WRITLARGE

SPRING 2015

Erika StithWRIT 1133: Writing Culture(s)Professor Amber Engelson

PHYSICS FIRST, FICTION LATER

2 WRIT LARGE: 2015

The stars opened up before me. I was staring in-finity in the face, and it was beautiful. Id just

walked onto the observation deck. The silence

was enveloping, like the blackness of space. The

rest of the crew sat in silent awe as we looked

out of the panoramic window. Beyond the glass

was nothing less than deadly vacuum, but I felt

safe inside my tin can. Earth was behind us. All

of its problems were insignificant because now

we were free of its pull. We all had friends and

family back there, but at this moment it didnt

matter because of the vast ocean expanding be-fore us; clearly there were great things in store

for this ragtag team of explorers. Not everyone

is cut out for the life of colonizing other worlds,

but we were the few whod looked to the stars as

children and never looked back. I could walk to

the other side of the observation deck and see

Earth in its entirety. From this distance, it looked

serene: mushy clouds swirling across its glitter-ing oceans. But we left for a reason. War, famine,

plague: those of us now leaving Earth knew that

she was not being cared for. Overpopulation and

ecological destruction were burdening our spe-cies humble mother, potentially to her death.

We were escaping. Maybe we couldnt save

Earth, but the Moon, Mars, Europa, Gany-medethese places we could shape with loving

Mention anything science related, and you will see my face light up. New technology makes me jitter with excitement. Ive spoken the sentence Math is fun with sincerity. Ill rant about

the wonders of physics to anyone willing to listen. But I wasnt always this way. Until I was

about 10, I didnt really care about science. I wanted to be a Broadway singer when I grew up.

Everything changed, however, when my mom introduced me to science fiction (SF). It was

love at first sight; after just a few weeks of reading SF, I told my parents that I was going to

become a physicist.

So, when the assignment in my WRIT 1133 class was to write an autoethnography about a

subculture that has influenced my identity, it was easy for me to choose SF readers as that

subculture. Since science and SF comprise an integral part of my identity, I thought it would

be easy to whip up a paper about the community.

However, when I sat down to write this paper, it turned out to be more difficult than just ex-plaining all the reasons why SF is awesome. SF changed my life, but why does it matter to

society as a whole? How does it impact the lives of fans and non-fans alike? How does it

influence real science? I finished this paper with the intent of answering these questions and

maybe asking a few more.

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hands and turn into new cradles of civilization,

now that we were burning the first. We had the

whole solar system as our playground, the whole

galaxy, the whole universe, even. Though we

were leaving Earth behind, we were hopeful.

The stars were ours.

My mom walked into my room and turned off

the light. Time for bed, she said. I sighed and

put down the book. As soon as she left, I pulled

from the bedside table the flashlight I stole from

the basement and buried myself in the blankets,

resuming my space exploration.

I read constantly as a child. My favorite sto-ries were about mishaps with particle accelera-tors, sentient computers, and aliens that live

inside stars. I was deeply in love with science

fiction (SF) and, as I would later discover, with

science itself. In fact, reading SF got me more

excited about science than any of my grade

school science classes ever did. SF is inspiring

because it tends to focus on the cutting edge,

while learning the basics of science, though nec-essary, can be boring. Both SF and real science

rely on the same values, however, such as log-ic, problem solving, and innovation. And both

are considered nerdy, especially by teens and

preteens, as I quickly learned when my constant

readingand outburst about subatomic parti-cles during classearned me the label nerd in

middle school. Though SF may have caused my

social isolation, it also helped me connect with

some of the most inspiring writers, thinkers, and

scientists of our time. SF is a genre unique for

its ability to bring together lonely preteens, ac-

complished scientists, and pretty much anyone

else with a love of science, technology, and the

future. Joining this community at a young age can

have its drawbacks. Being a geeky little girl was

lonely at times. Among all of my acquaintances

in my Kentucky middle school, I was the only

SF reader. According to Cathy Evans and Don-na Eder, the causes for social isolation in middle

school are negative judgment from others in at

least one of three areas: appearance, gender be-havior, and mental maturity (148). Ive been rid-iculed for things in all three of these categories.

I was a bit chubby, with braces and glasses, and I

refused to adhere to middle school fashion stan-dards (appearance). My few friends were mostly

male and my interests tended to be more mas-culine than those of the other girls (gender be-havior). I also had the unfortunate combination

Angela Harburn / Shutterstock.com

The romanticism of SF certainly has an impact: I remember

wanting to be a theoretical physicist because, in several

books I read, theoreticians got to go to space to prove

their theories right. It took me a couple of years to realize

that being a theoretical physicist actually means you spend

most of the day doing calculations and running computer

simulations (when not teaching or writing grants, that is).

(left) Erika Stith / LP Picard

(right) Algol /Shutterstock.com

4 WRIT LARGE: 2015

of being smarter than most of my peers but less

socially adept, probably due to being the only

child of bookish introverts (mental maturity).

Unsurprisingly, I was picked on often. An ex-ample: as one of two kids taking algebra in sixth

grade, I had to go to a different part of the build-ing for that class than for the rest of my normal

classes. The eighth grade section of the building

was far enough away that I was frequently late

to my next class. Though I was excused, other

students took note. They said (behind my back,

but within earshot):

I bet shes lying so she doesnt have to come to class. Girls arent even good at math.

You know, I heard that she has to wear such thick glasses because she hurt her eyes reading all the time.

I think she talks to her calculator more than she talks to real people.

Erika describes her hometown as non-descript Midwestern suburbs. She is a

sophomore at the University of Denver

majoring in physics with a concentration in biophysics. She is also minoring in

math, biology, mechanical engineering,

and music. Erika is a competitive figure

skater and Co-President of DUs newest

a cappella group, Drastic Measures. She

has numerous other hobbies including

skiing, hiking, playing instruments, draw-ing, and writing. Understandably, she

wishes there were more hours in the day.

To their credit, that last one might actually be

true. And that is part of why SF appealed to

methe heroes are frequently outcasts for rea-sons similar to my own.

I started reading SF for the shiny new technol-ogy and fun adventure. At some point, though, it

became an escape from reality for me. Of course

I wanted to inhabit a future where people werent

berated for being smart and awkward. Some say,

however, that escapism is SFs only use. Accord-ing to Gerald Jonas of The New York Times, Lit-eral-minded critics have sometimes derided sci-ence fiction as sub-literary escapism, because it

does not dealwith the here-and-now (para. 1).

Its true that plenty of SF consists of pulpy paper-backs that have little literary or scientific value.

In many cases, these novels dont even portray

the concepts upon which they are based with

any detail or accuracy. Karlheinz Steinmller ac-cuses SF of sometimes willingly or unwillingly

depict[ing] science as a new magic, which in due

time will solve all problems and which works

without any negative side effects (176). That is

certainly a major failure, but it only applies to

the lower echelon of SF books. In my experience,

the better novels actually focus on the unintend-ed consequences of new technology and deeper

issues behind social problems. As Isaac Asimov

says, Our escape consisted of worrying about

the problems and conditions of 1970 ever since

1930 (296). However, by using science fiction

as an escape, I was further condemning myself

to nerdom.Holly Bennett, author of an article in Todays

Parent, observes how widespread the ridicule of

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science geeks is. Bennett claims that part of the

problem causing American students deficien-cies in Science, Technology, Engineering and

Math (STEM) is that our academic culture has

become geared to ostracize those who are inter-ested in science. In my experience, such alien-ation is fueled by students and adults alike. In

seventh grade, my school guidance counselor

asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.

My response: Im going to be an astrophysicist

and write sci-fi when I retire. A look of surprise

crossed her face. Rather than congratulating me

on having my life all figured out by the age of

twelve, she said, Are you sure you want to do

that? Youll have to stay in school for a long time

and do lots of math. Most girls I talk to dont like

science much. It crossed my mind to sarcastical-ly respond, Gee, now that you say that, I think

I actually want to marry a rich guy and be a stay-

at-home mom in the suburbs. Instead I bit my

tongue until she let me leave.

Sadly, this counselors attitude may not be

uncommon, given that a peer-reviewed study

found that by a two-to-one margin (60 to 28

percent), American parents say that if forced to

choose, they would prefer their sons or daugh-ters to make C grades and be active in extracur-ricular activities rather than make A grades and

not be active (Bishop et al. 141). This finding

implies that many adults value social acceptance

and involvement over academic achievement.

Yet for those like me who actually like the ac-ademic side of school, such emphasis on social

acceptance can cause even more isolation. Kids

who make it through such pressure, according to

Bennett, tend to be very independent and stub-born, or socially oblivious, because thats what

is necessary to avoid the wrath of the popular

kid[s] in middle school (para. 14). I used a com-bination of independence and obliviousness to

escape their derision.

Although I was ostracized in school, my par-ents (and other family members) supported my

interests. Neither of my parents work in STEM

fields, but it was my mom who first introduced

me to SF. When I latched on to it, my mom did

what she could to encourage me. According to

Bennett, this is what parents of geeks should do.

Bennett quotes science teacher Wayne Campbell,

saying, Parents can help by finding resources,

programs and people who share, value and vali-date the childs interests (para. 12). My mom did

that in many ways by signing me up for camps,

taking me to museums, and finding good books

for me to read.

Sunny studio / Shutterstock.com

SF is inspiring because it tends to focus

on the cutting edge, while learning the

basics of science, though necessary,

can be boring. Both SF and real science

rely on the same values, however,

such as logic, problem solving, and

innovation.

6 WRIT LARGE: 2015

She also tracked down my favorite living SF

author, Gregory Benford (who also happens to

be an astrophysicist), and got him to sign one of

his books for me. When she gave it to me for

Christmas, I blissfully opened it to reveal the

words inside. Benford only wrote four words in

addition to signing his name, but those words

were immediately etched into my soul:

Physics first, fiction later. With that simple phrase, he captured the es-

sence of my life plans. These words strengthened

my resolve to eventually become a physicist and

author, and this desire has hardly wavered since.

As Benford suggests, good SF has a strong focus

on being scientifically accurate; science and SF

are fundamentally intertwined.

Not every scientist chose the field as a child.

However, a large portion of those who did were

drawn to it, as I was, by SF. This fact suggests

that scientific advancement might be partially

fueled by SF. Asimov points out that [s]cience

fiction reading is perhaps two hundred times as

common among scientists as among the gener-al public. It is unavoidable, then, that a number

of those scientists may have been encouraged

to enter the field through their reading (300).

Though this claim is based on his back-of-the-

napkin calculations, Asimov maintains that

many scientists were inspired to enter the field

by SF. But others claim that children who choose

science as their passion because of SF risk hav-ing unreasonable expectations of excitement and

drama from real scientific research. For example,

Steinmller explains, For the ordinary reader,

tedious lab work, nightly calculations, boring

committee meetings, the frustrating fight[s] for

fundingare of little interest (177). At best,

even the most scientifically accurate SF skims

over the tedious moments that make up much of

a scientists life. This logic suggests that anyone

who chooses to study science because he or she

loves SF will inevitably be disappointed and pos-sibly give up his or her career aspirations.

I would argue, however, that a love of SF

can be precisely what motivates one to persevere

through the tedious parts of scientific work. The

romanticism of SF certainly has an impact; I re-member wanting to be a theoretical physicist be-cause, in several books I read, theoreticians got

to go to space to prove their theories right. It

took me a couple of years to realize that being

a theoretical physicist actually means you spend

most of the day doing calculations and running

computer simulations (when not teaching or

writing grants, that is). Sometimes at the end

of an organic chemistry lab, after slaving over

a hot plate all afternoon to get only a seven per-cent yield, I ask myself: Do I want this to be

my life for the next seven years or more? After

considering it more, the answer is always Yes,

because the feeling of satisfaction and under-standing when things work out is greater than

the feeling of disappointment when they dont.

I owe it to SF that I can see past the minor

setbacks to the overall goal. In books, the plot

isnt interesting unless the character faces some

kind of struggle on the way to reaching a goal or

has some kind of problem to figure out. As an

avid reader, I would try to solve the problem be-fore the characters in the book did. It turns out

Benford only wrote four words in

addition to signing his name, but those

words were immediately etched into my

soul: Physics first, fiction later.

M. Wayne Miller / Shutterstock.com

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this skill is directly applicable to real scientific

research, and SF novels got me practicing it early.

When my mom first handed me a copy of

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke, I didnt expect it to change my life. Being a reader of SF

and a lover of science is an integral part of my

identity. SF allows you to experience the wonder

and beauty of science, no matter where you are,

how old you are, or how much you already know.

It ties together many different kinds of people

who need to have nothing in common except

curiosity about the future. Because of its imagi-native and unifying nature, SF contributes to the

progress of science and society as a whole.

WORKS CITED

Asimov, Isaac. Today and Tomorrow and New York: Dell, 1972. Print.

Bennett, Holly. The Nerd [9 to 12-year-olds]. Todays Parent 15.2 (March 1998): 82. ProQuest. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.

Bishop, John H., Matthew Bishop, Lara Gelbwasser, Shanna Green, and Andrew Zuckerman. Nerds and Freaks:

A Theory of Student Culture and Norms. Brookings Papers on Education Policy 6 (2003): 141213. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.

Clarke, Arthur C. 2001: A Space Odyssey. New York: New American Library, 1968. Print.

Evans, Cathy, and Donna Eder. No Exit: Processes of Social Isolation in Middle School. Journal of Contemporary

Ethnography 22.2 (1993): 13970. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.

Jonas, Gerald. Science Fiction. The New York Times (13 Sept. 1992): A.28. ProQuest. Web. 18. Nov. 2014.

Steinmller, Karlheinz. The Uses and Abuses of Science Fiction. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews 28.3 (2003):

17578. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.

diversepixel / Shutterstock.com