  Fantasy
This week: Freedom Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.
- Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can't be any large-scale revolution until there's a personal revolution, on an individual level. It's got to happen inside first.
- Jim Morrison
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
- Benjamin Franklin
War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.
- George Orwell, 1984 |
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Freedom
With the Independence Day observance here in the United States this week, it might be a good time to consider - from the point of view of a fantasy / science fiction writer - the concepts of freedom, liberty and independence.
As we all know, some of the British colonies in the New World fought a bitter war over 200 years ago, ostensibly over these concepts. Throwing off the shackles of monarchy, the colonies united to form what would become the most influential world power. "A Prince," wrote Thomas Jefferson in the US Declaration of Independence, "whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people."
Since that time, bound by common cause, a shared heritage, and a similar language, the US and the UK have become staunch allies, and the cultural exchange between the two countries has only accelerated with the advent of the Internet (and the existence of Doctor Who on television, but that's a whole 'nother editorial).
And when you look at the origins and development of science fiction and fantasy, you can't ignore the contribution of British creators. The first science fiction story was, by many accounts, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; and the stories with the most influence on modern fantasy were written by J.R.R. Tolkien - both English authors.
Science fiction and fantasy are often denounced as being "genre" literature (especially by snobs who write in the literary genre, who we wouldn't have to listen to if we didn't have to take college courses taught by such creatures), dismissed as "escapist." (A quick read of but a few "literary" authors will reveal their own escapist nature, but again, that's a whole 'nother editorial.)
So what do we find in staples of classic fantasy and science fiction stories?
Hint: Not democracies.
Whether the pseudo-feudal setting for high fantasy, or the galactic empires prominently featured in mass science fiction, we rarely see a "government of the people, by the people, for the people," but rather a return to the old ideas of kingship, divine right, and even absolute power. And this doesn't seem to be simply a desire to portray a culture "different" from our own - other, equally historic forms of government are severely underrepresented in both relevant genres.
So what does this all mean? Well, I'm not sure, exactly. I'm an engineer, not a philosopher, and I admit I haven't personally read the works of John Locke or other Renaissance thinkers whose philosophical contributions to the American Revolution are acknowledged.
Freedom, itself, is a slippery concept to me. At its most simple, it's individual liberty; the ability to try to create and fulfill one's own destiny - a concept that permeates both fantasy and science fiction. We see it in the protagonist of most stories, who often upsets a status quo to do what is Right and to carve his or her own path through the world(s). But no man or woman exists alone; he or she is influenced by family, friends, culture, country and history, so can it be said that any of us are truly free? And what does "truly free" mean, anyway? It's pretty basic that freedom does not mean the ability to simply do what one wishes; after all, those wishes may be anathema to another's freedom.
On another level, freedom represents the ability to live as one's culture requires - independent of another, ruling culture's dictates. History is rife with examples of people struggling against the edicts of foreign rule.
Cultural liberty, however, can be at odds with individual liberty. To use a simplistic example, say you want to have a beer, but you live in a culture that forbids alcohol in all forms. We had that situation in the US for some time: Prohibition. There was even a Constitutional amendment about it (which was, finally, repealed; you'd think we'd learn, but we haven't). How does a person reconcile these things?
If you're expecting answers to questions like these, you're going to be disappointed. All I'm doing is throwing these ideas out there. Part of storytelling involves creating tension and, possibly, resolving it, and one effective way to do that is to present such a dilemma and bring the character to a resolution.
When writing, try different forms of government, for a start (I did a whole newsletter about some different types a while back), maybe ones with more, or less, tolerance of individual liberty than the standard feudal milieu. And dump in a character with strong notions about freedom, liberty and independence, and just see what happens. |
Just some reading material
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Until next time, a happy Independence Day to our US readers, and to all of you...
DREAM ON!!! |
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Fantasy: July 03, 2013 Issue [#5759]
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