It was reported that as the first wave of COVID-19 hit Europe, those bound for lockdown scooped up classic “pandemic literature” like Daniel DeFoe’s “Journal of the Plague Year” and even the nonfiction books from the last 10 years that spelled out where we could be going, such as Richard Preston’s “The Hot Zone.” As further waves hit, avid readers are apparently scooping up all the science fiction from the shelves they can.
Science fiction as a genre is not generally respected among scholars of literature. However, it has continued to grow in scope and importance as writers like Margaret Atwood (although her works are in the subgenre “speculative fiction”) garner major awards and new writers like N.K. Jemisin sweep the gamut of sci-fi honors with entire series of books. Most importantly, the female writers of science fiction continue to gain steam and acclaim (such as Ursula K. Le Guin and Octavia Butler, to name but a few).
Science fiction is absolutely important in literature for a single reason: through its creation of alternate realities in different points of time, readers are attracted to what mirrors where we are today. In that valiant search for the future, science fiction teaches us how to handle the present.
Hard sci-fi, as it is known, proves to be the most difficult. Authors like Isaac Asimov conjure these brilliant visions of universes, planets, travel and general life that are vivid and sometimes truthful (he saw gadgets as making our lives more convenient, cars getting smart enough to drive themselves and a world where we could communicate freely via video and audio). Arthur C. Clarke in “2001: A Space Odyssey” wisely predicted that the command ship would need to “slingshot” around Jupiter, using its gravity to travel to Saturn.
However, as much as science fiction strives to simply become “science,” their storytelling is often outmatched. William Gibson created an entire world as frightening and foreboding as you walk down a dark alley in “Neuromancer.” Philip K. Dick did one better by introducing technology into the world we occupy and showing how it changes us, often for the worse.
To me, Dick is the best “entrance” writer to sci-fi. An extremely industrious wordsmith, his short stories and novels all carry his unique voice, and he seems to erect characters with ease. Unlike the “cyberpunk” multiverse Gibson builds in “Neuromancer,” Dick’s locales always feel somewhat local. In the fascinating “UBIK,” he speaks to a variety of trends, first and foremost being that we as humans lead “half-lives” where we strive to do everything we can to reach the pinnacle – but when we come up short, we simply fade into the background.
In “The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch,” colonists on a newly settled planet begin using an enhancement drug to make their “virtual” life on the layout of a game more realistic. As the intrepid travelers have realized their life on this new planet will not differ from the old, a cult-like atmosphere emerges. Written in 1965, Dick saw the writing on the wall about a number of social behaviors. Twelve years later, “A Scanner Darkly,” quite possibly his masterwork, portends a grim existence in our modern world where drugs exist, but it is the loss of identity that surrounds them (either as a part of the community or a part of the community trying to stop the use and abuse). This was his most deeply personal work and was largely misunderstood for almost 20 years. In the irony-heavy and snark-driven ‘90s, the story resonated where reality was slowly warping to everyone involved who lost who they were no matter what material or knowledge they ingested.
In the works of Philip K. Dick, turnabout is truly fair play. While that sounds reductive, that discovery that the world is not against you as much as your fellow human is a vital part of all literature. Science fiction is just assigned the tough task of creating an entirely new world where most authors are busy digging in their memory banks to tell a story. Finally, add to that how you rarely immediately identify with a space traveler, but when that person is pitted against far larger forces, they struggle to talk themselves up and summon the fortitude by taking that necessary glimpse in the mirror to reveal that it has been us all along.
NEW MUSIC
COLDPLAY
“Christmas Lights” [7” VINYL]
(Parlophone)
New for Christmas 2020, this Coldplay original celebrates its 10th anniversary with a special limited edition pressing. While billed as “a mid-tempo holiday song,” the season needs a bit of introspection, and Coldplay thankfully provides it.
KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD
“KG”
[LP/CD] (Flightless)
With their third album of 2020, King Gizzard seals their greatness. “KG” is King Gizzard’s quarantine album with the members recording their parts in different places and times. However, their cohesion and the sense of how to construct songs comes so naturally to them, you wouldn’t know it was them in five places or just crammed into a studio. The quarter-note jam “Honey” deserves to be their breakthrough hit.
BTS
Be [GIANT CD BOX]
(Big Hit Entertainment)
Let’s talk about BTS. In the year that is 2020, we have dealt with an inordinate amount of chaos, unrest, discomfort and general dissatisfaction. In a normal year under the usual circumstances, this saccharine feast of ego-free pop would only sail in a certain demographic.
However, in the year that was, KPOP has been kind of a blessing. You may not know the members, but you should know that every chance they had to appear on the unsorted mess that TV is right now, they took it and were genuine (see “Carpool Karaoke”).
Their fans are fiercely loyal. They play the songs over and over again to help push them up the charts. “Dynamite” debuted at number one and literally smashed all records (3.4 million preorders for “Be” alone). From a business standpoint, BTS accounts for $4.3 billion of South Korea’s economy (0.3% of their GDP), and it is listed that 1 in 13 tourists was visiting the nation because of BTS.
The brand-new album is eight songs that they say the pandemic allowed them to fully focus on.
Mik Davis is the record store manager at T-Bones Records & Café in Hattiesburg.
