{"id":677,"date":"2008-10-21T21:55:59","date_gmt":"2008-10-21T21:55:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/2008\/10\/21\/in_which_i_take_lessons_from_scotty\/"},"modified":"2008-10-21T21:55:59","modified_gmt":"2008-10-21T21:55:59","slug":"in_which_i_take_lessons_from_scotty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/2008\/10\/21\/in_which_i_take_lessons_from_scotty\/","title":{"rendered":"In which I take lessons from Scotty"},"content":{"rendered":"

General fiction with scientists as central characters plying their trade is rare: the number is probably close to a hundred or so novels ever written (we’re keeping a list<\/a> over on LabLit, if you’re curious). Unlike science fiction or crime novels, lab lit will never be common enough to earn its own section in the bookshop, but coining this phrase has proved useful for exploring the phenomenon and nucleating like-minded readers and writers. As part of a series of blogs in the run up to the publication of my novel Experimental Heart<\/a>, I’d like to talk about the art of using science and scientists in fictional but realistic scenarios. <\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/p>\n

\nAlmost there<\/strong> My bound page proofs shipped from America, yesterday<\/p>\n

\nThere are probably a number of reasons why lab lit is so uncommon. Many writers won’t be familiar with or like science, so perhaps the pool is small to begin with. Publishers might not think the science will sell, which I’ll talk about later. But the difficulty involved in balancing complex subject matter against narrative pacing must also be a key factor. Because it isn’t easy; not by a long shot. If the scientists in your story are doing their thing, and if some science impinges on the plot, at some point you as the author will have to deal with detailed information. The question for today is, how deep do you go? And the next post will deal more with the strategies of how you achieve it once you’ve decided.<\/p>\n

\nSome authors might be interested in using fiction as a science communication tool to teach science facts and figures. In this case, transmitting the necessary information accurately will be a very important goal. Others, like Carl Djerassi, author of the classic lab lit novel Cantor’s Dilemma<\/a>, has used fiction primarily to educate people, as he puts it, about “the tribal culture of scientists, rather than dwelling on the science they do.” My friend Ann Lackie, author of several lab lit novels and founder of SciTalk<\/a>, is even more relaxed: she favors ‘subtle science’, where you’re using characters who happen to be scientists, and using the rich backdrop of science to enliven a story that could be about something else altogether. I fall somewhere in the middle: I want to show people what being a scientist is like, but I’d like them to be actually doing science on camera. Nevertheless, I don’t feel that the readers have to completely understand this science, and the main point for me is entertainment and atmosphere, not education. The story has to be a real human story, one that anyone can get drawn into \u2013 because a novel is ultimately about people, not facts and details.<\/p>\n

\nA friend of mine, a prominent scientist in his early eighties, recently finished reading my second novel and was terribly worried about the level of scientific detail I employed, fearing that non-scientific readers would be completely lost. But I wasn’t too concerned: I’ve done the experiment. In revising my fiction, I rely on an army of volunteer readers to help assess and tweak the inevitable imbalances: non-scientists who flag up every paragraph that leaves them uncomfortable or derailed, and scientists who warn me when I’ve dumbed down a concept right out of existence. The manuscript in question was perused by about 45 non-scientists, all of whom now say they are comfortable. <\/p>\n

\nInterestingly, non-scientists are not as concerned as you might expect about “understanding” the science. For them, the experience of hearing about science \u2013 including the lingo \u2013 is part of the atmosphere, and is absolutely fine as long as they can follow the human story. Think of Scotty on the original Star Trek, babbling on about “plasma reflux in the warp core interfering with the delta configuration of the dilithium crystals”: we never needed to know what that meant: all we needed to know was that the ship was in danger and that Kirk had only ten hours to fix it. It is part of the setting, the scene, the milieu. Provided it’s made clear that this detailed content is not required for understanding the characters’ motivations and actions, it’s actually irrelevant whether they get it completely. <\/p>\n

\nOf those 45 non-scientist readers, about three quarters said they just went with the flow and didn’t worry about things it was clear they didn’t need to know, and about one quarter were inspired to look up stuff when they wanted to know more \u2013 novel readers tend to be curious by nature, and enjoy mysteries that they can solve offline. I respond exactly the same way when I read novels with lots of non-science technical details \u2013 for example, novels set on the high seas rife with sailing jargon. I don’t really want to know more about the details, but I appreciate their being there, adding color and verisimilitude.<\/p>\n

\nInterestingly, in the pool of about 40 scientist readers, most were concerned that the science was too much, and that the poor lay reader would be demanding more explanation. I think this is interesting and shows that it’s almost impossible for a scientist, including myself as the author, to judge how a non-scientist will react to science presented in fiction. Road-testing then becomes really important.<\/p>\n

\nIn recent years the craft of “science in fiction” has become a lot more sophisticated, veering away from the old-fashioned strategy of using dear old Auntie Jane from Tunbridge Wells to dump information on readers. Modern readers see right through these strategies and resent the idea that the book is trying to educate them; devoting more chapters to teaching is not what my readers say they want. What they say they want is permission to navigate through a scientific scene while receiving the appropriate cues to let them know when letting things sliding over their head is perfectly acceptable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

General fiction with scientists as central characters plying their trade is rare: the number is probably close to a hundred or so novels ever written (we’re keeping a list over on LabLit, if you’re curious). Unlike science fiction or crime … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}