THEY SAID IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE --

BUT THEY HAVE BUILT IT --

IT IS ALIVE!

"Lab Lit" Gives Scientists Hopes and Dreams

Fiction writers have been unkind to scientists. We have made them appear fools obsessed with obscure research as opposed to natural human concerns; libeled them as sexless recreants, too unimaginative and passionless to give or receive pleasure; and bullied them into accepting a science fiction ghetto for their cultural cues and heroes.

We have called them inhuman. Morally complicit. Damned. Fausts. Prosperos. Frankensteins.

We have ignored them when they called to be heard. We have taken their chocolate milk away, and left them holding regular milk. We have looked at their short stories and fan-fiction and smiled indulgently and said: "Good first try."

But scientists will not be silent forever. They will not remain stripped of their dignity, of access to their own imaginations, of the right to be represented faithfully in the arts as decent human beings, as soulful creatures who live and breathe and fuck with the same joy and depth as an artist, a madman, a puck, a clown, a dissenter.

The days of MAD SCIENTISTS -- ho ho -- as gibbering caricatures -- hee hee -- are long over, my friends. There is a new fiction sub-genre being constructed in the laboratories of our fathers. A sub genre that -- HA HA HA -- gives RESPECT to the aims and disciplines of science.

A new age has dawned, brothers and sisters! Scientists have created their own clearinghouse to analyze and evaluate the gulf between science and fiction, and to achieve PARITY!

HA HA HA HA HA! NO MORE MOCKERY, FICTION! A NEW AGE IS UPON US! THERE WILL BE JUSTICE AT LAST!

***

Maybe you want to start writing "Lab Lit." I don't know you. Maybe this seems like a good idea to you. New markets every day, right?


Posted by miracle on Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:56:06 -0400 -- permanent link