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Journey into Space

‘We shall not lay too much stress on the question of the absolute reality of space: perhaps we might as well ask whether space is or is not in space.’ Henri Bergson’s Time and Free Will was one of the main starting points for Journey into Space. And the question of ‘What is space?’ or, more precisely, ‘What, for human beings, is space?’ was a central philosophical question of the novel.

In terms of fiction, the questions I wanted to address were: Could a successful science fictional narrative be written in which there were no dramatic external events – no laser battles or alien contact? And could mere duration, and its effects on a limited crew, be in itself an event?

Journey into Space is couched within a particular sub-genre of science fiction – that of the ‘generation ship’. In ‘generation ship’ stories, a conservative view is taken of how fast spaceships might become. This means that habitable planets cannot be reached within a single human life-span. Brian Aldiss’s Non-Stop (1958) is one of the key examples of this. However, because four generations occur during the timeframe of Journey into Space, the novel also takes on elements of ‘space opera’. Frank Herbert’s Dune (1965-1986) saga was an influence here. Because of my book’s more literary and philosophical approach, its main influence is Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris (1961).

In Journey into Space, I adopt an unorthodox stance towards contemporary science fiction. I do not try to dazzle the reader with unprecendented technologies. Instead, from the book’s already-used title to the primitive conditions on board the spaceship, I am looking to find something new by investigating a familiar narrative set-up more patiently, deeply and in a more philosophically grounded way.