Classic examples of SF/mystery mashups include Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and its resulting film adaptation, Bladerunner, as well as William Gibson’s Necromancer, the manga Ghost in the Shell, and the film Strange Days. Why do these two seemingly disparate genres work so well together? In an essay on CrimeReads, writer Lincoln Michel examines why noir – normally an element of atmospheric crime or mystery writing – pairs so well with science fiction.
“I think the answer lies first in the fact that both genres have an inherent critique of the social order,” Michel says. “They question the state of the world, refusing to just accept the corruption, inequality, and destruction as ‘the way things are.’ Or at least saying, sure, it’s the way things are, but it’s still screwed up.”
While a traditional mystery promises a return to the status quo once a murderer is caught, noir suggests that the status quo is the culprit – the rich and powerful and their institutions. The typical noir hero is a private investigator or fallen cop, not a police detective or government operative.
Michel says that the very nature of SF questions the established order. “Whether it’s set decades or thousands of years in the future, science fiction is necessarily a commentary on the way things are now,” he explains. ” Science fiction’s dystopias imply problems in our current way of life, and its utopias offer possibilities of different ways of living.”
Put the two genres together and you have a fuller picture. “Noir provides the critique, and science fiction the possibility of change,” Michel concludes.
