I am so pleased to share this insightful and thought provoking article with you about the genre of books I write - visionary fiction. Please enjoy this guest post by author Saleena Karim. Saleena is part of the Vistionary
Fiction Web Ring, a group of visionary fiction authors devoted to promoting the genre of Visionary Fiction. I just finished reading Saleena's latest visionary fiction novel: Systems: A Novel. It was a brilliant read, a suspenseful thriller, and I highly recommend it.
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The Place of Visionary Fiction in Today’s World
It's a mad
world
The future is
undoubtedly both exciting and uncertain. It's exciting because of the pace of
technology; faster communications such as the internet and mobile devices and
TV; the leaps in our understanding of the physical universe; our advances in
medicine, genetics and much more. Yet it's also uncertain, because it seems to
lack direction. Many of us fear that our combined knowledge is not
being put to the best possible use; we remain painfully irresponsible when it
comes to the environment; the vast majority of scientific research is funded
by, and carried out for, the military; and we still can't feed the world, even
though it is already technically possible. Many people express concerns about
'progress for the sake of progress'. Some even fear that we are losing sight of
our very humanity and are gradually
becoming machines.
Whilst ancient
religious cultures emphasised the importance of the 'spiritual', in the modern
age we seem to have fostered a culture of pure materialism. It might be said
that at one time humanity was so focused on the spiritual, and on religion, that
we neglected the material world and progressed very slowly. In recent
centuries, we have reacted to this one-sided worldview by embracing science.
But in our enthusiasm for material progress, we have also rejected the
'spiritual', and are out of touch with our inner selves. To put it another way,
whilst we are technologically advanced, psychologically we remain quite
primitive.
Rediscovery
Visionary fiction comes
from a human psychological need - a desire to rediscover the 'spiritual'. It is
also a totally new incarnation of the stories of old. It may contain
(fictional or otherwise) references to Moses, or Buddha, or Celtic or Roman
deities, or reincarnation, psychics, and the rest, inviting us to suspend our
disbelief to make way for the fantastic. Yet it also seeks to find the
spiritual through the regular, worldly gateways of genetic engineering,
computer technology, environmentalism and dreams (insofar as dreams are a
natural psychological
phenomenon). In short, it uses the seemingly ordinary to explore the
extraordinary.
At present visionary
fiction is still new and virtually unheard of in the mainstream. But with time
it could become an important part of our literary heritage and provide a valuable
commentary on our present collective state of mind. Visionary fiction
gives equal space to spirit and matter, and bridges the gap by suggesting that
the difference between the two is perceived rather than real. And unlike some
forms of speculative fiction, it looks to the future with hope.
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Jodine Turner is the award winning and visionary fiction, fantasy author of the Goddess of the Stars and the Sea series about young priestess who have lived in Avalon down through the ages to today. www.jodineturner.com
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