I Need More SCIENCE!
February 21st, 2010
For all my multi-tasking and jack-of-all-trades-ness, I can be very single-minded at times. Almost everything that I learn in the Real WorldTM is immediately translated into my ability to convey plausible fiction. New recipes spark ideas about how a species might season their food. Taking my motorcycle apart is incorporated into how an individual works on her magic-powered vehicle. The texture of my cat’s fur correlates to the texture of an alien animal’s soft, glossy pelt. The unspoken social hierarchy in a certain group of people brings up questions on how another culture might function in a similar situation. You get the idea.
I am greatly fascinated by natural sciences – zoology, anatomy/physiology, evolution, botany, geology, astrophysics, and more. I am passionate about these subjects because they’re incredibly interesting to me, because I like understanding this amazing world in which we live– and because I want to use that knowledge to enhance my geofiction and my writing. It’s good to have a seemingly unique, seemingly possible idea to incorporate into a piece of worldbuilding; it’s much, much better to have the education and knowledge to back up that theory.
As part of my current walk in life, I plan on self-educating myself on the sciences in much greater detail than I’ve so far learned them. Natural sciences come first, followed by social sciences (especially psychology, religion/mythology, and ancient history), and then whatever else I’m curious about and might put to use (such as mechanics). I’m not doing this solely for my writing, but it is one of the primary motivations to find some solid texts and teach myself some of the innumerable things that I don’t know yet. Plus, it’s awesome! These subjects, this world, this universe, are all bizarre and beautiful. Lessening my ignorance will only teach me how much more there is to appreciate in this life.
How far do you go in the name of your craft? Do you casually pick up shards of information as they become necessary, or do you eagerly dive in to study the pillars on which you stand?
Image Credit: Crestock Creative Photos.
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Granted, my chances to write fiction of late have been few and far between but I have been struck by how much my anthropological and musical training gets incorporated into what I do write. Writing about the things that I do versus what I study on a regular basis are very different through. What I study goes into how I think about what I’m writing, how I approach it, what questions need to be asked — I don’t think it necessarily affects the content directly, but instead shapes it before hand. What I do, however, being tactile and more concrete in a fashion, definitely affects the actual words going onto the page as I’m writing them. For example, if I’m writing about someone playing a whistle, the sensation of doing so gets incorporated into the character as I’m typing it out. The memories of the sensations and the sounds are immediate. Academic knowledge shapes things long before I start putting words to the page/screen.
Carl Sagan had an interesting formula that strikes me as more important than scientific accuracy in fiction: express a sense of wonder and retain some skepticism. Isaac Asimov insisted that a good story trumps scientific accuracy in fiction. When mining the pillars I only go far enough to quiet my curiosity and assemble the material required for a plot element that satisfies the needs of a story. I’m always willing to listen to complaints from others who might find one of my fictional science plot elements to be absurd. With some thought, even the most absurd fictional science can be “justified” by imagining an advanced technology with what seems like magical powers.