Whether it's through fire-breathing dragons, time travel, psychic powers, or spaceships that sail effortlessly between distant stars, there's never been a shortage of tropes in fantasy or science fiction stories that challenge our belief of what's possible. Yet while fantasy and science fiction authors are great at imagining new forms of magic and technology, authors aren't so good at imagining different political systems. Indeed, for the most part, they fall back on the same old political or economic systems: for fantasy, we have our usual monarchies and empires, kings and queens, nobles and commoners. For sci-fi, the future is often bleak, dominated by hyper-capitalist corporate galactic warfare or techno-bureaucratic empires clinging to power on their newly-annexed planets.
As a fantasy author myself, I'm intrigued as to how writers' imagination hit a wall when imagining political alternatives. I am reminded of the oft-quoted remark from literary theorist Frederic Jameson, who quipped that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine the end of capitalism.
In my first novel, an epic fantasy story entitled "The Spirit of a Rising Sun," I tried to challenge this myopia around political and economic systems in fantasy; in doing so, I spent a lot of time pondering the politics and economics that feature so heavily in some of our most cherished stories, and trying to understand why it's so hard for writers to think outside the political box.
Certainly, there are key works in science fiction that push us to consider non-capitalist futures. Ursula K. LeGuin's 1974 book, "The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia," is exemplary in this regard. In the book, we travel alongside our hero and physicist Shevek, who hails from a planet governed by anarcho-syndicalist principles: political and economic equality, working-class self-management, equality between genders, and a voluntarist orientation toward social life. Although his is a planet of relative material poverty, we nonetheless see how these principles inform his own worldview, including his disdain for inequality in all its guises. Shevek travels to rival system Urras, where inhabitants practice a form of state capitalism that is rife with the usual inequities.
Class conflict, income inequality, and the recurring question of how society ought to be organized are at the heart of not only "The Dispossessed," but much of LeGuin's corpus.
More recently, the popular sci-fi novel series turned Amazon show "The Expanse" pushes the politics of sci-fi in critical directions. In the not so distant future, the solar system is divided into three opposed camps: Earth, Mars, and the Belters. The Belters are those who are confined to mining asteroids in the Asteroid Belt for precious resources that support the populations of Earth and Mars. While the Belters in recent seasons pursue their own freedom through extraordinarily violent means aimed at destroying countless civilian lives on Earth, their inclusion in the story nevertheless points towards the willingness in science fiction to explicitly represent the working classes. It's an interesting contrast to, say, "Star Wars," where the question of what is produced, by whom, and how it is distributed is not discussed at all. Where did Luke and Leia get their food from? Whose labor-time was expended while mining the minerals for not one but two Death Stars? How did the Rebel Alliance obtain the energy to power their X-wings? Though such questions are often addressed in the deeper roots of lore, I typically find myself asking these sorts of questions at the outset.
RELATED:On its final run, "The Expanse" serves a last supper for we who continue fighting for our humanity
While the futuristic orientation of science fiction lends the genre an easy ability to reimagine the politics and economics of tomorrow, major works in fantasy rarely seem to challenge the social systems of the path. "Game of Thrones," for example, only ever flirts with alternative forms of political organization notably, with the Brotherhood without Banners, whom we see only in glimpses.
The Brotherhood was essentially a guerrilla group that opposed kings on all sides of the ongoing conflict, claiming to fight instead for the common people. Elsewhere, a poor religious leader called the High Sparrow challenges Olenna Tyrell, the matriarch of the rich and powerful House Tyrell that rules over Highgarden, by insisting the law applies equally to both low and high-born alike. He then pointedly asks her if she has ever performed manual labor before, before then posing to her the question of what should happen if the many cease to fear the few. This was a rare moment for "Game of Thrones," in that this bit of dialogue hinted at deeply-buried class divisions between manual laborers and aristocrats in the GoT universe.
Likewise, in one humorous scene of "Game of Thrones," the poor wildling woman Osha, whose home was with the Free Folk, or who recognize none of the kings or kingdoms of Westeros, challenges and annoys the noble-born Theon Greyjoy when he demands she address him with honorifics. Her brief moment of questioning threatens the ideological foundations of the entire feudal order, something the show did not take up in more depth.
Yet the heroes of this universe show time and time again that they are incapable of fully imagining an alternative world to their feudal order. In perhaps the story's gravest misfire, even our hero-turned-villain Daenerys Targaryen, for all her efforts in breaking the chains of the old world to usher in the new, can still only ever envision a world in she is installed atop the Iron Throne, rather than a world without monarchs at all. In the show's final episode, as those who survived Dany's burning of King's Landing aim to rebuild society, Sam's meek suggestion of extending democracy to everyone regardless of noble birth is laughed out of consideration.
Given that so much of our popular fantasy and science fiction stories (but certainly not allI can't read everything!) rarely seem to introduce new political or economic systems, I wanted in my own story to showcase a different sort of arrangement. The story's hero, a young woman named Oyza Serazar, is indeed drawn to the possibility of such a world. Captured when she was young after her city is attacked by gun-wielding overseas invaders from a place called Hafrir, she was forced into a life of servitude before being thrown indefinitely into prison. But there, she reads a forbidden book she managed to smuggle in, one that calls into the question the divine authority of monarchs and the power the nobility, claiming the commoners ought to instead collectively manage society's productive tools in their own interests. At the same time, she's heard rumors of a mysterious new collectivity calling themselves Ungoverned, deep in the swamps outside the ruins of her old city. Trapped in prison, Oyza can thus only ponder if the Ungoverned are real, if they practice the teachings of the book she loves, and if she might one day break free to find them.
Whether I succeeded or not remains an open question, but I do think there is much more room for writers of fantasy and science fiction to conjure up worlds that defy the politics and economics of our own world. Socialist writers, anarchist writers, and communist writers are well-positioned to think differently about some of the most basic and everyday practices of life under capitalism. Why, in the science fictional future, is there always banking, money, markets, finance, wage-labor, corporations, inequality? Why, in the fantastical past, can we not see beyond monarchs, emperors, and kingdoms? Is it possible, furthermore, to not just imagine fictional worlds differently, but the very world we ourselves live in?
If there is anything that fantasy and science fiction writers can contribute to popular discussions about how to remedy the ills of our present historical conjuncture, it ought to be through the constant reminder that the new problems we face may never find their solutions within the confines of the old. Does capitalism, for example, provide us with the tools to solve a complex problem like climate change? If the history of capitalism is any indication about its future, the answer is resoundingly no. I thus recently find myself thinking more and more about an old slogan on the left that nonetheless remains powerful to this day: "another world is possible."
Read more on sci-fi and fantasy politics:
The rest is here:
Why can't sci-fi and fantasy imagine alternatives to capitalism or feudalism? - Salon
- Pagani's New Utopia Is an Ode to Old-School Hypercars With a V-12 and Manual Transmission - Yahoo Canada Shine On - April 20th, 2024 [April 20th, 2024]
- Book Review: Tripping on Utopia, by Benjamin Breen - The New York Times - January 30th, 2024 [January 30th, 2024]
- Cynthia Erivo's Stark New Film Is Already More Relevant Than She ... - Vanity Fair - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- Why Travis Scott's Utopia is the Album of the Year - Hamilton County Reporter - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- Vampire Empire and the Toxicity of Leak Culture - 34th Street Magazine - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- Artist Melissa Joseph Uses an Unsung MediumFeltto Explore ... - Cultured Magazine - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- Customizable Bathroom Fittings With Re-Purposed and Crystal ... - ArchDaily - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- The grouse, the gamekeepers and the ethics of the shoot - Financial Times - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- I sort of flippantly say: 'All guitars sound the same and go for ... - Guitar World - October 18th, 2023 [October 18th, 2023]
- How MJM Marine is helping to create a cruise utopia - Cruise and Ferry - October 13th, 2023 [October 13th, 2023]
- Everything You Need to Know About the Solar Eclipse in Central ... - Austin Monthly - October 13th, 2023 [October 13th, 2023]
- Explore Programming for the Inaugural SXSW Sydney: Oct 15-22 - sxsw.com - October 13th, 2023 [October 13th, 2023]
- The Daily Heller: The Art of Invented Scripts, Meaning Optional - PRINT Magazine - October 13th, 2023 [October 13th, 2023]
- Andrea Branzi, visionary architect and designer, 19382023 - ArtReview - October 13th, 2023 [October 13th, 2023]
- Female hotel manager handed a 33 per cent pay cut during Covid ... - People Management Magazine - October 13th, 2023 [October 13th, 2023]
- NAPALM DEATH's SHANE EMBURY Talks New Book And Life In ... - BLABBERMOUTH.NET - October 13th, 2023 [October 13th, 2023]
- A Step-by-Step Guide To British Airways' 49-Year Livery Evolution - Simple Flying - October 13th, 2023 [October 13th, 2023]
- How Constructed Languages Help People Find Community - The New York Times - October 13th, 2023 [October 13th, 2023]
- Royal Caribbean Wows Cruisers With Short Beach Cruise Vacations - Wealth Of Geeks - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- The Graham and Brown wallpaper of the year 2024 is revealed - Ideal Home - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- Museum Curators Evaluate A.I. Threat by Giving It the Reins - The New York Times - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- The Media Store: Does the growth of AI signal utopia or dystopia for ... - Marketing magazine Australia - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- MIPCOM Cannes to host world premiere screening of Concordia - Prensario Internacional - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- The Best New Cruise Ships Coming in 2024 - Cruise Critic - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- Bioshock: 10 Pieces of Important Lore New Players Need to Know - CBR - Comic Book Resources - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- 8 Best Bagels in New York City - Eat This, Not That - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- Luxon doubles down on bed tax opposition | Crux - Local News ... - Crux News - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- Indie Film: Midcoast film festival keeps building on an impressive ... - Press Herald - September 11th, 2023 [September 11th, 2023]
- Dangerous visions: How the quest for utopia could lead to catastrophe - Salon - July 29th, 2023 [July 29th, 2023]
- Travis Scott Spends the Day in NYC Amid the Release of His New ... - Just Jared - July 29th, 2023 [July 29th, 2023]
- The 5 Best New TV Shows of July 2023 - TIME - July 29th, 2023 [July 29th, 2023]
- The influence of Kanye West's 'Yeezus' is clear as day on Travis ... - Yahoo Lifestyle UK - July 29th, 2023 [July 29th, 2023]
- How Utopia shaped the world - BBC Culture - December 28th, 2022 [December 28th, 2022]
- Dystopia - Wikipedia - December 21st, 2022 [December 21st, 2022]
- 17th Amendment Weakened Balance of Power Between States, Federal Government - Heritage.org - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Games Of Thrones EP Frank Doelger To Helm Surveillance Thriller Series Concordia For ZDF, MBC, France Tlvisions and Hulu Japan - Deadline - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- How Mao's Cultural Revolution Made War On The Private Mind - The Federalist - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- The Russian musical instrument that infiltrated pop culture and aided espionage - Far Out Magazine - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- The Handmaid's Tale: What Is New Bethlehem? Map & Theories - Post Apocalyptic Media - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Wrtsil Oyj : Five ways the Wrtsil 46TS-DF helps you decarbonise now and in the future - Marketscreener.com - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Ditching tech is the new tech fad - Rest of World - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Martin Scorsese feels that box office obsession is "insulting" to cinema - Yahoo Entertainment - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- X-Men Monday #175 - X Me Anything With the X-Office AIPT - AIPT - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- The Difference Between A Supercar And A Hypercar - SlashGear - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- The Spanish government reactivates the tunnel project to link Morocco with Spain - Atalayar - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Why the Wing, a once buzzy womens coworking startup, shut down - Fortune - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- World's first zero-energy cruise terminal to be opened at Port of Galveston - Offshore Energy - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Letters to the editor: On baroclinic instability - Las Cruces Sun-News - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Why autumn is the new glamping season | Travel | The Sunday Times - The Times - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- The East Is ... White? Xi Jinping Is A Cracker? - The American Conservative - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Winter Wonderland Vacations- Places You Have To Visit This Year - msnNOW - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- A new series immerses us in Russias 90s trauma and the human cost of economic shock - The Guardian - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Why the communal utopia was hard work for its children - Aeon - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- The Best and Coolest New Gadgets of September 2022 - Gear Patrol - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Here's a list of pumpkin patches in and around Austin - Austin American-Statesman - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- As time for meaningless jobs comes to an end, reinvent to stay relevant - The New Indian Express - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Layered subsurface in Utopia Basin of Mars revealed by Zhurong rover radar - Nature.com - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- Conductor is in trouble with his name, and his no-names - Slippedisc - Slipped Disc - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- Deepak Chopra & Seva.Love Announce "ChopraVerse: House of Enlightenment," the Metaverse for Wellbeing in Collaboration with Utopia -... - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- New this week: 'Reasonable Doubt,' 'Blonde' and Bjrk - Star Tribune - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- New movie releases this weekend - ABC4.com - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- Utopia In The Desert - Cowboys and Indians Magazine - Cowboys & Indians Magazine - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- Fascism from Italy to Hibbing and back again - Minnesota Reformer - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- EDITORIAL: Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal a proper model of justice | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis - - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- Nexi S p A : September 26th 2022 Nexi and Global Blue sign a strategic partnership to provide frictionless omnichannel payment experience for the... - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- Pagani thumbs its nose at electrification, unveiling all-new V12 Utopia - September 15th, 2022 [September 15th, 2022]
- Paganis New Utopia Is an Ode to Old-School Hypercars With a V-12 and Manual Transmission - Robb Report - September 15th, 2022 [September 15th, 2022]
- Whats That Shiny New Marketing Toy Youve Got There? || Googles Out Of Home Ads - Legal Talk Network - September 15th, 2022 [September 15th, 2022]
- The future of New England Republicanism is... - POLITICO - September 15th, 2022 [September 15th, 2022]
- Disney continues to botch their animated classics with Pinocchio - Shield - September 15th, 2022 [September 15th, 2022]
- Inside the Experimental Town That King Charles III Created - VICE - September 15th, 2022 [September 15th, 2022]
- Ian Cheng imagines a world where the internet inhabits our nervous systems - Dazed - September 15th, 2022 [September 15th, 2022]
- The aura of Shakers, the influencers of good design - Domus - September 15th, 2022 [September 15th, 2022]
- Utopia Revisited: Residents Reunite to Share Stories of 12th Street Childhood - Jewish Exponent - September 7th, 2022 [September 7th, 2022]
- 'Wonder' Playlist: The sounds that inspired our new issue - RUSSH - September 7th, 2022 [September 7th, 2022]
- "This Building Belongs to the People": Cape Verde's New Centre for Art, Crafts and Design - ArchDaily - September 7th, 2022 [September 7th, 2022]
- Bjrk Parties at a Mushroom Rave in Video for New Song Atopos: Watch - Pitchfork - September 7th, 2022 [September 7th, 2022]
- The girlbosses who girlbossed too close to the sun: The demise of womens utopia The Wing was long overdue - The Independent - September 7th, 2022 [September 7th, 2022]
- Technology Is the Only Thing That Can Potentially Save Us: A Conversation with Brad DeLong - Observer - September 7th, 2022 [September 7th, 2022]
- Cant We Come Up with Something Better Than Liberal Democracy? - The New Yorker - September 7th, 2022 [September 7th, 2022]