Social Science Fiction
By Sean at 29 December, 2007, 10:40 am
My first article for the eXile is now online. Here is an excerpt from “A Russian-Watcher’s Fairytale“:
Russia and the world were stunned by the assassination of Vladimir Putin as he walked out of a midnight mass at the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow on January 7, 2008.” This line is not out of Brad Thor’s spy thriller State of the Union or Robert Ludlum’s historical dystopia The Tristan Betrayal. This fanciful scenario can be found in the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ new report “Alternative Futures for Russia to 2017.” More specifically, “A Shot in the Dark … and True Dictatorship,” the second of three “alternative scenarios” Kremlinologist Andrew Kuchins, formerly of the Carnegie Endowment, predicts for Russia over the next decade, a report which caused a minor shitstorm in Russia last week.
Predicting Russia, however, is more than just an academic venture. It is a genre in and of itself. A sort of “social science fiction” where the Socratic Method is employed to weave fanciful and farcical tales about the Great Bear. And like any literary genre it posits a narrative filled with heroes and villains, climax, and foreshadowed resolutions. All that is historically contingent is flattened. All that is seemingly unexpected is, by the plot’s end, all too expected.
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Robert Ludlum’s historical dystopia The Tristan Betrayal.
This currently sits on my bookshelf, and is the last book I’d read which had not come recommended by someone, favourably reviewed by someone, or I had no prior knowledge of the author. As such, it is one of the handful of books I have bought and read where I felt I had wasted my time and wanted my money back. The lesson was well learned.
I forgot to complement you. This is a good piece.
I think most Western “analysis” of foreign countries is actually a modern version of 18th-century travel fiction. Cf. Gulliver’s Travels.
Agreed, on both points. Though in fairness to Swift, he was actually satirizing the crap travel literature of his day. And he wasn’t half bad at it.
Oh yeah. Swift was a genius. I chose Gulliver as my example since it is the best-known.
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