Mundane science fiction (MSF) is a niche literary movement within science fiction that developed in the early 2000s, with principles codified by the "Mundane Manifesto"Geoff Ryman et al. (2004), "The Mundane Manifesto". The manifesto was originally posted to the internet on a site no longer extant, but is available multiple places, such as SFGenics (retrieved 9 Nov. 2021). in 2004, signed by author Geoff Ryman and the "2004 class" of the Clarion West Writers Workshop. The movement proposes "mundane science fiction" as its own subgenre of science fiction, typically characterized by its setting on Earth or within the Solar System; a lack of interstellar travel, intergalactic travel or human contact with extraterrestrials; and a believable use of technology and science as it exists at the time the story is written or a plausible extension of existing technology.
There is debate over the boundaries of MSF and over which works can be considered canonical. Rudy Rucker has noted MSF's similarities to hard science fiction and Ritch Calvin has pointed out MSF's similarities to cyberpunk. Some commentators have identified science fiction films and television series which embody the MSF ethos of near-future realism.
MSF has garnered a mixed reception from the science fiction community. While some science fiction authors have defended the proposed subgenre, others have argued that MSF is contrary to the longstanding imaginative tradition of science fiction, or questioned the need for a new subgenre.
History and origins Mundane Manifesto The MSF movement, which was inspired by an idea from British computer programmer Julian Todd, was founded in 2004 during the 2004 Clarion West class by novelist Geoff Ryman among others. The beliefs of the movement were later codified as the Mundane Manifesto. The authors of the Manifesto stated that they were "pissed off and needing a tight girdle of discipline to restrain our sf imaginative silhouettes". Ryman, "[b]elieving that much science fiction, employing far-fetched concepts and unlikely technologies, is simply escapist, [he] felt that this new focus on the here and now would give science fiction more relevance and greater social and political power." "Mundane Science Fiction" in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction in Literature. Edited by M. Keith Booker. Rowman & Littlefield, 2014. P. 186 Kit Reed's 2004 interview with Ryman states that the "young writers decided they wanted to limit themselves to the most likely future. This meant facing up to what we know is coming, dealing with it, and imagining good futures that are likely."Attebery, Brian. Chapter 10, "The Fantastic". The Oxford Handbook of Science Fiction. Edited by Rob Latham. Oxford University Press, 2014. p. 130 Ryman explained the MSF Manifesto in a speech to BORÉAL’s 2007 Science Fiction convention in Montreal."Take the Third Star on the Left and on til Morning" by Geoff Ryman, New York Review of Science Fiction, June 2007. https://mundane-sf.blogspot.com/2007/09/take-third-star-on-left-and-on-til.html Ryman claims that the MSF Manifesto was "jokey" and that it was not intended to be a "serious" statement. The authors of the MSF Manifesto, apart from Ryman, are anonymous.
Precursor movements: 1930s–1970s Lisa Yaszek states that in the early 1930s, the editor of Amazing Stories, scientist and science journalist T. O'Conor Sloane, wrote mundane science fiction' before that term ever existed, and he banned faster-than-light travel from science fiction stories" in the magazine, so writers began using "dream narratives... as a way to travel through time and space and time." Nataliya Krynytska states that in the 1940s and 1950s, Soviet literature had a genre called "near-future science fiction".Krynytska, Nataliya. Mundane Science Fiction: Loss of Dreams or Maturity? 2021 Describing the context for the emergence of MSF, Christopher Cokinos cites Chris Nakashima-Brown in noting that a considerable body of science fiction entails fantasies about escape from scientific reality: "the escape from the subtly Nihilistic dominion of reason in the post-Enlightenment West, into a generically unbound Jungian Disneyland...". He argues that in the Golden Age of Science Fiction, stodgy tales of space opera "bland prose" and "formulas of planetary romances, über-robots, and cold equations" dominated. He also points out that SF writer Thomas Disch has similarly opined that the preference for weak, implausible depictions of science in sci fi is an "American aspect of our 'lie-loving' culture" used by readers for escapism. Some Golden Age writers, however, such as Theodore Sturgeon, Philip José Farmer, and Ray Bradbury did transcend these formulas and developed nuanced characters and stories.
Cokinos goes on to state that in the 1960s, various authors launched science fiction's New Wave, when "stylistic experimentation" in the writing and new topics meant less formulas and clichés. The authors had a profound "skepticism about science and technology", and there was an examination of "inner space" (J. G. Ballard), "feminist...critiques, and ecology (Frank Herbert’s Dune). Similarly, BBC TV critic Hugh Montgomery notes that J.G. Ballard believed that the Golden Age’s focus on advanced interstellar spaceships was "clichéd and unilluminating", preferring to write stories about humans’ "next five minutes" and "near future", which is "immediately recognisable to us, but invariably with a pretty unpleasant twist or three."
In Damon Knight's essay entitled "Goodbye, Henry J. Kostkos, Goodbye", from the 1972 Clarion II workshop, he criticizes "old guard" science fiction, including space operas and stories about travel between stars and space colonization. Knight states that "it [would] perhaps be better to stay on this planet, clean it up a little, and reduce our numbers to some reasonable figure".Knight, Damon. "Goodbye, Henry J. Kostkos, Goodbye" in Clarion II An Anthology of Speculative Fiction and Criticism. Edited by Robin Scott and Gene Szafran. New York, NY, 1972.
1990s–2000s In Nader Elhefnawy's book The End of Science Fiction?, he cites John Horgan's 1996 book The End of Science, which claims that science will not achieve a new scientific revolution of similar significance to past revolutions to claim that this may lessen science fiction writers' potential use of new scientific discoveries as a source of inspiration. Elhefnawy says this "end of science" may be behind Ryman et al's disinterest in hypothetical future science such as FTL travel and their shift to MSF.Elhefnawy, Nader. The End of Science Fiction?. 2016. Ritch Calvin argues that the goals of MSF were predated by sociologist Wayne Brekhus, who in 2000 published "A Mundane Manifesto", calling for "analytically interesting studies of the socially uninteresting." He argues for a focus on the "mundane" because the "extraordinary draws disproportionate theoretical attention from researchers", which weakens the development of theory and creates a distorted image of reality. He stated that he hoped that the humanities would also focus on the mundane. Calvin noted that in 2001, the sci-fi website Futurismic came out against the traditional forms of SF, and instead called for an examination of the impact of scientific discoveries on human society. Futurismic is against all "fantasy, horror, and space opera, as well as off-world SF, distant futures, aliens, alternate histories, and time travel". Futurismic accepts fiction that is mundane, "post-cyberpunk sf, satirical/gonzo futurism, and realistic near future hard sf."
In his book review of "Dust", scholar Paul McAuley described Michael Crichton's 1990 novel Jurassic Park as an example of mundane science fiction.McAuley, Paul. "" Dust" by Charles Pellegrino (Book Review)." Foundation 28 (1999): 124.
Style and ethos MSF is a postulated science fiction subgenre:60 that exists between science fiction and the mainstream. American SF author Nancy Kress defines MSF as a strict form of hard SF. She states that "[h]ard SF has several varieties, starting with really hard, which does not deviate in any way from known scientific principles in inventing the future"; she says "this is also called by some “mundane SF.”" According to the Manifesto, MSF writers believe it is unlikely that alien intelligence will overcome the physical constraints on interstellar travel any better than we can. As such, the Manifesto imagines a future on Earth and within the Solar System. The Manifesto states that alternative universes, parallel worlds, magic and the supernatural (including telepathy and telekinesis), time travel and teleportation are similarly avoided. MSF rarely involves interstellar travel or communication with alien civilization. In the MSF ethos, unfounded speculation about interstellar travel can lead to an illusion of a universe abundant with planets as hospitable to life as Earth, which encourages wasteful attitude to the abundance on Earth. MSF thus focuses on stories set on or near the Earth, with a believable use of technology and science as it exists at the time the story is written or which is a plausible extension of existing technology. MSF works explore topics such as enhanced genomes, environmental degradation, nanotechnology, quantum mechanics, robotics, and virtual reality. MSF claims to describe change "already in effect" and claims "ideological significance".
The boundaries between the proposed mundane subgenre and other genres, such as hard science fiction, dystopias, or cyberpunk are not defined. With MSF, the canonical works are vaguer than with cyberpunk. Science fiction author Aliette de Bodard said in an interview with Nature that "Science fiction has moved into the mainstream in step with the infusion of science into the everyday; thus, it can risk losing its outlandish feel, even as other fictional forms borrow its tropes." In its issue on mundane science fiction, British science fiction magazine Interzone attempted a checklist of topics that cannot be included for a work to be considered "mundane": Faster-than-light travel, psionic powers, nanobots, aliens, computer consciousness, profitable space travel, immortality, mind uploading, teleportation, or time travel.
Media Reception and controversy In 2007 science fiction writer Rudy Rucker, author of the 1983 Transrealist Manifesto, blogged a response to the Mundane Manifesto. Rucker stated that he "prefer[s] to continue searching for ways to be less and less Mundane". He pointed out that alternate universes are "quite popular in modern physics" and stated that perhaps other worlds exist in other dimensions. He noted that fiction writers outside of SF use stories about time travel, so while implausible, it was worth exploring. While Rucker also rejected SF's "escapist" tendencies, and called for transrealism, he argued that elements of SF which MSF advocates reject are "symbolic of archetypal modes of perception" that are needed in SF.