Yen Ooi: When I first came across Professor Roger Ames’s lecture on Zoetology, I felt a surge of relief alongside excitement, as finally, there was language to explain my “rationality” – the foundational thought-structure that I had grown up with. This applied easily onto science fiction, since it is literature that is grounded in “rational science,” allowing me to understand and explore why “rationality” in speculative fiction can differ so much from culture to culture, subgenre to subgenre.
As I discovered Zoetology alongside a depth of other theories (like convergence culture, participation revolution, techno-Orientalism, tabula plena, neo-colonialism, post-colonialism, polymedia, and more), and amidst all the distressing news in the world today (of wars, the climate crisis, the AI bubble, etc.), while my life kept “becoming” (through motherhood, researching and practising Zen, and lots of writing!), everything came together to become Zoefuturism in an organic discovery. Zoefuturism isn’t a new idea inasmuch as zoetology is what Ames calls “a new name for an old way of thinking.”
Stephen Oram: Talking with Yen over coffee about her theories behind Zoefuturism, the phrase she coined, was more than an insight into a new way of approaching science fiction, it chimed beautifully with some of my own thinking.
My cultural background is not one of eastern religions or philosophy, quite the opposite. However, since my teenage years I’ve been sceptical of absolutes, developing a keenness for seeing life as directional. By that I mean keeping an eye on whether things are going in the right direction towards a “notion” rather than setting absolute goals or end-points. More recently, I’ve been actively attempting to hold knowledge and ideology lightly, passionately but with the understanding that both will change and develop. This focus on change is reflected in a lot of my writing.
Since talking with Yen, I’ve begun to understand the idea of change differently, as a constant rather than a way of getting to a pre-defined place. It has also shifted my perspective on legacy, especially around not having children. I wouldn’t say that I have completely digested this way of viewing the world, far from it, but I would say that it has begun something profound which is now spilling over into my work – “Brain Fruit” being the first manifestation.
Which is why I was honoured when she suggested I co-edit Vector with her, bringing my western cultural eye to reflect as best I can on Zoefuturism.
YO: Having the full support of Vector on our Zoefuturistic approach to editing the issues meant that we could be more open and allow more explorative ideas. We wanted to gather organic responses to Zoefuturism in a way that was relevant to a diversity of interests, and we were not disappointed with the submissions received. We have articles exploring applications of Zoefuturism in processes, fiction, philosophy, policy, genres, and more. But more importantly, I am feeling proud and inspired by the fact that we have planted the seeds of Zoefuturism and are keenly watching it grow and become.
SO: Reading these wide range of contributions has broadened my perspective; discussing them with Yen has broadened my understanding of Zoefuturism.
As a result, I have taken a fresh look at existing speculative fiction, and at my applied science fiction work with communities, so I’m pleased we have articles on these topics. I like the metaphysical aspects that are covered, whether they’re on time, the power of perception on reality, or simply on a non-binary nature of technology.
Given the disruption to my own writing this has sparked and the challenge it represents to the destructive ideas of domination, this quote from Jasper King is worth pondering: “alternative narratives might be the best tool we have to repair our future.”
YO: Zoefuturism assumes relationality and constant “becomings” in all things, and crucial to this understanding is that opposites (as we know it in the English language) are not binaries or separate from each other, rather, they are correlative aspects of change, of a whole, as represented in yin and yang. Black and white are descriptors of colour, encompassing the myriad of colours in its whole, feminine and masculine are descriptors of people, encompassing the diversity of communities in its whole, and so forth.
Applying this to science fiction, we can look to disabled, queer, Korean-American scholar Seo-Yeong Chu’s informal new definition of science fiction as “a representational technology powered by a combination of lyric and narrative forces that enable SF to generate mimetic accounts of cognitively estranging referents” (Chu 2010, 73). Chu notes that “all representation is to some degree science-fictional because all reality is to some degree cognitively estranging” (Chu 2010, 7). She presents this as a range – a slider – between “realism” which designates “low-intensity mimesis,” and “science fiction,” which designates “high-intensity mimesis” (Chu 2010, 7). She notes that there is “no such thing as the opposite of science fiction. Likewise, there is no such thing as the opposite of realism” (Chu 2010, 8). In this way, realism and science fiction can be presented as yin and yang, correlative aspects within the process of change in science fiction. Realism-science fiction (yin-yang) is the focal identity that makes SF uniquely what it is by virtue of its vital relations, what SF is becoming.
Allowing Zoefuturism to become, while we gently notice as much as we can that’s relational to it, we’re excited for you to explore the discoveries with us through this issue, the forthcoming articles online, and in the second issue looking at different narrative structures and how other sub-genres fit with Zoefuturism. Do look out for those in the coming months.
Ames, Roger, ‘Zoetology: A new name for an old way of thinking,’ Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements, 93 (2023), 81-98.
Chu, Seo-Young, Do Metaphors Dream of Literal Sleep? A Science-Fictional Theory of Representation, (Harvard University Press: USA, 2010)
Stephen Oram writes speculative novels and short stories, often exploring the intersection of messy humans and imperfect technology. He is also a leading proponent of applied science fiction, using bespoke fiction to explore possible futures for different communities. His latest fiction is the near-future novel, We Are Not Anonymous and the futuristic fable, Brain Fruit. (stephenoram.net).
Yen Ooi is a Hugo Award finalist narrative designer, writer, editor, and researcher with a diverse portfolio of work from short stories to books, poetry to computer games, academic papers to non-fiction books. Her interests lie in the connections between storytelling and the real world, delving into culture and philosophy—most recently culminating in zoefuturism. Her latest projects include The Zen Parent (non-fiction), Tales of Seikyu (game) and Ab Terra 2024. When she’s not got her head in a book, she lectures, mentors, and plays the viola. (yenooi.com).
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