This list evolved from the discussions of the Genre Evolution Project Research Team as a guide to coding key characteristics of 20th Century American Science Fiction short stories. |
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Outcome: The effect the narrative has on the implied reader just at the end of reading (the "outcome moment").
(Note: The implied reader is the reader implied by the text and may be quite different from the actual reader. For example, Hardy Boys mysteries imply a reader who is a pre-adolescent boy. To read those works properly, actual readers, through an act of imagination, construct that implied reader within themselves. Before coding for outcome, decide who the implied reader is.)
DEFINITIONS:
Ambiguous: the ending does not offer closure but rather leaves the reader in some state of structural undecidability.
Comic: the story ends with an establishment or a reestablishment of a social order that the reader understands is supposed to be taken as good, such as a wedding in a Victorian novel like Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Dickens' Bleak House, or the establishment of an independent lunar nation in Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.
Didactic: the outcome is meant to teach a lesson. Aesop's fables.
Happy: the most important things work out for the best, and, in extreme cases, they live happily ever after. See Note below.
Romantic: the outcome of the story fulfills its own ideals. For example, at the beginning of the narration, the author implies that two characters would make a good couple, and at the end, the pair are romantically involved. Or, to balance this, the story opens by suggesting human nature is depraved, and ends by revealing depravity. Happy and Sad may be distinguished from Romantic by the relation of the outcome to the overall structure, Happy and Sad referring to an outcome that was in some doubt, Romantic to an outcome that was not. See Note below.
Sad: the most important things work out badly, and, in extreme cases, they are irreparable. See Note below.
Tragic: the story ends with a break-down of social order, typically reflected in the fate of the hero. That fate may arise from a flaw within the protagonist (as is the case with King Lear who foolishly abandons his monarchical responsibilities) or by a mere "missing of the mark" (as Aristotle says of Oedipus who simply didn't know that the man he killed was his father and the woman he married was his mother). The misfit between social reality and the protagonist's beliefs and/or actions leads to socially and individually destructive consequences.
Tragicomic: the story ends with a (re) establishment of social order, as a comedy does, but to do so requires the sort of socially representative catastrophe that we associate with tragedy; e.g., the hero has to die to bring about the comic ending, as in Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities or the film Independence Day.
(Note: Comic, Tragic, and Tragicomic are terms for outcomes in which our main interest has been in characters who represent their societies, stand for them, and in some sense have fates that indicate how their societies will progress. Happy and Sad are terms for outcomes in which our main interest has been in characters who merely inhabit rather than represent their societies. The outcome of Bonnie and Clyde is sad but is not tragic, comic, or tragicomic. We feel sad when the title characters are killed but we recognize that society will go on unaffected.)
DECISION TREE:
Q1: At the outcome moment, is the implied reader's reaction most characterized by a sense of structural ambiguity?
(Note: Structural ambiguity is not simply synonymous with "confusion" or "vagueness" but is a type of undecidability that arises from the very structure of the story, typically from the grammar or plot. For more on this, see further note below the decision tree.)
If yes, code the outcome as "Ambiguous."
If no, go to Q2.
Q2: At the outcome moment, is the main interest of the implied reader in the lesson of the story?
If yes, code the outcome as "Didactic."
If no, go to Q3.
Q3: At the outcome moment, has the implied reader been primarily interestd in characters that represent their societies, stand for them, or in some broadly representative sense have fates that indicate how their societies will progress?
If yes, go to Q4.
If no (that is, if our main interest has been in characters that merely inhabit rather than represent their societies), go to Q6.
Q4: Does the story end with a breakdown of social order (typically reflected in the fate of the hero)?
If yes, code the outcome as "Tragic."
In no, go to Q5.
Q5: If the story ends with the establishment or reestablishment of social order and
a) the reader understands that this is supposed to be taken as good (such as a wedding in a Victorian novel like Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Dickens' Bleak House, or the establishment of an independent lunar nation in Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress), code the outcome as "Comic."
b) the reader understands that establishment of social order requires the sort of socially representative catastrophe that we associate with tragedy (for example, a hero has to die to bring about the comic ending, as in Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities or the film Independence Day), code the outcome as "Tragicomic."
Q6: Is the outcome a confirmation of a narrative structure in which the story fulfills its own ideals?
If yes, code the outcome as "Romantic."
If no, go to Q7.
Q7:
a) If, from the viewpoint of the implied reader, the important things work out well at the end, code the outcome as "Happy."
b) If, from the viewpoint of the implied reader, the important things work out badly (in extreme cases, irreparably), code the outcome as "Sad."
(Further note on ambiguity: In grammar, sentences such as "Flying planes can be dangerous" have multiple [in this case two] meanings that are equally valid but not necessarily complementary. This "flying planes" sentence exemplifies the technical meaning of the term "ambiguity" in linguistics and semantics. If an additional sentence [for example, "So, don't take flying lessons" or "So, keep your eyes on the sky when you go for a walk"] makes clear which meaning was intended, that additional sentence is said to "disambiguate" the meaning. In plot, too, we can also find this situation of structural ambiguity. At the end of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, Alice observes to her kitten that the Red King "was part of my dream, of coursebut then I was part of his dream, too!" The question made pressing at the outcome is, whose world would disappearand hence which of them would cease to existif one of them were to awaken? The plot never offers an answer and so we never know what the ultimate structure of the narrative world is, which level of the narrative world is fundamental. Consider, too, the example of Robert Heinlein's "'All You Zombies
.'" The whole story works toward the viewpoint character's realization that, through events dependent on medical intervention and time travel, he is apparently both his own grandfather and his own grandmother and his equally strong realization that, of course, this is impossible. This paradoxical outcome clearly leaves the viewpoint character confused and self-doubtful; we readers are not undecided about that confusion. However, the character's confusion does not dominate our reaction; rather, the revealed structure of the story leaves us most concerned with our own inability to disambiguate the story. Since this fundamental undecidability dominates our reading at the outcome moment, the story should be coded as "ambiguous.")
DISTINGUISHING Genre Content, Genre Form, and Theme:
1) Genre Content codes the elements the existence of which in the story tend to make us recognize that the story is SF. If one or more aliens are the most prominent science fictional element in the story, we would code Genre Content as Alien.
2) Genre Form codes the dramatic shape of the story. If one or a group of characters, typically human, is grappling with contact with the alien, we would code the Genre Form as Alien Contact. On the other hand, if the aliens and humans deal together with a crisis, as happens often in Star Trek: The Next Generation, we would code the Genre Form as Crisis Escape.
3) Theme refers to the subject of the story. The theme Alienness/Difference codes stories that explore the subject of dealing with the alien. On the other hand, if the Genre Form is Alien Contact but the subject being explored is the heroism of the individual in dealing with the threat that the alien poses, as is often the case with episodes focusing on the Capt. Kirk in the original Star Trek series, the Theme would be Heroism.
Genre Content: The element in the story that would make most readers recognize the story as Science Fiction and without which the story might not be generally considered to be science fiction by ordinary readers.
(N.B.: The term "genre" traditionally points to types of works, sometimes highlighting aspects of content and sometimes highlighting aspects of form. Genre Content and Genre Form are studied and coded separately to disentangle these two approaches and more clearly and fully characterize a given work. Genre Content is theoretically independent of Genre Form even if there may tend to be strong associations between particular Genre Contents and particular Genre Forms.)
DEFINITIONS:
Alien: relating to things not from the social world of the protagonist, e.g., alien civilizations, explorations by aliens, etc. The defining content of the story is the alienness of at least some of the characters. A story with Alien Genre Content does not necessarily have a Genre Form of Alien Contact or a Theme of Alienness/Difference.
Alternate History: considers what could have been, or could be, e.g., alternate universes in which history develops slightly differently. Treats the narrative history as if it were in the past.
Capability Shift - Mental: stories in which an invention or mutation has caused a character or characters to become more intelligent/less intelligent, or to become psychic, etc. e.g., Flowers for Alg. Must be a significant deviation from the understood mental capacity of the character.
Capability Shift - Physical: stories in which an invention or mutation has caused a character or characters to become stronger/weaker, or to develop a new physical ability, like flight. Must be a significant deviation from the understood physical capacity of the character.
Dystopia: the organization of society is such that the presentation of it in the narrative conveys a sense of oppression. Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Eutopia: a society presented as highly desirable.
Utopia: an ambiguous presentation of society which focuses on the organization of that society as a whole.
Exploration: characters explore a domain where their fellows do not have complete knowledge.
Invention: a new technique or discovery is the novum in the story. An innovation that changes the direction of the field or the dramatic situation in which the invention was created. If the story is Hard SF, the realm of the invention is to be codified in the Dominant Science field.
Mad Scientist: someone obsessed with a dangerous goal he or she is pursuing through the development and use of scientific or technological power.
Monster: a new and unknown creature, not necessarily extraterrestrial. The monster can be seen as a warning or a promise, the result of the crossing of some boundary, of upsetting the natural order of things.
Post-Apocalypse: events take place after nuclear war, a global plague, etc., that destroyed much or all of civilization.
Psi Powers: dealing with the external manifestation of powers of the mind. Telepathy, telekinesis, etc.
Surreal Novum: the "new" (novum) in the story defies logic; events do not follow familiar perceptions of reality.
Sword & Sorcery: heroes, damsels in distress, wizards, kings, dragons, whether pseudo-medieval or far future. Magic may be, but does not have to be, rationalized as advanced science.
Time Travel: story involves a character, characters, a thing, or things travelling back or forward through time. When time travel changes the reader's vantage point within the story, time travel can be thought of as a salient treatment of setting.
Not Applicable: None of the above elements is central in the story.
(N.B.: The Genre Evolution Project uses a social rather than a characteristic definition in selecting works as SF; for the GEP, if a work is narrative, under 12,000 words, and appears in a self-described American science fiction magazine, we take it to be part of our study population regardless of its Genre Content. Thus, we would expect to encounter stories that are SF by virtue of the way they were published but not SF by virtue of some particular element within the story. These stories are coded "Not Applicable.")
DECISION TREE for Genre Content
DISTINGUISHING Genre Content, Genre Form, and Theme
Dominant Science: The science whose theories are central to creating the narrative world and/or dramatic problem(s); always applicable when Hard SF is Yes, often not applicable when Hard SF is No.
Anthropology: the story is primarily influenced by theories from or new information in the field of Anthropology. Anthropology considers society as a whole as related to the individual.
(Note: we recognize that standard definitions suggest some confusion in deciding among the terms "anthropology," "sociology," and "psychology" For our coding purposes, we apply two discriminators. (1) If the dominant science [not necessarily the plot but the science somehow deployed in the plot and/or in narrative discussions] seems to focus on the individual, we see that as psychology; if on group processes, either anthropology or sociology. (2) If the rhetorical stance seems to be analysis from within a society, we see that as sociology; if from without, as it were bringing news from a society elsewhere in time or space, we see that as anthropology.)
Astronomy: the story is primarily influenced by theories from or new information in the field of Astronomy.
Biology: the story is primarily influenced by theories from or new information in the field of Biology.
Chemistry: the story is primarily influenced by theories from or new information in the field of Chemistry.
Computer Science: the story is primarily influenced by theories from or new information in the field of Computer and Information Science, e.g., Neuromancer.
Earth Science: the story is primarily influenced by theories from or new information in geologic, oceangraphic, or atmospheric science.
Ecology: the story is primarily influenced by theories from or new information in the field of Ecology.
Economics: the story is primarily influenced by theories or new information in the field of Economics.
Engineering: the story is primarily influenced by theories from or new information in the field of Engineering.
History: the story is primarily influenced by theories from or new information in the field of History.
Linguistics: the story is primarily influenced by theories from or new information in the field of Linguistics.
Mathematics: the story is primarily influenced by theories from or new information in the field of Mathematics.
Medicine: the story is primarily influenced by theories from or new information in the field of Medicine, that is, the science primarily concerned with health and its preservation and with illness and its amelioration.
Pedagogy: the story is primarily influenced by theories from or new information in the field of Pedagogy.
Physics: the story is primarily influenced by theories from or new information in the field of Physics.
Political Science: the story is primarily influenced by theories from or new information in the field of Political Science.
Psychology: the story is primarily influenced by theories from or new information in the field of Psychology. (See note under Anthropology above.)
Sociology: the story is primarily influenced by theories from or new information in the field of Sociology. Sociology tends to study the individual relative to the society in which that individual lives. (The difference between Psychology and Sociology is defined, by a sort of unspoken agreement, as the former being the study of the psyche of individuals, and the latter being the study of the psyche of a group of people. See also the Note under Anthropology above.)