Slow Glass
In his short story "Light of Other Days,"
written the year I was born, science fiction writer
Bob Shaw formulated the concept of "slow glass." In
brief, slow glass is glass that is so opaque that
light takes as long as ten years to pass through
it. From a practical standpoint, then, if you
looked through a window made of slow glass, you'd
see events that took place outside that window ten
years ago. In his story, Shaw explores the lives of
a man and woman whose marriage is in its death
throes. While on vacation, they visit a slow glass
merchant and notice the man's wife and child
through the window, playing inside the house. When
they enter, however, the house is deserted; only
then do they realize that the window is made of
slow glass, giving the lonely man his final
glimpses of his long-dead wife and child.
With his unique plot device, Shaw keenly
illustrated how we are prone to look through slow
glass in our own lives. Sometimes we focus too
sharply on the present through the lens of the
past, illuminating our lives with the "light of
other days." The older we get, the more memories we
accumulate. It becomes easier to look backward
instead of forward. In bad times, especially, it
can be seductive to look back at better times gone
by, embracing nostalgia and indulging regrets.
This example shows the best of what science
fiction can achieve. Though too often the genre
doesn't rise above the little green men and space
battles of popcorn movies like "Independence Day"
and "Star Wars," the best SF utilizes the
conventions of the genre to comment on the human
condition. Time travel, alien visitation, space
exploration... all can be dramatic tools to tell a
story about the universal struggles we go through
in our lives.
To some degree, this has been part of the
formula for the long-lived success of the "Star
Trek" franchise. Most of the best episodes of the
series (in all its incarnations) deal thematically
with one human issue or another. In the "Next
Generation" episode "Redemption," for example, the
Enterprise responds to a potential civil war on the
Klingon home world, but ultimately the story is
about the conflicts between duty and family honor
with which Worf wrestles. The movie "Star Trek:
First Contact" featured battles between the
Enterprise crew and the Borg, but at its heart was
Picard's fight to overcome his inner demons.
Ultimately, the best storytelling does more than
just tell a story, more than merely entertain. The
greatest stories teach us about ourselves, comment
on what makes us who we are, how we deal with the
constant struggle from cradle to grave. What makes
science fiction so effective—and perhaps what
attracts me to it so—is its ability to utilize
speculative, imaginative concepts as metaphors:
otherworldly devices to tell very worldly
stories.
Development note: I've
noticed that this site doesn't look like it should
in Netscape Navigator. Rather than waste time
jury-rigging it to look right in a
soon-to-be-obsolete browser, I'll just add the
cliché "This site best viewed with Internet
Explorer."
©2003 Michael
Strickland ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED
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What is "The Daily Strick"?
I have long called
myself a writer, but too often I don't do
what a writer must do daily: write. So
you, dear reader, are the beneficiary of
my resolution to make a positive change in
at least one area of my life. Every single
day of this new year, I will write
something, anything, and post it here. It
is my intention to use this daily exercise
to jump-start my too-long-dormant creative
energies, and perhaps generate some
worthwhile material this year. Hopefully
you will find at least an occasional
amusement or insight in my daily
musings.
Today's
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Previously...
4/10:
Freedom
of Speech
4/9:
Why
We're Fighting
4/8:
Eucalyptus
Memories
4/7:
Sleep
4/6:
Writing,
Just Not Here
4/5:
Sci-Files
Trivia
4/4:
Sobering
Up
4/3:
Great
White Hope
4/2:
Entropy
4/1:
Peace
on Earth
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