Toward theendof 2019 DAVID HAMBLING caughtupwith the legendaryBritishscience fictionwriter andtalked to himabouthislongcareerandprodigiousoutput, theinterplaybetweenscience fiction andstrangephenomena, and evenafictionalreporterfromFortean Times...40 FT389
Brian Stableford is aveteran of the British
sciencefiction scene,as author, essayist,
translatorand editor.Lastyear sawthe
half-centuryofh is first bookCradle of
the Sun,firstpublished in1969.Despite
producing 464 bookssof ar,Stableford
regards his output as“rathermeagre,”
based onAnthonyTrollope’ scalculation
that an authorshouldbeabletowrite
at least eight full-length novels ayear.
(“Trollope wasonlyapart-timewriter,”
notes Stableford).
Fortean themessuffuse much of his
work,includ ing arecent trilogy begun
withSpiritsoftheVastyDeep,set in
Wales andfeaturing(what appeartob e)
mermaids and sea serpents.
TheForteanTimesitself has also
appeared–inADarklingWood,the lead
character is an entomologist investigating
woodland threatenedbydevelope rs,and
is shadowedbyanFTreporte rseeking
sensational material.“You ca n’thave run
completelyout of ethicsworkingforFortean
Times?”demandsthe exasperated scientist.
Of coursetherereally is somethingnasty
in thewoods andweirdscience is involved,
inspiredby Stableford’sbackg round in
biology.
On thewaythe no velexplores oneof
Stableford’s other interests –‘scholarly
fantasy’,those parts of accepted science
where imagination runs ahead of thefacts.Were youeverareader ofForteanTi mes?Ifear thatIonlysaw the occasional issue of
FTback in the days whenIcould still read
print fluently, butBob Rickard[who founded
FTin 1973] andIusedtowrite forthe same
fanzine backint he 1960s andImet him once
at asciencefiction convention.Hazard, the scientistinTheDarklingWood,
statesthat “Thetruth is dullwhilescholarly
fantasies are colourful.”Isthisyour own
view, or were yousetting him up as the
characterwhosays: “There are no suchthing
as vampires...”?Thecharacteris requiredby theplot to
adoptascepticalstance;my ownoutlook
is also sceptical,inathoroughgoing sense–which is to saythat Idoubt manythings
thatmost scepticswould assume to be true.
Itakeitf or granted thatmost recorded
history is misinformation ordisinformation,
all biographyand all psychology being
speculative fictionand allautobiography
beingcalculated mendacity.Muchphysics
is probablytrue,but that doesn’tpreve nt it
beingfullofscholarlyfantasy, withoutwhich
it could not function.Science might oncehavebeendull,but now
wehave peoplelikeDavid Attenborough,
backedbytheformidableapparatus of the
BBCWildlifeunit, whocanwowtheworld
with intenselycolourful visions of theworld.
Or is the programme justscholarlyfantasy
with good productionvalues?Scholarlyfantasy often attempts to
be morepicturesquethan the proven
reality ,but some strives conscientiously
to be dull in the hopeofs eeming
morecredible.Muchofwhat isreal
onlycomes to seem dull when it
becomesfamil iar. Davi dAttenborough
is athoroughlyadmirable man,a
conscientious and enterprising observer
on the side ofthe angels,and his
pictures certainly aren’tfaked ,but
the selectionmadefor exhibition and
therhetoricsurroundingthem in the
inter estsofnarrat iveconstructionand
propaganda obviouslyintroduce agood
deal of ideology, the moral and æsthetic
judgmentsofw hich can neitherbet rue
or false.Howwouldyousay science fiction, and
our attitudes towardsthe unexplained,
have changed in thedecadesyou’ve
been writing?I’vealwaysbeenfascinatedbyt he manner in
whichliterar yfantasies,scholarlyfantasies
and lifestylefantasieshave interacted
throughouthistory,and speculati ve fiction
is ausefulway of interrogating those
interactions.The“sciencefiction ”label
has been adulteratedtot he extent of
meaninglessness,and the written genre
seemstoh ave lostthe smalleffect thatit
mighthavehad in therole of sti mulating
imagination and thought whenIstarted
writing inthe 1960s; asforattitud es
to th eunexplained,mostpeople are
philosophicallyallergicto it andalways
have been,whichisw hy there’s such a
thriving marketinæsthetically satisfactory
“explanations”.
Ithink ofmy ownworkas“metaphysical
fantasy,”which tries to imaginewhatthe
worldwouldhave to be likeino rder for
various motifsoft he imagination actually
to exist,and triestoe xtrapolate other
consequences ofthe hypothesesIcomeup
with.It’snot agamethatinteres ts ma ny
othe rpeople,but I’m an oldage pensioner
whogets paid justforbreathin g,and writing
occupiesthe time separatingmefromthe
crematoriuminasuitably absorbi ng fashion,
whic hisa ll Iask of it.INTOTHEDARKLINGWOODBRIAN STABLEFORD INTERVIEWED“Muchofwhatisreal onlycomes toseem dullwhen itbecomes familiar”