Quantum fiction is a genre of speculative fiction that reflects modern experience of the material world and reality as influenced by quantum theory and new principles in quantum physics. It is characterized by the use of an element in quantum mechanics as a storytelling device. The genre is not necessarily science-themed, and blurs the line separating science fiction and fantasy into a broad scope of mainstream literature that transcends the mechanical model of science and involves the fantasy of human perception or imagination as realistic components affecting the everyday physical world.
Novels that have been described as quantum fiction include Vanna Bonta's Flight: A Quantum Fiction Novel (1995), M. John Harrison's Empty Space trilogy (2002, 2006, 2012), David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas (2004),Sonia Front. Shapes of Time in British Twenty-First Century Quantum Fiction. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015. Scarlett Thomas's The End of Mr. Y (2006) Samantha Harvey's The Wilderness (2008), and Andrew Crumey's Sputnik Caledonia (2008).
Charles Platt introduced the term in his essay "Quantum Fiction: A Blueprint for Avoiding Literary Obsolescence", first published in The New York Review of Science Fiction in April 1990. Origin of the genre
The term had been suggested in 1990 by Charles Platt. Though, novelist Vanna Bonta claimed to have coined the term quantum fiction in 1996, when she published her novel Flight: A Quantum Fiction Novel.St. Petersburg Times, April 14, 1996, by Delilah Shapiro Jones; "FLIGHT: A Quantum Fiction Novel may be the first work of 'quantum fiction' in recorded history."Flight: quantum fiction and alternate realities, Gaggle of Book Review; January 26, 2008.An Interview with Author Vanna Bonta . Producer/director Laurel van der Linde interviews author Vanna Bonta about the emerging genre of quantum fiction; November 2007.Maria Zuppello, Quantum Fiction quando la quantistica detta le leggi della scrittura, Panorama Mondadori, January 16, 2008. In Bonta's novel, the protagonist struggles to distinguish real life from elements in a novel he is writing, as people and events from his novel begin to appear in reality.Flight: a quantum fiction novel Book summary and reviews
Bonta defined quantum fiction as stories in which consciousness affects physics and determines reality; in her words, "the genre is broad and includes life." Bonta further explained her development of this new genre: "I don't write science fiction. Science fiction is a niche genre, defined by Ray Bradbury as depiction of the real. 'Quantum fiction' is the realm of all possibilities. The genre is broad, and includes life because fiction is an inextricable part of reality in its various stages, and vice versa.""Vanna Bonta Talks About Quantum fiction", author Interview by Laurel van der Linde, 2007 (transcript at gather.com , audio at IMDB.com)
According to Christina Scholz, on Platt's inclusion of the term:
New forms of storytelling Usage of the term quantum fiction began to appear in 21st-century books and academic papers that identified and discussed a new and emerging literary genre that is affected by the new view of the world given by quantum physics. Various artists, academia, and critics explored it independently of one another and in various contexts with the common denominator of a new literary genre. By 2010, hindsight reveals a movement and usage by multiple authors and critics.Damien Walter, Science fiction's five best guides to the present, The Guardian, July 26, 2013 | "The emerging literary genre of Quantum Fiction tries to shift our scientific understanding into the human realm."Writing in the Age of Quantum Fiction: Science, Technology and “Actualism” in Mutantes Fiction , Professor Christine Henseler, Germán Sierra, Vicente Luis Mora.5 genres of fiction you might not know about, by Emily Babb; October 7, 2012.
In his book Loose Canon (Cosmos Press, 2001), author Charles Platt describes quantum fiction as "a blueprint for avoiding literary obsolescence." Platt writes: "I do believe that "Quantum Fiction" would circumvent some problems associated with traditional science fiction."Charles Platt, Loose Canon – Quantum Fiction, a blueprint for avoiding literary obsolescence, Cosmos Books (August 2001), ; "I do believe that "Quantum Fiction" would circumvent some problems associated with traditional science fiction." Platt argues, "If a nineteenth-century writer such as Charles Dickens sampled a few modern science-fiction novels, he might be surprised by the writing style and the speculative content, but he'd find nothing new in the methods of storytelling. Popular novel-length narratives are built basically the same way today as a century ago, and science-fiction writers are in the ironic position of depicting the future using techniques derived entirely from the past." Platt writes, "My own modest proposal for revitalizing the novel is a form that I will call, for want of a better term, "quantum fiction." Like the quantum theory, it acknowledges the observer (in this case, the reader) as an active participant."Charles Platt, Loose Canon (2001), p. 74. In 2001, Platt states, "I believe it should be possible to develop from these prototypes a new genre of "quantum fiction" with genuinely broad appeal."Charles Platt, Loose Canon (2001), p. 78.
In Sonia Front's Shapes of Time in British Twenty-First Century Quantum Fiction (2015), novels chosen as representative of the genre in Britain were Andrew Crumey's Sputnik Caledonia, David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, Samantha Harvey's The Wilderness and Scarlett Thomas's The End of Mr. Y.Sonia Front. Shapes of Time in British Twenty-First Century Quantum Fiction. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015.
Literary technique A literary genre, as a category of literary composition, is determined by literary technique, tone, or subject matter (content). Quantum fiction as a genre is primarily defined by technique of writing, and tone and subject matter is not limited.
Differences from science fiction Unlike science fiction which is largely defined by content, the subject matter of a quantum fiction can be anything. Quantum mechanics; July 16, 2012. Quantum fiction stories are about any subject matter and do not necessarily involve science. The storytelling itself, e.g., treatment of plot (time), characters (observers), location (multiple worlds, parallel selves), is unconventional. Quantum fiction can also hinge on theoretical physics as a subject element of a story.Amy Rogers, Quantum fiction: Reviews of two new physics novels Schrödinger's Gat and Time One , Science Thrillers – September 9, 2013. Quantum fiction deals in possibility and probability.
In The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics, physicist James Kakalios explains how it was the development of quantum mechanics that enabled the wonders enjoyed in the 21st century, not the classical model science-based predictions. As a young science fiction fan in the 1950s and 1960s, Kakalios marveled at the future predicted in science fiction pulp magazines, comics, and films of that era, and he was certain that by 2010 humanity would have flying cars and jet packs. Instead, there are far more fantastic marvels, such as laptop computers, MRI machines, Blu-ray players, and other real-life wonders made manifest via quantum mechanics.James Kakalios, The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics: A Math-Free Exploration of the Science That Made Our World, Gotham (November 1, 2011); .Damien Walter, "Science fiction's five best guides to the present", The Guardian, July 26, 2013 | "SF is not great at foretelling tomorrow's world, but it brings today's into clearer focus than anything else."
Using the interpretation of quantum theory that physical reality exists only when it is observed, therefore in the mind, the genre of quantum fiction is more closely related to idealism than the genre of empirical classic science fiction.Karl Jaspers, "How quantum mechanics fits in with idealism (aka 'the world is all in your mind')" , Axial Age End of Belief – April 8, 2013. In this regard, other creative works can be seen as subcategories of quantum fiction and even science, or reality itself, is a work of fiction.Is science merely fiction? Quantum Diaries; Thoughts from particle physicists around the world.
Quantum theory as literary device In the fiction of Guyanese novelist and poet Wilson Harris, the author's style, which he defines as quantum fiction, is by way of technique, of narrative structure. In a thesis exploring Harris's literary genre of The Carnival Trilogy as quantum fiction, Rebekka Eklund describes "In his ambitiously experimental writing, Harris creates a narrative structure which is multiple and flexible."Rebekka Eklund, "Carnival and Quantum theory" , Metaphors of identity in Wilson Harris's The Carnival Trilogy, The Society for Caribbean Studies Annual Conference Papers; Vol. 7 (2006). It is Harris's treatment of ordinary characters and events, unrelated to science per se, that defines the genre. In interviews, Harris often describes the effects of quantum perception on the literary process, techniques and devices.Michael Gilkes Interviews Sir Wilson Harris, Kaieteur News, July 18, 2010.
Wilson Harris described he has been writing since his first novel what he was to eventually realize as quantum fiction, to give witness to "realities hidden from the world you see."Hena Maes-Jelinek, Bénédicte Ledent (eds), Theatre of the Arts – Wilson Harris and the Caribbean; Editions Rodopi B.V. Amsterdam, New York (2002); Andrew Jefferson–Miles, Quantum Value in Wilson Harris's "architecture of the tides"; "In quantum fiction, the whole cosmos is involved, and that cosmos will leave its trace, its spontaneous quantum of knowing and recognizing, on even the smallest, shortest-lived thing (p. 181). In the dissertation Quantum Value in Wilson Harris's "Architecture of the Tides, Andrew Jefferson–Miles states: "In quantum fiction, the whole cosmos is involved, and that cosmos will leave its trace, its spontaneous quantum of knowing and recognizing, on even the smallest, shortest-lived thing."
In the volume Redefining the Critical Enterprise in Twenty-First Century Hispanic Literature (Hybrid 2012), Spanish author Jorge Carrión writes: "My books attempt to problematize these supposed units of meaning, because perhaps we are in a time of quantum fiction. I repeat: "quantum fiction." This is a concept I have been working on for a very short time. It is a new concept, like "counter-space" or "theoryphobia" were in their time."Jorge Carrión, "The Bicephalous Writer: The Commingling of the Creative Writer and the Critic in a Single Body", Storyspaces: Redefining the Critical Enterprise in Twenty-First Century Hispanic Literature. Christine Hensler and Deborah A. Castillo (eds). Hispanic Issues On Line 9 (Spring 2012).
In 2009, in a doctoral thesis on the Science of Art, Alexis Blanchet defines the necessity of the quantum fiction genre distinction. "Fictional worlds now appear as shifting and undefined as ever to audiences. The notion of quantum fiction aims to provide a framework of production and reception to the contemporary processes of industrialization and diversification of fiction."
In quantum fiction, the author perceives and creates characters who experience reality with a surreal or nonlinear view of things that does not correspond with the way the physical senses generally experience life and the world, and that behaves in ways posited by quantum theory.
Characteristics of the genre The genre has also been characterized as having any or all of the following characteristics: The author's invocation of quantum mechanics to make possible supernatural, paranormal, or fantastic elements of a story in which reality appears to defy the laws of physics; A character as a consciously influencing observer of reality;