A physicist by training and an economist by vocation, David Friedman, son of famed economist Milton Friedman, is best known in libertarian circles as the author of The Machinery of Freedom, a utilitarian case for anarcho-capitalism.
But David Friedman has also written two fantasy novels: Harald and Salamander. Recently, in two blogposts, he discussed the economics and physics in his fiction. Update: There is a third post on related matters (military logistics) in Harald; be sure to peruse the comments on this one.
In the first post, Friedman references a blogpost by an economist working at the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research about his realization that “Sci-fi needs economists.”1 He can take heart, perhaps, that science fiction authors are becoming more economically literate (or so Gregory Benford believes).
Reading Friedman’s posts reminded me of some things I read and listened to from L.E. Modesitt, Jr., a while back. A professional economist before becoming a full-time science fiction and fantasy author, Modesitt has also discussed how he incorporates the economic point of view into his work (see The Magic of Recluse, for starters) as well as the importance of understanding economics in order to write practical fantasy:
- “Got a Job in Magic Land?” (Tor/Forge Blogpost)
- Writing Excuses 4.21: Writing Practical Fantasy (Podcast)
Both writers and readers could stand to benefit from an understanding of at least the basic principles and insights of economic science, so check all of this material out and then head on over to Mises.org to begin your education or just learn more.
Bonus: Reading through the comments, I happened this tidbit: A Travis J. I. Corcoran is working on a science fiction novel titled The Powers of the Earth, “a novel about anarchocapitalism, economics, corporate finance, antigravity, lunar colonization, genetically modified dogs and AI.” According to his website, it’s due out July 2012, so it might be something to keep an eye out for. ↩
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TJIC (Travis J I Corcoran) February 3, 2012 @ 6:35 am | Link
Geoffrey,
Thanks for the shout out!
I inexcusably just now discovered Prometheus Review via the trackback, but it seems like a great site; I’ve not only added it to my RSS feed but have been clicking back through the archives !
Yes, I think you and your readers will enjoy the novel when it’s finally published.
At the top of my several thousand line notes.txt file that I use to organize the book is this short list that has helped guide my writing:
what this novel is about
————————
* decentralization: no one person – or one committee – has all the ideas
* information will route around barriers
* the best way to encourage information spread is to allow profit to come from it
* people have natural rights
* governments do not own people
The first draft was written from Jan through October of 2011.
The revision is well underway; I’ll be in touch when the novel is finished.
Andy Cleary February 3, 2012 @ 4:26 pm | Link
Travis, would love to see your novel… I’m trying my hands at some AnCap fiction as well and would love to read others’ attempts. There is too little of it extant.
Geoffrey Allan Plauché February 4, 2012 @ 4:16 pm | Link
No problem, Travis. It’s good to have a new Austro-Libertarian reader — and possible contributor?
Keep us posted on your progress with the novel. Are you going to try to go the traditional, corporate publishing route? Or are you going to self-publish it? If the latter, I recommend getting it professionally proofread, maybe even edited by a professional freelancer, get a good professional-looking cover, and make sure it’s nicely formatted. Doing these things will make your book stand out amidst all the chaff.
Do you use a single plain text file with a program like Notepad? You might want to look into using Scrivener and/or Zim Wiki. Scrivener is a full-fledged writing program with many tools to help you research, organize, write, revise, and back up your book as well as compile it in various ebook formats. Zim Wiki is a nice desktop wiki that I use for various things, lie heavy-duty notetaking and research, course development, etc. It helps to organize and interlink multiple plain text documents so that you don’t have one huge, hard-to-navigate file.
TJIC (Travis J I Corcoran) March 8, 2012 @ 10:03 am | Link
> Are you going to try to go the traditional, corporate publishing route? Or are you going to self-publish it?
This is a huge topic, but my sense is that we’ve already passed the tipping point where self-publishing is the win. Using admittedly fictional numbers:
If we assume a constant list price of $2.99, and I can either (a) sell 1,000 copies by self-publishing and pocket $2 per copy, or (b) sell 8,000 copies via a publisher and pocket $0.20 per copy, then self publishing is the win for (i) absolute dollars of profit, (ii) speed of payment, (iii) transparency, (iv) rights ownership, (v) speed from manuscript completion to publication.
I think that I can probably sell a bit more than a thousand copies just based on my presence in the ancap / libertarian / wookie-sphere.
Also, I managed to find the absolutely PERFECT cover image in an only gallery run by a Russian illustrator and purchased rights to it for $100, so I think I can deliver a total package that’s as professional as what a publisher could pull together.
And, of course, there’s that famous libertarians-tend-to-be-somewhat-cranky aspect that makes me want to run the show MY way. Not the best trait for team sports or collaboration, but not entirely horrible for solitary pursuits like writing…
> I recommend getting it professionally proofread, maybe even edited
100% agreed.
> will make your book stand out amidst all the chaff.
Yep. I tend towards anal retentiveness and high production values, and I’ve launched and run two startups, so I’m not a stranger to process, persnicketiness, etc.
> Do you use a single plain text file with a program like Notepad?
As a software engineer, I’ve been using Emacs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emacs ever since college, and I use it for writing fiction as well. I note that this places me in good company. 😉 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2592511
> You might want to look into using Scrivener and/or Zim Wiki.
I’ve heard good things about Scrivener, but my process using flat text files works for me. Re: wikis: I use mediawiki extensively at work and in my private life, but, again, flat text files work for me. As trivia: my ‘notes.txt’ file for the novel runs well north of 10,000 words. I’ve got a future history chronology, character motivations, details on lunar geography, and more.
> Keep us posted on your progress with the novel.
I included two URLs here, but I got blocked for spam. I’m going to try to submit this again without the URLs…
TJIC (Travis J I Corcoran) March 8, 2012 @ 10:04 am | Link
OK, great, that comment got through.
Now, to answer your final point:
> Keep us posted on your progress with the novel.
I had a pretty big update on my rewrite progress yesterday
http://morlockpublishing.com/?p=55
Also, for folks curious about how, exactly, sausage is made, here are some visual diffs of a sample chapter from before and after the rewrite:
http://morlockpublishing.com/?p=58
Thanks for your interest!
Andy Cleary February 3, 2012 @ 4:29 pm | Link
Geoff, quite interesting to me… I’ve spent a *lot* of time with trying to get economics “right” in my own novel, and you can see my frustration with Friedman in the customer review I did for “Salamander” at amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2FYS1DTHQZB9N/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R2FYS1DTHQZB9N (hopefully the link works). I’ve even called out David specifically for setting his fantasy in a stateful world instead of a stateless one…
Matthew Alexander February 4, 2012 @ 10:30 am | Link
It seems that in Salamander he was leaning more on his knowledge of physics and translating it to magic, rather than going an-cap. From what I’ve read, Harald explores freedom themes more.
David Friedman February 4, 2012 @ 3:46 pm | Link
Neither of my novels is intended as an argument for anarcho-capitalism–I’ve done that in non-fiction. One of the things I’m doing in Harald, more implicitly than explicitly, is exploring the advantages and disadvantages of alternative structures in the context of military conflict. What are the advantages of the (semi-stateless) Vales, what the disadvantages, when it comes to a conflict with the Empire?
The other relevant thing I’m exploring is the difference between two ways of looking at social/political structures—a hierarchy, table of organization, approach, vs an approach that sees the structure as a network of individual relationships. The young king sees his situation from the first point of view, and the result is that he is in the process of destroying the alliance his father created to protect his kingdom–because he thinks he can only trust people in allegiance to him, hence must convert allies into subjects. Harald sees it from the second point of view. I don’t think I ever make this entirely explicit in the novel, but it’s central to what is going on.
Salamander is even less about anarcho-capitalism. Its only relevance to those arguments is that it is in part about what is wrong with one of the alternatives, why the central planning approach to running a society is much less desirable than it at first seems. That’s done not by dealing with that approach as it exists in our society but by something analogous in the fictional society I’m describing.
Neither book is intended as a sermon or argument, for anarcho-capitalism or anything else. They are stories, not treatises.
Finally, I don’t think of myself as a professional anarchist, and I suspect I would be a worse economist if I did. If the objective of my life was promoting anarchy, it would be very tempting, in my professional work, to filter out any facts or arguments that detracted from the case for market anarchy–which would result in worse work. Similarly in writing novels.
Geoffrey Allan Plauché February 4, 2012 @ 5:34 pm | Link
Thanks for stopping by, David. I was going to recommend Harald to Andy because it does have the semi-stateless society that he was looking for in Salamander, even if it’s not intended “as an argument for anarcho-capitalism.” Indeed, I think it’s a good rule not to write fiction with the primary intention of it being an ideological manifesto; such fictional manifestos generally sacrifice art in order to thump into the reader’s head a certain message and as a result the message suffers as well from poor delivery.