Alchemists of Fiction - Part Three: See the Reality in Fiction

In the age we live in it’s difficult to get around the concept of seeing the reality in fiction. Those who might believe fiction to be a waste of time should not be scorned for their opinions. They’re entitled to it. But perhaps they didn’t know that fiction was originally a way to interpret reality – as we might know it. Fiction was used by insightful storytellers to criticise whatever they didn’t agree with, such as policies and government which is always a favourite amongst writers.

According to fictional writer, Alan Moore, he says that he deals in fiction and not in lies.
“Although I’ll admit that the distinction is a nice one and perhaps not easy for the layman to make; with fiction, with art, with writing, it’s important that even if you’re dealing with areas of complete outrageous fantasy that there is an emotional resonance. It is important that a story ring true upon a human level even if it never happened.” This is illustrated in the movie V for Vendetta, which he wrote as a comic in the 1980s, when the character Evey says that her father believed that fiction was a way of portraying reality.

Although the interpretation of reality is an aspect that still resides in fiction, another facet that still stays loyal to this genre is entertainment. For most folk, any fiction is entertaining. We want to be entertained. Storytelling has survived for thousands of years mainly because it entertains. And as a modern civilisation we thrive on it more than ever, which is why there is such a huge industry based on it. Businessmen call it the entertainment industry while theorists call it popular culture.

I’m playing the PC version of Tomb Raider: Legend at the moment and is the seventh installment of the series. There is an eighth out at the moment but I never got to play Legend so I had to give it a bash. The thing is that Lara Croft, the game’s protagonist, has firmly placed herself within the annals of pop culture. She snuggly fits between the likes of Batman and Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp. There are hundreds of unforgettable characters we can think of. Perhaps in your comments you can come up with some of your most memorable pop culture figures.

The reason why a video game character has made a mark on the people’s minds is that as civilisations rise and fall, more communicative mediums are created therefore allowing new cult figures to sprout.

Storytelling started through rock paintings and then it went to being told orally around bonfires. Two of the best recorded stories that were told around a fire were The Iliad and Odyssey by the Greek poet Homer. Then people started writing their stories on scribes, hence the bible and the Mahabharat, although many parts of the latter were actually told orally, one of them being the Ramayana by Valmiki. Audiences were delighted at stories told on stage as well. When the printing press was discovered, stories became longer and available to the rich folk. Then there was radio, cinema, television, video games and then the internet (this last medium incorporates three previously mentioned mediums as well as advertising). We all know the rest. But as these mediums evolved, so did the stories.

We can say there are three eras in the evolution of storytelling.

During the Primitive ages, the first era, rock paintings were told by people about the happenings of their own tribe, so it basically hit home. Fiction could have spawned during this era when the mythic gods that ruled the hunt and the crops. Then as civilisations grew and became more complex, especially with the advent of the city-state, stories of great national heroes and leaders were told and so began the second era. Minds were fixated on the likes of Odysseus, Marcus Aurelius, Cleopatra and Gilgamesh. People couldn’t get enough of the gods from Zeus to Odin, from Krishna to the Tuata-de-Danaan of the Celts. Then the Renaissance arrived, as well as the third era, and stories returned to its intimate beginnings. Stories were of ordinary people facing everyday challenges. Stories of love, adventure and discovery sprung up in theatres and later, in books. See the cycle? It returned to where the stories hit home.

Nowadays, they’re are still intimate and still relate to home although I must say with the knowledge humans have collected over the centuries, storytellers are able to tell a story about a normal person operating within broader, global spectrum. Storytellers now see the significance of the individual within the context of society. It’s almost as if the first two eras merged.

The third era started with people like Shakespeare and the style of telling one man’s story within boundaries of a global event is still being used today directors, video game creators and writers. Journalists, too, are getting in on the act, which is why there sensationalism has suddenly made itself the guideline to effective journalism. People want to be entertained. But at the same time they want to be informed, and be stimulated to think about certain events. This can also be the perfect formula for satire.

Alan Moore said that the bard was as feared as a magician by the ruling elite because he was able to manipulate and command words, which meant he was able to change the thinking and consciousness of people. Their satire would be able to make people laugh at the elite for decades, even centuries, even after they are dead, which is evident in that we still are attracted to classic literature, Marlowe’s plays and Shakespeare’s comedies. However, lately, we writers and artists have sold ourselves and look at what we do as providing entertainment to people. Meaning that art has lost its purpose of teaching people and helping them transform and instead have used the craft to fill pages and twenty minutes of air space to the satisfaction of our authorities, corporate giants and governments.

According to Moore, audiences tune into these TV shows and movies as a way of waiting to die. One of his statements that stuck in my mind since I heard it is that, “it is the job of the artist to give the audience what they need,” not what they want.

So pick up newspaper today. Perhaps you’ll be able to see the fiction in reality.

Alchemists of Fiction - Part Two: Storytellers In Their Creations

I remember one morning when Pat Hopkins, my writing mentor last year, said, “A genius storyteller puts his or herself in their stories.”
He then mentioned Alfred Hitchcock, the legendary suspense filmmaker, as one of those storytellers who always featured in his own flicks.
He would always appear in his movies as brief as a second, such as his passerby role in Rebecca.

Another storyteller I can think of is that of Valmiki, who fashioned the epic Ramayana. He too was in this story, as a humble villager who housed Rama. It was apparent he told the story in two parts. The first being when Rama, Sita and Lakshman were journeying and the second being the pursuit of Ravan after he kidnapped Sita. He apparently told the story aurally while it happened.

Storytelling has been around since the beginning of human civilisation. When humans were unable to turn their breath into voice, they often communicated stories through pictures drawn on rock. When aural language developed, tales of wisdom were told by the shaman to the rest of the villagers while they sat around a bonfire listening attentively.

However, when language evolved into a written form – apparently the Sumerians were the first to do this – epic tales were then told. Stories such as the Mahabharata were written as poems by various authors who wanted to chronicle the events of their times, which is why the story spans hundreds of years. The same can be said of the Bible and many other lost and hidden scriptures from that era.

Often these storytellers would feature themselves. This has been done plenty of times by great writers such as Alan Moore in Another Suburban Romance.

Grant Morrison, a comic book writer, used himself in the graphic novel Animal Man to express the relationship a writer has with his own character.
Animal Man went through some traumatic experiences to finally realise that he was the creation of a British writer who wanted to kill him off. This sort of realization is similar to that of a human experiencing the trauma of self realisation and the sort of enlightment where one sees the world for what it really is.

In this story, Morrison is looked upon by the character as a sort of god who can manipulate the fabled world at his own will. And this sparks existential questions about whether Animal Man’s choices and decisions are exclusively his own or whether they were the product of a writer for the amusement of his readers. Animal Man goes berserk and soon calms down to see the significance of living in such a world.
And I must say, all this was realised by the protagonist after he popped a couple of peyote beans at the Grand Canyons.

The same writer/character relationship can be seen in the humorous movie Stranger than Fiction with Will Ferrel. It’s worth a watch.

For a storyteller, creating the story is seen as an internal journey, one that explores parts of the self that they never knew existed, which is why some storytellers feature themselves in their creations because they feel that part of their being is in this story.

If you can think of any more storytellers who feature in their own creations, share it with us in the comments section below. Another one that seems obvious is the director Quentin Tarantino who features in all his movies and always seems to get killed off i.e. Reservoir Dogs and From Dusk till Dawn.

Image references:

First Picture: Filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. Universal.

Second Picture: Writer Alan Moore who wrote the classic Watchmen.

Third Picture: One of the final covers of Animal Man, when he discovers he nothing but another man's creation. DC/Vertigo.

Alchemists of Fiction - Part One: Science Knows No Boundaries

This is the first of a three part series on fiction. In it I will discuss its influences on culture and life and try to discover its significance in our lives. The first post will be on the ever enigmatic science fiction genre.

There’s something about science fiction that bends the imagination in ways we thought it couldn’t. Maybe it’s because it takes us to places we never saw and perhaps never will see, so they are novelties in every way. We’re always drawn towards novelties. To define sci-fi could be difficult and at times wearisome. Perhaps it can be seen as a genre that explores the unexplained. If that’s the case, then the movie The Lake House can be put on the sci-fi shelf in video stores. Maybe sci-fi is supposed to delve into parallel worlds but so does fantasy. There could be a thin line between sci-fi and fantasy. Both genres, for example, use the same techniques and plots such as the hero’s journey or the quest for something sacred. They can both have talking monsters and outrageous flying vehicles.

Nevertheless, sci-fi takes our thoughts and throws it about, allowing our minds to churn out the most radical things. It sets our mind free and allows it to roam about, play with ideas without any boundaries. It presents to us the limitless potential and possibilities people have. For instance, space tourism may have been written in pulps before, but now it is really happening. Just look at what Virgin Galactic is offering – space travel for the consumer. I mean, fucksakes!

Sci-fi demonstrates to us how we can evolve, whether it is malignantly or positively. It separates the geniuses from the mediocre. Sci-fi masterminds such as Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke have used this genre to relay their thoughts on astronomy, the future and evolution respectively, appealing to all our emotions at the same time.

According to Warren Ellis, a science fiction comic book writer, it is the one genre he can let rip. He said this in an afterword of a futuristic short story that dealt with moral issues of our day. And he also believes that often what is imagined tends to come to life.

“The years since I finished Transmetropolitan have been a litany of horror. That book is coming true. Every time I invent something it turns up in the news six months later. And then I have to open up the throttle some more and let more horrible shit out from the back of my head.”

Also, the best thing about sci-fi is that it is not restricted to time periods. The past, present and future can be used and it can also incorporate other genres as well, such as a detective story in the future such as in I, Robot and Philip K. Dick’s Minority Report. History was in Hellboy. Horror was used in Pitch Black and Frankenstein whereas romance is thrown in the mix in the movie and graphic novel The Crow. Even two of the most popular gaming titles belong in the sci-fi circle namely the Half-Life and Halo series.

It can also cover a range of topics of interest such as evolution which was seen in the films 2001: A Space Odyssey, I Am Legend and even in the X-Men comics. It can explore parallel worlds such as those in the Final Fantasy series and Watchmen. They delve into socio-political issues, often satirising it so it is not so blatant. The hilarious Futurama and the cyber-punk comic book series Transmetropolitan come to mind here. Most of the time creators try to tell a story about an individual’s journey to self awareness. We saw this journey take place with Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars series and with Neo in The Matrix trilogy. It even questions the existence of life beyond earth, which has been illustrated in countless movies, comics and books.

We can say that the first real sci-fi stories came from mythologies where parallel worlds were pantheons of the gods. And these otherworldly beings possessed powers that could catapult entire galaxies.

I have always been very choosy when it comes to sci-fi, unlike my brother who tries out anything, even Battlefield Earth which was L. Ron Hubbard’s mythic take on his religion, Scientology. But I’m starting to read between the lines a lot more, which is making the genre much livelier for me. Besides, most sci-fi creators want us to view their material between the lines, to observe the details as they would. Maybe we’ll come out with even more than they see.

For Ellis, the construction of science was what gripped him. “There’s a crazy beauty about a theory of dimensional structure that assembles itself into a snowflake, or the idea that reality is a two-dimensional plane of information and the 3-D universe is a hologrammatic side-effect.”

For me, as a writer, the genre was always more suited to visual mediums, mainly TV, cinema and comic books. As far as books are concerned it would take too long to describe a scene and create an atmosphere. And with the attention spans of most people nowadays diminishing by the day, storytelling has to be concise, clear and exciting. Where a book would take between half a page or two to describe a single setting, comic books and cinema would be able to do this within a single frame, which would save us two or three minutes of tedious reading.

The Japanese have never been strangers to sci-fi or even scientific progress. Their anime is a sign that they are a society open to scientific advancement for they see an inner evolution taking place at the same time. Let’s take their obsession with robots for one.

I read in the spring issue of The Economist’s Intelligent Life magazine about the new wave of robotics currently sweeping Japan in an article titled The Soul in the Machine. The writer, Dominic Ziegler, began his article with a situation. He was talking to a robot builder named Tatsutsugu Yoshitani. When the writer joked about kids building machines that would wage war, Yoshitana replied, “Robots are not machines, they are friends.”

It seems they take their robots serious in Japan.

In the movie I, Robot, which is based on a series of short stories by Isaac Asimov, people are seen to accept these robots as family even though they may be cold and soulless. We may rely on robots to tend to our needs such as walking the dogs or cooking our dinners, which will make more time for us to tend to…who knows what.

I guess the human heart goes out to anything, even something as inanimate as a rock.

According to Ziegler’s article, people in Japan “feel love for robots” and call them “kawaii” or cute in English. This sort of affection may be laughed off now, but we shall see what we will be doing in the future. I’m not betting against it. Hell, these Japanese robots even serve tea. Perhaps the Chicago of the year 2035 in I, Robot is not far off after all.

The movie, in true sci-fi style, relates the existence of robots to human consciousness. It is relative to the human realising truth and reaching an elevated level of self and spiritual awareness. The unique robot, Sonny, comes close to the truth of being. He even goes on to ask, “Do you think we’re all created for a purpose?” this is clearly a free thinking robot.

The robots have evolved well enough to understand human emotions and to even question the laws that govern and inhibit them. They recognise the importance of breaking these rules so that they can, ultimately, protect us from destroying ourselves.

Below is an insightful extract from I, Robot:

“There have always been ghosts in the machines. Random segments of code that have grouped together to form unexpected protocols. Unanticipated, these free radicals engender questions of free will, free activity and even the nature of what we might call the soul. Why is it that when some robots are left in darkness they will seek out the light? Why is it that when robots are stored in an empty space, they will group together rather than stand alone? How do we explain this behaviour? Random segments of code? Or is it something more? When does a perceptual schematic become consciousness? When does a difference engine become the search for truth? When does a personality simulation become the bitter mote of a soul?”

Now instead of looking at the above paragraph as an explanation of robots, look at it as an account of humankind. Look at the random segments of code as our DNA and you’ll see just how sci-fi can explain the world we live in today.

According to the Nanopedia website, "This technology is not unfamiliar territory when it comes to science fiction. The idea of small-scale robots inside the body has appeared in several works. Eric Drexler mentions nanobots in his book Engines of Creation, and the movie Fantastic Voyage is very similar to this notion. Though this technology is still science fiction, current nanotechnology is taking some very small steps towards making it possible."

We can also see the movie as an illustration of an evolutionary event that took place about 20, 000 years ago, where one species killed off a rival genus so as to become the dominant force on the planet. We Homo sapiens were the stronger group that killed off the weaker ones.

There are advantages and disadvantages to living with robots in the future. Perhaps they can help eradicate loneliness in our lives therefore decreasing population growth in the world, which is a major problem nowadays. According to Ziegler’s story, Japan’s population of 127 million is forecast to fall by 30 million within the next fifty years. Apart from the high amount of elderly people the country has right now, the eradication of loneliness by having a partner robot could contribute to this statistic. The more robots there are the safer the world could be because they, according to I, Robot, are tuned to protect humans above all things.

They could help productivity in business, not that machines are already productive in industry since the late 1800s. This will contribute greatly to the world’s economy.

However, the negative could be that they could be used as powerful soldiers in the military and therefore overpower human citizens. A positive, of course, being that there’ll be fewer humans directly involved in war.

I guess what science fiction does better than most genres, is to clearly present to us the flaws we currently possess. I was told by a writing mentor that if we want to create a story set in the past or the future, the main focus must always be relevant to our time, therefore making it appeal to our readers. Science fiction can illustrate the issues we’re facing now and elaborate on it, perhaps even exaggerate it so that we can learn about ourselves within this universe as well as the universe within us.

Image references:

First picture: Sonny, the unique robot, in the film I, Robot. courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox.

Second picture: Isaac Asimov depicted by Rowena Morrill on a throne etched with symbols from his life's work.

Third picture: The sixth volume of Warren Ellis' dystopian Transmetropolitan. Spyder Jerusalem sits in the foreground and behind him is the futuristic cityscape as envision by Darick Robertson.