Culture and the Environment of Science Fiction

Environments shape culture. Essentially, this is the thesis of Jared Diamond’s nonfiction book, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (Paperback edition, 1999, ISBN 0393317552), and is a concept used as a staple by many of the best science fiction writers for decades prior.

Cultures shape the individuals who strive within them – yes, within, as the best of the truly realized-characters of science fiction mirror ourselves, no matter how outlandish the settings may be, and as no one truly lives in a vacuum. We as the reader want some commonality to identify with, despite outlandish settings. No matter how alien the alien, there has to be some sense behind what she/he/it does, most likely based on the strictures imposed by the world it came from. No matter how much humans may change in body and in psyche in future millennia, we still expect this of ourselves.

Considering the near-future, often dystopic, worlds of cyberpunk, culture may be skillfully dealt with in the best hands of the sub-genre: William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Neal Stephenson. For these people, the future is a multi-cultural realm which draws upon sometimes-dark extensions of today’s cultural phenomena. Gibson’s Idoru (1996, ISBN 0-425-15864-0), for instance, combines fictionalized advances in virtual media with a pop culture in search of idols that takes its antecedents from both America and Japan. The backgrounds and the obsessions of the people Gibson brings to life are well-integrated with the cultural stages set herein. The reader can feel and taste the difference of the world of Idoru as compared to his own, and yet the threads of similarity are rooted in today.

Leaving behind the subgenre of cyberpunk, a category named out of convenience rather than firm definition, we move into an examination of other books. Maureen F. McHugh’s China Mountain Zhang (1992, ISBN 0-812-50892-0) is set in a near future multi-cultural Earth, and explores mindsets and events as an outgrowth of environmental decay and cultural extrapolations from today. The main character, Rafael Zhang, acts and reacts – and grows – as a result of his cultural influences. While he, as well as many a science fictional hero, needs at some point to step outside of cultural expectations, he does so within context of these. This is a fascinatingly-detailed book, whose opening quote by Camus fully feeds the story: "A simple way to get to know about a town is to see how the people work, how they love and how they die."

Turning to distant worlds, and sometimes to full-fledged aliens, we can enjoy Vernor Vinge’s A Fire Upon the Deep (1992, ISBN 0-812-51528-5). Although a "space opera" of adventure, this is a book centered around ideas, where dog-like aliens come close to discovering higher technology, and a universe with variable laws of physics operates. Poul Anderson’s Polesotechnic League series, which includes the novels, Trader to the Stars (1966, ISBN 0-425-057461 ) and Satan’s World (1969, ISBN 0-425-05851-4), involves the trader Nicholas van Rijn, who often has to solve difficulties whose answers depend on understanding the alien culture in which he finds himself. Such understanding comes about from learning how said alien culture must have evolved with respect to planetary environmental conditions.

For some decent explorations of artificial environments, and how they shape the lives of inhabitants, Robert A. Heinlein’s The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966, ISBN 0-312-86355-1) and John Varley’s Steel Beach (1992, ISBN 0-441-78565-4) are recommended. Both develop a Lunar culture where life depends entirely upon technology, and intuitive thinking through the inevitable “people problems” helps guide solutions to cultural conflicts. The culture, political systems, and characters all are extensively formed by the backdrop – differently but rationally, in each novel.

Lastly, we come to Samuel R. (Chip) Delaney’s Babel-17 (1966, ISBN 0-553-20156-5), a novel exploring how language itself might affect thought, and who we are. On her way to decipher an enemy code, she must learn to think in the mind-set of an unknown and alien culture in order to unlock it. Because she was a poet, she had an edge on an ability to place herself into the mental mode where she could understand it – but the actual act of understanding was itself fraught with peril.

These book suggestions only begin to touch the wealth of idea-oriented stories written with a good handle on the notion that environment, culture, and character development interplay. Meanwhile, I’m trying to figure out the coincidence or meaning behind the fact that nearly all the above novels were originally published in 1966 or 1992. Perhaps serendipity should be the topic of my next article. Or, maybe like wine, there are just simply good years

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