One thing I love about writing speculative fiction is you can
amplify an aspect of the real world and it becomes metaphor. In my novel, Alien
Invasion & Other Inconveniences, I was trying to use an alien invasion to
explore ideas about corporate greed and colonialism and power and what happens
when a much more powerful civilization meets a weaker one. We know, from our
own past, what often happens. This time all of earth is on the short end of
that stick. OK, I want to tell a story, too, and make the language sing and
make interesting characters, but the metaphor—the power of comparison and the
various shades of mythical memory they can inspire—opened up many opportunities.
The
sequel of my alien duology is Homicidal Aliens & Other Inconveniences. This
one plays more with myth, trying to use ideas of the “hero” to give the story and main character more emotional depth.
In
Kristin Cashore’s Graceling series one of the evil characters can actually
change the way people think. It’s his grace. Of course we see this kind of
influence all the time--sometimes in the minor way of a dynamic speaker and
sometimes in the more extreme way such as cult leaders like Manson and
political tyrants like Hitler etc… She amplifies this kind of characteristic
and uses the metaphor to give the story and character deeper value.
I
think fantasy and sci-fi often are situational stories. There are great opportunities
to use metaphor in any story but particularly in speculative fiction.
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