) [Already set for
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 25 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
HSC]
Dune by Frank Herbert
Annotations of new HSC texts, including Dune, can be found on the Board of Studies
web site.83 The relevant details provided for Frank Herbert’s Dune, are:
Merit and Cultural significance

The text is regarded as a science fiction classic and marks a significant
development in the melding of the two genres, science fiction and fantasy. Set on
the imaginary desert planet Arrakis, it is the story of a boy, Paul Atreides, who is
the product of a very long-term genetic experiment designed to breed a superhuman.

The depiction of a Byzantine interstellar empire based on a single commodity,
spice, is powerful and evocative.
Needs and interests of students

The mixture of adventure, mysticism, environmentalism and politics has strong
appeal and the text employs a blend of writing styles to capture the ‘mythic’
qualities of Fantasy.

The complex social, environmental and political aspects of the novel invite
comparisons with students’ own world.

The text explores the complexity of the human spirit while interweaving complex
plots with insightful moral lessons. It is a story about people and their human
concerns and human values.
Opportunities for challenging teaching and learning

The text offers opportunities for students to consider the impact of monopolies in
systems such as the concentration of the spice melange on Arrakis.

Students can investigate the feudal aspects of the text and its links with historical
systems.

Students can consider the conventions of the science fiction and fantasy genres
and the ways in which this text exemplifies and challenges them. It provides a
useful link to the other texts in this elective.
One of the most influential and popular science fiction novels ever written, Dune is a
watershed work. It is the first of the new style ‘space operas’, taking pulp icons and
idioms and successfully infusing them with politics, religion and eugenics. It is the first
major ecological novel in science fiction (and perhaps literature) and for much of its
length reads like a traditional adventure novel.
But is it good?
Two counterpoint views follow:
First perspective
For many science fiction fans, the golden age of the genre is not the era of the early
83
Board of Studies Annotated Texts for 2004–5 HSC
www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/pdf_doc/annotations_texts_2004_05.doc
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 26 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
pulps in the 1930s, or the era of Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke
in the 1940s and 1950s. The golden age of science fiction is when the reader is
twelve, or thereabouts. It is a time when the wonders of the universe start to unfold
before your eyes, and a growing and quickly maturing mind realises for the first time
that life exists over the horizon. Dune is the perfect book to read when in the golden
age. It is a novel filled with its own sense of wonder, its own gospel according to
science fiction. The reader encounters telepathy and mind-altering drugs,
philosophers and emperors, transformed humans and giant worms, a caste of
warriors and a caste of almost mythical accountants, a desert world and a water
world, witches and saints, intrigue and conspiracy, loyalty and betrayal … it is a
romp, an opera without music, an adventure par excellence.
Dune may also be science fiction’s best attempt at creating and describing an alien
planet so well that the reader revels in its strangeness without questioning it.84
However, Dune is also unnecessarily complicated, too long, too preachy, and uses
language that is often cumbersome and faintly anachronistic. Its characters are larger
than life but often as flat as a movie poster. Its science can be inspired, but
sometimes is also antiquated. Its politics is simplistic in cause but fiendishly contrived
in execution. Its resolution seems insufficient for the weight of the narrative.
But … is it good?
For many of its fans, Dune is best in memory. For those who have read it once,
especially in their golden age, the book shines like gold. It represents many of the
things they love about science fiction, its alien vistas and its capacity to charge the
imagination. For many of those who read it a second time when they are adults, the
gold becomes copper and the shine becomes verdigris, and they realise that many of
the things they loved about the book were really the things they loved about being
twelve.
Dune is a phase every science fiction reader should experience and then pass
through. It opens our minds not to the wonders of the universe, but to the wonders of
reading, to the wonders of imagination, and to the wonders of seeing with new eyes.
Second perspective
But … it is good!
In the post-war years, science fiction has been characterised by a search for new
values. The conflict between Romanticism and Enlightenment resulted in the need for
the beginning of an exploration for new values, a new exploration of human
consciousness. In this context, Dune evidences the move from the mechanical to the
organic, from the gadgets to the implications for humanity. “In Dune a fundamental
assumption Herbert begins with is that the mystery of life is ‘not a problem to solve
but a reality to experience.’” The novel explores with some sophistication and
honesty the paradoxical and limited ways in which human freedom manages to
84
At least until Kim Stanley Robinson’s trilogy about the colonisation of Mars: Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars.
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 27 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
organise itself in a largely deterministic universe.85
It is readily apparent that Dune is a novel that reflects the historical concerns of the
period of the time it was written. It has elements of a ‘space opera’ in its style and at
times its storyline. However, Dune also contains many of the best features of both
science fiction and fantasy. There is the sense of wonder that is created by the
mixture of cultural, philosophical, historical and political ‘grabs’ that are a feature of
the novel, but also the immersion of this story in the extraordinary world of Arrakis,
the planet of Dune.
Herbert’s exploration of myth-making and borrowings from a range of historical
periods86 and cultures, deserve closer investigation; particularly his cultural and
language references from Islam such as Ramadan, the link between the Fremen and
their Sunni ancestry as well as the often repeated fears that Paul experiences in his
dreams, of a Fremen jihad.
Guidera views “the effects of manipulation" as the predominant thematic concern of
Herbert’s Dune.87 In this assessment he includes man’s control of himself, his
environment and others—as well as the extent to which man is controlled by power
elites and forces apparently beyond an individual’s control.88 Consider the Bene
Gesserits’ attempts to manipulate not only individuals, but time past and future.
Herbert’s speculation about human behaviour and conduct, which in some capacity
continue to reflect contemporary society include:



The workings of government and the nature of religious sects: “When religion and
politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way …
and forget that a precipice does not show itself to the blind man in a rush until it’s
too late.” (379)
Business: “If you want profits you must rule.” Muad’Dib’s secret message to the
Landsraad, Dune (372)
Marriage and breeding: “The race of humans had felt its own dormancy, sensed
itself grown stale and knew now only the need to experience turmoil in which the
genes would mingle and the strong new mixtures would survive.” (457)
Herbert was also particularly concerned about:

The likelihood that very few individuals may determine humanity’s future: “He who
can destroy a thing has real control over it.” A reference made by Paul to his
ability to destroy the spice.

Attempts to manipulate the environment have their, generally unforeseen
consequences: “From water does all life begin.” (296) The environment dominates
Thomas Wymer (1977) “Perceptions and Values” in Many Futures, Many Worlds: Theme and Form in
Science Fiction, Kent State University Press
86
It is somewhat ironic that many science fiction stories involving tales of fast spaceships travelling great
distances arrive at worlds where we are presented with visions of our past history; swordplay and primitive
societies. Human history disguised as future and faraway.
87
Guidera Lawrence (1980) “Common and Not-So-Common Ideas in SF” in Anticipations: Ten Essays on
Speculative Fiction, Adelaide College of the Arts
88
Miss LaTrobe, a character in Michael Gow’s play Away, refers to the great themes of King Lear in her outline
to her class as: man versus man, man versus nature and finally man versus himself. Each of these themes is
readily evident in Dune as well.
85
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 28 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au

the nature of life on Arrakis and as such “The highest function of ecology is
understanding consequences” Kynes (259).
Governments always tend toward aristocratic forms—acting exclusively in the
interests of the ruling class—which makes the novel a valuable socio-political
statement: “There should be a science of discontent.” From the Collected Saying
of Muad’Dib (157). The intrigue of the various courts and their alliances that are
never completely trusted and their inability to cooperate with each other is
apparent throughout the novel. The Emperor and Baron are each cast as having
little concern for others and at times Paul could be framed in this same light. The
early education of Paul was intended to prepare him for the role of Kwisatz
Haderach. He was born and bred to rule and he demonstrates that he will, as
required, do this ruthlessly and efficiently.
Yes, it is a science fiction text deserving some study.
Other texts
David Lynch (Directed) (1984) Dune, Universal Studios
John Harrison (Director/Writer) (2000) Dune, Fox (Television series)
Greg Yaitanes (Directed) (2003) Children of Dune, Fox (Television series)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R.
Tolkien, directed by Peter Jackson
Annotations of new HSC texts, such as the film The Lord of the Rings: The
Fellowship of the Ring can be found on the Board of Studies web site.89 The relevant
details provided for Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the
Ring, are:
Merit and cultural significance

The film vividly establishes the world of Middle-earth, and the numerous species
that inhabit it, and the battle over the Ring of Power.

The film balances imaginative special effects and production design against
comprehensive characterisation and powerful depictions of imaginary times and
places.
Needs and interests of students

The heroic quest and the cinematic grandeur are appealing.

The film conveys the struggle of the diminutive hobbits and encourages us to
experience the journey of the quest.

The film is marked by fine characterisation as well as innovative special effects.
Opportunities for challenging teaching and learning

Students will be introduced to classic fantasy conventions in the medium of film
and consider the film as an example of speculative fiction.

The study of the cinematography and special effects will deepen student
understanding of these key elements of modern filmmaking.

The adaptation of a written text to the screen enables the study of different modes
of representation.
89
Board of Studies Annotated Texts for 2004–5 HSC
www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/pdf_doc/annotations_texts_2004_05.doc
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 29 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
It is most important to appreciate that you are studying the film and not the original
novel and there is an important distinction between story and discourse. The aspect
of discourse, which is relevant here, includes all the other ways that a film presents a
story: using camera angles, camera movement, close-ups, music, etc. However, a
knowledge and understanding of the novel will inform your appreciation of the film’s
impact. Realising what has been changed has the effect of highlighting your
appreciation of what the Peter Jackson has done to make his film work.90 Perhaps
the most important understanding that needs to be considered in your reflections on
the film is that it is the building block on which two other films follow and in this way it
differs from any other major filmmaking process that has previously been undertaken.
The original novel and now the film produce a dichotomy of responses. A common
sentiment expressed is that The Lord of the Rings is “…the most intimidating
nerd/academic fantasy classic ever.” 91 Having said that, thank god for Peter
Jackson. Now all the people who have spent their entire academic life writing about
Tolkien and his famous trilogy can shift their energies to the films and start all over
again.
For starters: it is a composite of Christian allegory, Norse mythology and a boys’
book of adventure. The storyline resembles the Norse-Icelandic Eddas and sagas
and the Finnish epic, Kalevala. The branching journey-quests most approximates
entrelacement, a trait of late-medieval romances. The original text also honours the
medieval concept of discordia concors; “everything in its place, order emerging out of
disorder.”92 The structure of The Lord of the Rings resembles Vladimir Propp’s
suggested structure for fairy tales: a round trip journey to the marvellous, complete
testing of the hero, crossing of a threshold, supernatural assistance, confrontation,
flight, and the establishment of a new order at home. Of interest, Bilbo leaves the
Shire and Gandalf with statement that he now had an end for his story, “… and he
lives happily ever after, to the end of his days.” (Prologue, The Fellowship of the
Ring) What Peter Jackson has done is removed that cycle within the film and
replaced it with a new structure of his making.
Within this narrative, traditional common characteristics include the use of
symbolism, the idea of the quest and its accompanying themes of search and
transition, an atmosphere of death and disaster, and the growth and development of
the young hero.93 Frodo, (who was initially not an especially significant hobbit)
becomes the foil to the flawed human hero Boromir.94 Frodo performs the role of the
90
Examine where to find a thorough review of the details of the film-making process in Appendix 1
Elvis Mitchell, Review of The Fellowship of the Ring
92
For those who examine any of the appropriate Shakespearian plays to complement their study of this elective,
the same expectation of the story’s conclusion is readily evident. While not relevant to your study of this
particular text for this elective, it is important to not the convention for the genre in general terms.
93
Jane Chance (2001) The Lord Of the Rings: The Mythology of Power, Uni Press of Kentucky
94
Boromir’s redemption, achieved through personal sacrifice, at the end of the film is critical for him to achieve
the status and our recognition of him as a ‘traditional’ hero. It may be relevant to examine Tolkien’s coined term
‘eucatastrophe’ to describe this moment in the film; for the final turn toward deliverance, which for him had
religious implications. Attebery suggests that eucatastrophe is another common feature of fantasy—the effect of
joy or consolation. Jackson lingers on the mournfulness when Frodo’s band of brothers has to endure its
sacrifices, the movie has a sense of loss.
91
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 30 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
hero95 but it is not a role that fits his character neatly, he is too complex a character
to be contained by it. Frodo, in both the novel and in this first film, establishes himself
independently of the role or function of the ‘hero’.
Tolkien’s characters are patterned after received types—the wizard, the lady, the
comic servant—and reveal themselves primarily through appearance and action.
Heroic figures are “invariably tall and bright.” “Critics of his technique mistake these
for character traits, whereas they are more properly role-markers.”96 Jackson is
conscious of the capacity of his film to establish characters and their personal traits
with close ups on face or symbols at appropriate moments. Consider the film’s first
meeting between Aragon and Boromir, each leaves a lasting impression of the
‘actual’ man we are intended to see. Alternately or additionally, examine the scene in
Elrond, when the issue of the Ring’s possible destruction is first discussed. The
motivations for each race are highlighted more through Jackson’s judicious use of
filmic techniques than the relatively brief verbal exchanges. Finally, the emphasis and
exploration of the Ring is revealed, providing it with the power through intense visual
presentations. As Bilbo leaves the Ring, he drops it to the floor, where it lands without
any sensation of other movement; the Ring’s weight becomes metaphorically
established as it passes from Bilbo to Frodo.
It is difficult to measure the impact Tolkien’s famous work has had on fantasy,
because modern fantasy largely comprises Tolkien and his literary offspring. Modern
fantasy makes no sense without The Lord of the Rings as touchstone, wellspring,
exemplar and template. One way to characterise the genre of fantasy is the set of
texts that in some way resemble The Lord of the Rings. Texts that do resemble The
Lord of the Rings in three fundamental ways: content, structure and readers’
response. Even those things Tolkien did not create, such as elves and dwarves and
treasure-loving dragons, he so completely made his own that his work is the
benchmark by which such things as elves, dwarves and treasure-loving dragons are
compared.
Ironically, the film of The Fellowship of the Ring succeeds as a work of fantasy in its
own right because Peter Jackson interprets rather than translates Tolkien’s book. As
was seen with the film versions of the first Harry Potter book, directly transferring a
book to the big screen does not necessarily transfer the energy and enthusiasm of
the book. It is possible to be too literal, to be too close to the original text. To fully
appreciate the efforts that Jackson and his team made to faithfully interpret the
original novel, refer to the first appendix, where Bill Hunt outlines the most useful
additional features of the third and fourth discs of the Extended DVD version of the
film.
The break from the original novel is established in the opening moments of the film
when Peter Jackson captures the extensive background history of the Ring, as
outlined in Tolkien’s final text The Silmarillion. The film presents us with a seven
minute cinematic sweep which provides the wonder of myth, legend and Jackson’s
reality in clear evidence. We hear Cate Blanchett’s Galadriel mystical and knowing
Ultimately it was Tolkien’s inversion of Frodo’s quest that sets it apart from its historical predecessors. (Frodo
must give up the quest in the end; Gollum as adversary both subverts and achieves the quest.)
96
Brian Attebery (1992) Strategies of Fantasy, Indiana University Press
95
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 31 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
narrative present a brief history of the Ring and the accompanying war, as the
extraordinary images of huge armies of men and elves in a desperate battle with the
creatures of our nightmares. As the camera angle moves above and to behind
Sauron, who towers above the cowering men and we now appreciate the impact of
the evil that he represents. The miracle of Sauron’s defeat emphasises fortune rather
than design, fate rather than cleverness as well as heroism borne from desperation.
The camera tells much of the story and the introduction deserves closer study. From
this extraordinary opening, Jackson moves our barely recovered sensibilities, three
thousand years into the future, to the innocent delights of the hobbits’ pastoral world.
The Fellowship of the Ring mythologises power as we recognise that the evil that
Sauron represents has patiently awaited the discovery of the Ring and through its
revelation, his evil is able to take shape once again, his desire to dominate impacts
on all the beings of Middle-earth who choose sides for the battles and wars to come.
The Fellowship of the Ring intrigues because it manages the fine balancing act of
carrying the excitement and grandeur to the screen from the source without bringing
with it the sometimes stilted language and sometimes lethargic pace. Jackson knows
that what works with the written word—which creates an imaginary space where the
reader contributes almost as much as the writer in world creation—does not
necessarily work with film—which creates an expressed space where the viewer is
largely along for the ride.
Another interesting difference between book and film is that in the short space
allotted a film—in this case around three hours for the cinema version—there is only
time to faithfully follow one story, that of Frodo, to the exclusion of almost every other
detail.97
The film of The Fellowship of the Ring succeeds in bringing cinema up to speed with
what has been happening in fantasy literature for about fifty years. While earlier
attempts to bring
modern popular fantasy to the screen have been less than successful (e.g. Conan
the Barbarian, Dragonslayer, both produced in1981, and Ralph Bakshi’s animated
attempt at doing The Lord of the Rings in 197898), Jackson makes it work because he
trusts the source material without feeling the need to treat Tolkien’s book as a strand
of DNA to be replicated exactly. Jackson trusts in the power of the fantasy to win over
his audience. Tolkien was the master assimilator, able to capture the disparate
elements of the range of medieval stories from which he borrowed and create a story
which is at once familiar and new. What Peter Jackson has done is to achieve this
same success but from a filmmaker’s perspective. He has borrowed from the skills,
techniques and effects of earlier composers to create a text which clearly establishes
and defines the standards for the genre from this point. There is no fantasy film prior
to Fellowship of the Ring which so completely immerses an audience into the
intricate and intimate detail of the fantasy world of its creator.
It is important to appreciate and emphasise that Peter Jackson adopted much of
97
Exactly how Jackson manages to pull off the bifurcated story in The Two Towers also makes for an interesting
study.
98
Ralph Bakshi’s earlier film Wizards is actually more deserving of attention, if only because of the
experimental nature of the animation process and the inversion of the conclusion of the film to elements of our
reality, but presented as a fantasy.
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 32 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
Tolkien’s original intent in the composition of his film. The Lord of the Rings and The
Fellowship of the Ring are dependent on the synthesis and assimilation of a variety of
modern and medieval materials. It offers a contemporary understanding of good and
evil, the value of community, the natural order of the universe and the singularity of
the individual. The battles between the forces of good and evil propel the story
forward in the original text, whereas it is the defining and evolving nature of the
interrelationships between the fellowship and the building of the quest, which is
central to The Fellowship of the Ring’s narrative. Tolkien wrote the original text in an
era in which the individual appeared to be powerless against fate and the universal
horror of evil. It is evident that Jackson’s film engages audiences with this same
sense of the significance of the task and the role of the individuals within the
fellowship to win against what appears to be insurmountable odds.
Other texts
Day, David (1979) A Tolkien Bestiary, Colporteur Press
Tolkien, JRR (1954) The Lord of the Rings, Allen and Unwin
Chance, Jane (2001) The Lord of the Rings: The Mythology of Power, Uni Press of
Kentucky
The Lord of the Rings (book) http://members.tripod.com/~diablo222/lotr/lotr.htm
Tolkien (Film and book) Fan Club sites (some fabulous links, good interviews and
other source material) http://www.ringbearer.org and
http://www.xenite.org/faqs/lotr_movie
Tolkien Movies.com http://www.tolkien-movies.com
Probably the best site http://www.lordoftherings.net
For some fun … The Hobbit Name Caller
http://www.chriswetherell.com/hobbit/default.asp
What should be the focus of a quality composition of the Speculative Fiction?
Most importantly, basically, the same things that would impress a responder of
‘straight’ fiction. Perhaps an apparently unsatisfactory response, but the sentiment
remains accurate: good writing, good characters and good plotting.
However, there is one other clue to the successful use of the genre. In effect, it is a
test for whether or not the piece of fiction in question was written as speculative
fiction because it was essential to the story or because it just happens to be the
genre that you feel most comfortable writing. Without demeaning the second, the first
is more interesting.
Both science fiction and fantasy employ a standard set of symbols, and how a
composer uses or incorporates these symbols indicates how necessary or
unnecessary the use of the genre was.
In fantasy we call these symbols ‘icons’. These include magic swords, dark lords, etc.
Most of the time, icons are an essential part of a fantasy. A magic weapon or ring, for
example, can become the thing that makes a protagonist unique, or can become the
objective of a quest (either to gain it or destroy it), and dark lords (wizards, witches,
beasts, etc) represent evil or sometimes simply the ‘other’.
The use of symbols in science fiction is a little different. Simon Brown calls these SF
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 33 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
symbols ‘chrome’, because most of the time it is unnecessary but decorative and
mostly harmless, but just as with real chrome, too much of it can at best look
ridiculous and at worst make the story sink from its own rococo weight. Chrome
includes things such as faster-than-light starships and gravity sleds, moving
walkways and robots. It is so easy to have these in an SF story to give it a semblance
of verisimilitude and end up making it read as hackneyed and clichéd. Good SF does
not throw away the chrome, but makes it essential to the story; perhaps a robot
revolution or a FTL starship drive that kills the pilot. In other words, the symbol stops
being chrome and becomes something like the fantasy icon.
Composing speculative fiction is achieved exactly the same way you might compose
any other genre, including literature with a capital "L". The American science fiction
writer Robert Heinlein propounded the first three points.
Rule One: Read every day. Sounds obvious, but the trick is to read outside your
comfort zone. If you are interested in science, read history or sociology. If you lean to
the left politically, then read magazines and newspapers known for their conservative
bias. If you are only into science fiction, then read crime fiction and romance fiction
as well. See what the rest of the world is reading and thinking and enjoying. Expand
your mental landscape.
Rule Two: Write every day. You have to write fiction, each day, every day. The best
way to do this is to keep a regular time. Do it until it becomes habit, until you feel out
of sorts and cranky if you don’t do it.
Rule Three: Finish what you start. Do not fall into the trap of starting a new story
every time you sit down to write. And even if you do, you are still learning while you
write.
Rule Four: If you’re interested in writing science fiction, read as much science as
possible, especially magazines like New Scientist and Discovery, and journals like
Science and Nature. Now journals can be pretty heavy going if you’re not a scientist,
but the abstracts before each article are usually pretty straightforward. The major
science magazine and journals can usually be found online. This is important! Too
many beginning science fiction writers pen stories where the science is old and
creaky, or where their amazing-never-used-before-idea is actually the basis for a
hundred stories and a dozen novels in the last quarter century. Keeping this last point
in mind, if you are interested in writing science fiction, read it as well to see what is
happening in the field. On the other hand, if you are interested in writing fantasy, read
history and all the myths and legends you can find. Libraries are an essential part of
your research for this process. Otherwise, same rules apply here as for science
fiction.
Lastly, speculative fiction readers and writers are lucky. Every year there are SF and
fantasy conventions in most of Australia’s major cities. Going to one of these is a
good way to make contact with other writers. Make sure you’re going to a convention
that deals with the written word and not just gaming or television SF.
Other texts
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 34 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
C.J. Cherryh, Writerisms and other Sins: A Writer's shortcut to stronger writing.
www.cherryh.com/www/advice.htm
Creative Writing for Teens (Use the site selectively as it is not always directly
relevant)
http://teenwriting.about.com/library/glossary/bldef-specfic.htm
Orson Scott Card (2001) How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, Writer's Digest
Books.
Worthwhile additional speculative fiction, science fiction and fantasy web
sites:99
http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~felluga/sf.html
Cambridge University Science Fiction Society
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/cusfs
Brenda Cooper’s Futurist.com article “Science Fiction Notes: The Age of Creation”
http://www.futurist.com/portal/science_fiction/scifi_notes_creation.htm
Course materials for the study of science fiction (with some useful study guides on
Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and many other texts)
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/science_fiction/Science_Fiction_Guides.html
Eidolon: Australian SF Online http://eidolon.net
The Home Page for Science Fiction and Fantasy http://www.sfsite.com
Quadrant: Science Fiction Search Engine http://www.fantascienza.com/quadrant
Science Fiction Research Association (A site dedicated to the study and teaching of
science fiction) http://www.sfra.org
SF artworks (may be useful to stimulate some writing exercise)
http://www.slawcio.com/artsf.html
Science Fiction film (specifically 2001) details on http://alien.sciflicks.com/2001
Writing tasks and examination style questions for the Speculative Fiction
Elective
The HSC marking criteria for this module has been:
In your answers you will be assessed on how well you:
 demonstrate an understanding of the conventions of the genre and the ideas and
values associated with the genre
 sustain an extended composition appropriate to the question, demonstrating
control of language
1. How do the conventions of the genre you have studied for this module limit or
support the impact of the composer’s vision?
In your discussion, draw on your knowledge of at least TWO of the prescribed
texts and other related texts. (2001 HSC)
2. “The genre has as its central feature, the escape from our reality into other
99
There are literally thousands of additional sites, so you need to be selective otherwise you will waste much
valuable time.
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 35 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
worlds.”
Is this an accurate analysis of the speculative fiction genre?
You should refer to TWO of the prescribed texts, and other related texts.
3. “Speculative fiction texts, as much as any other genre, reflect the contexts of
the composers who create it.”
Evaluate the way speculative fiction texts reflect and comment on their society.
You should refer to TWO of the prescribed texts, and other related texts.
(Adapted from the 2000 Specimen Paper)
4. While a set of conventions underpins modern speculative fiction, composers
move on from these to create variations, to subvert the genre.
How effectively do TWO of the prescribed texts and other related texts you
have studied exploit the conventions of the genre?
5. “Genres evolve in response to society’s conditions therefore they inevitably
comment upon that society in their representations.”
Discuss the accuracy of this statement. How true is this statement in at least
TWO of the prescribed texts for this elective and other related texts of your
own choosing.
6. “Speculative fiction is a genre which dates and as such it is a reflection of the
changes to our real world.”
Discuss the accuracy of this statement. How true is this statement in at least
TWO of the prescribed texts for this elective and other related texts of your
own choosing.
7. “Speculative fiction is pulp fiction. Written to a simplistic formula, it offers little
of value beyond entertainment.”
What is the value of the speculative fiction genre? Why have the composers
you have studied chosen this genre to explore human behaviour and beliefs?
You should refer to at least TWO of the prescribed texts, and other related
texts of your own choosing.
8. “Speculative fiction is a significant genre in our culture because it can be a
sophisticated mode of storytelling characterised by stylistic playfulness, selfreflexiveness, and a subversive treatment of established orders of society and
thought.”
Is this an accurate function of the speculative fiction genre? What perspective
do the composers you have studied have on the society that is the context of
their texts?
You should refer to at least TWO of the prescribed texts, and other related
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 36 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
texts of your own choosing.
9. How does the hero in the speculative fiction genre, enlarge the potential of the
narrative?
Analyse the role of the hero in the narrative of at least TWO of the prescribed
texts, and other related texts of your own choosing.
10. “We take speculative fiction too seriously. This is not Tolstoy. Speculative
fiction is written by people who want to entertain and make money.
Speculative fiction is forgettable; one good twist is all you need.”
To what extent do you agree?
You should refer to at least TWO of the prescribed texts, and other related
texts of your own choosing.
11. While the conventions of a particular genre may be clearly identified, a
successful composer of this genre will always adapt them to the cultural and
social values operating in society at a particular time or place.
Discuss this viewpoint in relation to the genre you have studied.
You should refer to at least TWO of the prescribed texts, and other related
texts of your own choosing.
12. “Genres are categories set up by the interaction of textual features and
reading practices, which shape and limit the meanings readers can make with
a text.”
To what extent is your reading and viewing of at least TWO of the prescribed
texts and other texts of your own choosing ‘shaped’ or ‘limited’ by the
expectations of the speculative fiction genre?
13. “The characters in speculative fiction texts limit the capacity for the genre to lift
above the popular, predictable and mundane.”
Examine this viewpoint in relation to your understanding of the speculative
fiction genre.
You should refer to at least TWO of the prescribed texts, and other related
texts of your own choosing.
14. “A good speculative fiction text will work on three main levels; the creation of
an effective imaginary world, as a critique of society and as an account of
character.”
Examine the relative importance of these three elements in at least TWO of
your prescribed texts, and other related texts of your own choosing.
15. “Speculative fiction has had as a common thread, disquiet about human
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 37 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
societies and where they are headed.”
Do you agree?
You should refer to at least TWO of the prescribed texts, and other related
texts of your own choosing.
16. “Works within a given genre frequently include some re-evaluations and
revisions of its conventions.”
Examine this viewpoint in relation to your understanding of the speculative
fiction genre.
You should refer to at least TWO of the prescribed texts, and other related
texts of your own choosing.
17. The obtaining, maintaining and use of power is at the heart of speculative
fiction.
Do you agree?
You should refer to at least TWO of the prescribed texts, and other related
texts of your own choosing.
18. You are trying to interest a publisher in a text that you have composed in the
genre you have studied for this Module. The setting is an imaginary place in
2050.
Write a letter, of approximately 750 words, to the publisher providing details of
your text. You may include aspects such as purpose, audience, context,
setting, characters, style and structure.
Attach to your letter an excerpt from your text that you hope will interest the
publisher in your work reflecting some of the elements that you have outlined
in your letter.
19. Imagine that you have composed a speculative fiction text. Write an important
scene that occurs involving two characters within your text.
Before you begin briefly:

explain the importance of the scene to the text as a whole

outline the nature and role of the characters

outline the characters’ relationship to each other (if any).
You may choose to write this as a dialogue or as a script.
20. The key to an effective text in any genre must be in the opening—where the
scene is set, the narrative begun or the issue raised.
Write the opening to a piece in your genre, taking care to ensure the elements
critical for that genre are evident.
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 38 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
21. Write a transcript of a radio discussion between any TWO composers studied.
At least ONE must be the composer of a prescribed text.
The topic for discussion is:
“We can only speculate if speculative fiction has a future with modern
audiences.”
22. You have been asked to organise, for a radio broadcast, a discussion of the
literary value of speculative fiction. Write a radio transcript of the discussion
between two people with different views on the value of the genre.
You should refer to at least TWO of the prescribed texts, and other related
texts of your own choosing.
23. Create contrasting openings for a single speculative fiction story. The
difference may be in the mode, the composer’s broader purpose, the style, the
point of view or some other significant element of composition.
24. Describe a speculative fiction scene in intimate detail. It should be a setting
without reference to characters, although there may be people within the
setting.
“Setting: In the discussion of fiction, the term ‘setting’ may refer to descriptions
of localities, landscapes, and interiors. ‘Setting’ may, however, refer to a period
as well as to a place, and to social convention; it may sometimes have
symbolic function. ‘Setting’ may express (directly or indirectly) the main
concerns of the work of fiction.” (This definition for ‘setting’ was provided in a
past HSC paper.)
25. Compose an aspect of a speculative fiction text; it may be the beginning, an
end or a moment of significance in the narrative.
You need to compose and then recompose this ‘moment’ using TWO different
writing styles; this may be a narrative, dialogue, script for film or theatre OR
another style of your own choosing.
26. Compose an aspect of a speculative fiction story; it may be the beginning, an
end or a moment of significance in the narrative.
You need to compose and then recompose this ‘moment’ from THREE
different characters’ perspectives.
27. You have determined to take on the role of ‘hero’, but somewhat reluctantly.
You have been given a quest to fulfil or you have determined to challenge your
corrupt society.
Write a letter to a member of your family or to a friend, who will not understand
your acceptance of this role, explaining why you have determined to take this
action.
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 39 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
28. Use or adapt a style from ONE of your prescribed texts set for study to
describe an original speculative scene where your characters are introduced
or developed as you unravel the details of the setting.
29. You are to debate with Richard Lacayo, the author of the following statement
the merits of his views. Yours is a second Time magazine article, as a followup editorial, making reference to at least two of your prescribed texts.
“Literary fiction is all about nuance. Science fiction is an open invitation to
moralising. In a genre that lets you create your own world, who can resist the
temptation merely to blow it all up while shaking a head at what fools these
mortals be?” (Richard Lacayo, “Beware the Gene Genie” a review of Atwood’s
Oryx and the Crake in Time, May 26 2003.)
30. Use the following as the opening to a piece of writing within or about the genre
you have studied:
Sometimes the best weapon is . . .
You may write in any form you choose. (2002 HSC)
Appendix A: Bill Hunt, www.thedigitalbits.com/reviews2/lotrfellowship4discb.html
(Accessed July 2003)
The other aspect of the discourse of film includes all the other ways that a film
presents a story to you: camera angles, camera movement, close-ups, music, etc. To
support your study of these aspects of the film, examine the special features of the
extended edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings. This is an
edited version of Bill Hunt’s review of the Extended DVD version of the film,
emphasising the filmic elements that are relevant to your study of this text.
“Disc Three and Disc Four are together known as The Appendices. These are
designed to serve very much the same function as The Appendices in the original
book. Disc Three specifically deals with the effort to adapt the story and to formulate
a vision for the film that would remain true to Tolkien’s vision for the books. And Disc
Four looks at the process of taking that vision and crafting a film from it.
“There is also DVD-ROM material on each disc, including special weblinks.
“Disc Three: The Appendices, Part I: From Book to Vision. The first major piece on
this disc is an in-depth look at the historical background of man behind the original
books, called ‘J.R.R. Tolkien: Creator of Middle-earth’. You learn how these stories
came to be, as well as what Tolkien himself intended them to mean and, as
importantly, what he did not intend. It also discusses the basic themes of the books
that will become important to the film adaptation process. In ‘From Book to Script’,
Jackson and others associated with the production recall their motivations behind
bringing these books to the screen, and reveal how much love they have of the
material. Jackson and the writers then talk about the process of ‘cracking the code’ of
the books, and their effort to craft a workable script based on them.
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 40 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
“The disc then takes you into the process of ‘visualising’ the story, in a featurette
specifically on this subject – ‘Storyboards and Pre-Viz: Making Words into Images’.
This section is then illustrated with a trio of storyboard animatic videos (including the
original idea for the prologue), a pair of digitally produced animatic videos for major
action scenes (including the stairs of Khazad-Dum), as well as multi-angle
comparisons between an animatic and a storyboard to the same scenes in the final
film. These illustrate the development process and give you a peek at roads not
taken, but also gave the filmmakers a dramatic feel for the scene. For each multiangle piece, you can switch back and forth on the fly between one angle, the other
and a split-screen comparison of the two. The pre-viz section is rounded out with a
test of the Bag End set design.
“‘Designing Middle-earth’ addresses the effort to conceptualise the look and feel of
each race and character, and to add a sense of history for every item. Long-time
Tolkien artists John Howe and Alan Lee flesh the world out even further than they
already had over the years for the books. Richard Taylor takes you on a tour of the
Weta Workshop, where an army of hundreds of craftsmen and artisans designed and
created nearly every visual element of the film, including the props, sets, armour,
weapons, creatures, miniatures and special make-up effects. The ‘Costume Design’
featurette hints at the massive task of creating the wardrobe elements for the films,
which often included dozens of versions of each of the hero costumes (the hobbits for
example) in various scales of size. You also see how the actors helped to create their
costumes, which in turn aided them in developing their characters. Finally, this
section features some nineteen separate design galleries packed with sketches,
paintings and photographs that illustrate both the peoples and realms of Middleearth. You can view these as a slideshow, or you can page through a scrapbook and
view them one at a time. There are literally hundreds of images to see.
“Disc Three is rounded out with a pair of interactive maps, to help you understand the
geography of the film. ‘The Middle-earth Atlas’ follows the journey that the Fellowship
takes in the film. ‘New Zealand as Middle-earth’ allows you to see where in the “real
world” each film location was shot, and includes viewable location scouting video for
each place.
“Disc Four: The Appendices, Part II: From Vision to Reality, you’re provided with a
trio of behind-the-scenes at the production. ‘The Fellowship of the Cast’ documentary
is entertaining. ‘A Day in the Life of the Hobbit’ is a look at a typical day of filming,
from getting feet glued on early in the morning to getting them taken off late at night.
‘Cameras in Middle-earth’ follows the production from location to location and back
through the soundstages and sets. It provides a taste of the massive effort required
to capture the story on film. This section also includes a gallery of behind-the-scenes
production photos.
“The next section on Disc Four relates to the visual effects of the film. There is a
featurette on ‘Scale’, in which you see how the filmmakers developed the various
tricks that allowed them to make Hobbits look like Hobbits ... and everyone else look
much taller and bigger. Some are practical tricks, some are perspective tricks and
more are digital. All of them are pretty amazing. There is a sub-section here on the
‘miniatures’ created for the film, which includes a featurette look at their creation,
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 41 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au
‘Big-atures’ (so called because there wasn’t anything ‘miniature’ about them), as well
as six galleries of close-up photos of each model. There’s a 25-minute featurette on
the amazing CGI effects work of Weta Digital.
“The post-production section of the disc begins with a featurette on the editing
process, ‘Editorial: Assembling an Epic’. There’s also a multi-angle demonstration of
the Council of Elrond scene, showing how it was assembled from all of the footage
shot on set (seven angles worth in all, combining some 36 takes). And the ‘Digital
Grading’ featurette shows how nearly all of the location and live-action footage was
enhanced, using colour-timing and adding a variety of lighting effects, to change the
weather, make the footage match and create a more ethereal, other-worldly look to
the final film.
The final major section of the disc focuses on the sound and music work done in
post-production. ‘The Soundscapes of Middle-earth’ featurette looks at the behindthe-scenes on the creation of various sound effects and the mixing process. ‘Music
for Middle-earth’ highlights the work of composer Howard Shore.
NSW Department of Education and Training
Curriculum K-12 Directorate
October 2003
Page 42 of 42
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au