ABSTRACT
While some precipitating problem or challenge is a standard plot driver for most works of fiction, science fiction can be particularly creative in imagining forms of “wrongness,” whether presented as specific manifestations of evil or more generally as situations of disorder. Some science fiction sources address concepts of evil drawn from existing human religious traditions, such as various Christian understandings of sin or approaches to theodicy. Others present broader constructions of “wrongness” emerging from imagined possibilities, such as interspecies encounters, including even the introduction of a concept of evil at all. In some cases, SF may emphasize particular expressions of systemic wrongness, such a racism or sexism. Depictions of wrongness provide the necessary backdrop for SF accounts of efforts to set such circumstances right through heroic efforts, the redemptive actions of Messianic figures, the influences of social movements, luck, or other forces. These oppositions of what is “wrong” with visions of what would constitute “right” frequently overlap with religiously framed questions of life’s purpose and meaning.
