ABSTRACT
Why read fantasy and science fiction? What are they for? Fantasy and science fiction have always been popular genres for children and have regularly appeared on reading lists and in English department book cupboards. However, fantasy and science fiction writers have struggled to be taken seriously in prestigious academic circles. This has prompted some spirited defences. For instance, C. S. Lewis and Tolkien defended fantasy as a higher form of art that creates not a suspension of disbelief, but a believable secondary world (Veldman 1994). The creation of secondary worlds links the genres of fantasy and science fiction. Fantasy tends to invoke the spirit of myth whereas science fiction draws upon the inspiration of technology and popular science to project into the future. In connecting with contemporary anxieties and concerns these texts are refracting narratives of our ordinary lives. Inevitably the environmental exploitation of the Earth, the fragility of the planet and the relationship between the human and non-human are dominant themes in both genres. Popular blockbusting fantasies such as The Lord of the Rings (Tolkien 2007) and His Dark Materials (Pullman 2007) speak loudly for nature against the crushing power of technology, whereas science fiction such as The War of the Worlds (Wells 2005) and the collection of short stories for teenagers in Extinction Is Forever (Lawrence 1990) are futuristic warnings. These texts may be reread in the light of climate change. For instance, a recent TV adaptation (BBC 2009a) of the 1950s sci-fi bestseller The Day of the Triffids (Wyndham 2000) made explicit connections with contemporary anxieties about genetically modified plants, global warming, biofuels and energy shortages. The premise of the drama was that the deadly triffids had been farmed for their biofuel called ‘Triffoil’, thus saving the world from global warming and solving the energy crisis – until of course the day that they escape to dominate the planet.
