We’ve all heard it a million times before.
“In a world gone mad” or “I’ll love you until the day I die.” This is why fiction is successful. It’s full of cliches. Cliches are cliches because they’re the things that have stuck to the wall, they’re the things we memorize and pull out to use in the perfect moment because EVERYONE gets the reference. Like love being a knight sweeping a princess off her feet, or a mix tape, or horror being a deadly virus unleashed upon the world and only a few certain selected few are chosen for survival. Where does fiction come from? Well ALL fiction is based off a little bit of truth.
Take Y2K or the swine flu. Fiction exists because man exists. Fiction takes ordinary things that happen. The swine flu isn’t that bad, but it’s being made to seem that way. Y2K was mass hysteria overhyped to the point of almost uncontrollable fear, and nothing happened. In the case of both of these, all fiction does is take it to the next extreme level, keep upping the ante. Swine Flu-which will die down very shortly-translates to fiction as a deadly disease which could destroy mankind. Now led by a one scientist, an entire team sets out to discover a vaccination, but only discovers a truth more horrifying that leads to a confrontation with their own government. Sound familiar? Yes, we’ve all heard it a MILLION times before. Same is said for Y2K, mass overhyped hysteria turns into $7.95 at your local bookstore.
Fiction is as manmade as non fiction is, everything is based on a little grain of truth. Even fiction. We’re not awaiting the future, we’re CREATING the future, and the future is whatever we want it to be. That’s why Sci-Fi is so very important, it could lead us to the right future that is perfect for us. We pre-determine and we create.
Whoever said not to judge a book by it’s cover was an idiot, because that’s a cliche too.
m@rk
