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“Science fiction is the literature of change”

PUDUCHERRY: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty, said John Keats. In this, truth stands for science and beauty for humanities. It is the marriage of the two that the world seeks and that is science fiction,” former English Professor P. Balaswamy said on Saturday.

Delivering the keynote address at the 9th National Science Fiction Conference organised by the Department of English, School of Humanities, Pondicherry University, in collaboration with Indian Association for Science Fiction Studies and Vigyan Prasar, Dr. Balaswamy said science fiction was the literature of change. Though set in an alien setting, it was written from a human angle.

Quoting writer C.P. Snow, he said the mark of a cultured and educated person in ancient times was the ability to be able to read novels and know science and mathematics as well. Science fiction attempted to blend science and literature, he said, adding that sci-fi was how one explained concepts from science using language and style. In his inaugural address, L. Kannan Vice-Chancellor, Thiruvalluvar University, Vellore, said no other literary form had given so much importance to science as sci-fi. Science fiction, he said, created a sense of wonder and so did all sciences at their greatest heights. Sci-fi would help attract young minds and encourage them to take up studies in science, he added.

Suboadh Mahanti, Vigyan Prasar, said the organisation would conduct a workshop on sci-fi writing. In the first session covering literature and science fiction, four papers were presented. Sujatha Vijayaraghavan, Reader in English, Department of English, Pondicherry University, who chaired the first session, said it was necessary to compile an annotated bibliography of sci-fi literature written in all regional languages in India.

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