This index, inspired by the Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, aims to catalog some of the broader strokes found frequently in science fiction. Science fiction uses a number of peculiar metaphors to describe real people, relationships, and politics in abstract terms. I do not mean to say that science fiction is all allegory, though there is a bounty unsubtle satire in poor science fiction. I mean that in addition to the writer's usual toolbox of metaphors about green lights and and eyes of God, science fiction writers reach for the metaphors of incredible materials, incredible distances, incredible speeds, incredible energies, and incredible intelligences. Please do not think I am degrading either of these types of writing. One of my favorite writers, Clifford D. Simak, blended science fiction and nature writing beautifully in novels like Way Station.
Science fits naturally in stories. Science is, after all, a machine that is incredibly suited to manufacturing stories out of incomprehensible data.
The genre of science fiction does not exist simply because sci-fi fans enjoy reading only comfortable and familiar stories, but because brilliant writers have distilled the most effective devices for telling compelling stories about the same old people using new science.
Often, though, these same stories and elements are repeated over and over, until the symbols lose meaning, bearing little relation to their original referents (see Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard, The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell). We call such stories "cliche" or "predictable". Though it is not the predictability which bothers us &emdash; after all, Shakespeare tells us exactly how Romeo and Juliet is going to end in the first stanzas, and performed well, it is still heart-wrenching &emdash; but rather that we can detect that the symbols and metaphors are used clumsily, with little truth behind them, or else we see that the truth the author is trying to impart is miscarried by its metaphors.
The late great Ursula K. Le Guin once remarked on this at a speech she gave at the PLA Preconference in 2004, now known as Genre: A Word only a Frenchman could Love:
A writer sets out to write science fiction but isn’t familiar with the genre, hasn’t read what’s been written. This is a fairly common situation, because science fiction is known to sell well but, as a subliterary genre, is not supposed to be worth study—what’s to learn? It doesn’t occur to the novice that a genre is a genre because it has a field and focus of its own; its appropriate and particular tools, rules, and techniques for handling the material; its traditions; and its experienced, appreciative readers—that it is, in fact, a literature. Ignoring all this, our novice is just about to reinvent the wheel, the space ship, the space alien, and the mad scientist, with cries of innocent wonder. The cries will not be echoed by the readers. Readers familiar with that genre have met the space ship, the alien, and the mad scientist before. They know more about them than the writer does.
In the same way, critics who set out to talk about a fantasy novel without having read any fantasy since they were eight, and in ignorance of the history and extensive theory of fantasy literature, will make fools of themselves because they don’t know how to read the book. They have no contextual information to tell them what its tradition is, where it’s coming from, what it’s trying to do, what it does. This was liberally proved when the first Harry Potter book came out and a lot of literary reviewers ran around shrieking about the incredible originality of the book. This originality was an artifact of the reviewers’ blank ignorance of its genres (children’s fantasy and the British boarding-school story), plus the fact that they hadn’t read a fantasy since they were eight. It was pitiful. It was like watching some TV gourmet chef eat a piece of buttered toast and squeal, “But this is delicious! Unheard of! Where has it been all my life?
This quote explains the reasoning for this index better than anything I could ever write.
This index should not discourage anyone from writing science fiction, even clumsily, but should serve as a map of the trails already trod. It will not teach you how to write well, or what makes good science fiction. Do with these lists what you will; there is no inherent meaning. The symbols enumerated may bear little relation to each other in lineage, or in use. They may share only superficial similarities. These lists are not the end of the analysis of science fiction; they are only the beginning.
If you wish to stand on the shoulders of giants, it helps to know who the giants are.
A motif is an concept or symbol that appears over and over again. Whether it is consciously employed or not, the motif's form tends to make it useful for certain purposes and metaphors within a story. Not all these uses are the same, but they share enough form that a reader who is familiar enough with the genre will connect them.
Not everything shared between stories is a motif. As per the Le Guin quote in What is this index?, anything that tends to get reinvented over and over specifically for the genre of science fiction is what this index considers a motif.
Vivisecting things is how I enjoy them.
I have always enjoyed taking things apart that were still working. I can usually put them back together without breaking them, so I promise to be careful with your favorite books and movies!
When you edit TV Tropes, you either edit a work or a trope, but the addition to one won't be automatically added or synchronized to the other. This website relates works and motifs so that they always reflect on both. With the technical answer out of the way, there's also a philosophical answer.
The purpose of TV Tropes is general and democratic. It exists to casually discuss common elements of stories of all types. This guide is more focused. In addition to being more curated, it only catalogs the history and occurrence of concepts and devices in science fiction.
Both websites have their uses and can coexist.
Go ahead! Be warned that the index in its current iteration may get paved over in future updates if necessary.
My main concerns are paper trails and permissions, in order to prevent low quality additions and vandalism. This may seem self-important or excessive, but I want to make sure I do things right.
I have a wish list of features that I hope to add in the future, with no timeline. I am working a full time job, various theatre productions, three tabletop RPG games, a TTRPG publishing project, and a startup idea. So I will add those features as I have time. Here are some future additions I'd like to add (in no particular order):
Most of these will just take time. But a better domain name and better host would be in the ballpark of $1000 per year, I think.
Not currently, no. If I get enough interest, I may set up a Patreon.
© 2023 Science Fiction Motif Index by Alexander Lowry. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
