The Case for Optimistic Futurism

An explanation of the ethos of Soft Star

This post is the first in a series of Editor’s Notes from Soft Star Editor-in-Chief Miranda Adkins. 

Late last year, I was at a writer’s meetup in a cozy bar in Queens when the concept for this magazine was born. I’ve had a special love for lit mags since college, when I served as design editor and EIC for Echo Literary Magazine. I found a lot of joy and fulfillment as a part of the small community of literary publications at my university, and since graduating I’ve long wanted to start a publication of my own.

I loved the idea of a genre publication, and I’ve been a huge fan of science fiction for as long as I can remember. But when I set about defining the ethos of this fledgling publication, I knew that I wanted to be more specific than that. One of the greatest joys I’ve found as an editor is sifting through submissions in order to curate a particular tone, a thesis for the publication told through the voices of many. I wanted Soft Star to have a message, a story of its own to tell. My favorite sci fi and speculative fiction stories have always been the ones with a more human-centered focus, so I decided to focus on “soft” science fiction stories, including stories from the slipstream between realistic literary fiction and the fantastical.

I also decided, for better or worse, that Soft Star was going to be a source of optimism about the future. Dystopian stories have dominated the mainstream sci fi space since I was a teenager, and frankly, I was bored. Dystopian art serves an important purpose in highlighting the dangerous tendencies of our world and the potential ramifications, and I certainly believe it has its place. It’s difficult to look at the world today and not feel a sense of pessimism when it comes to the future, but I’ve started to find that pessimism suffocating. There has to be a way to dream about the future that doesn’t end in existential dread.

To be clear, I’m not necessarily super optimistic about the future of the human race as a whole. We, in general, have a pretty rough track record. War is accepted as a core behavior of our species. People are selfish. Sure, animals of other species are selfish too, but they don’t have the same power to manipulate the world in a physical and far-reaching way. Here we are, building and razing cities, polluting rivers and oceans, burning forests to the ground. We develop and we destroy, and that takes its toll. We are very good at innovating and bouncing back, and I don’t think we are inherently evil, but I think we are too powerful for our own good and that that doesn’t bode well for us.

But that doesn’t mean that I’m not optimistic about the future. The universe is unfathomably enormous, and more than that, it’s diverse. We humans will most certainly never know every possibility that this universe holds. But those unknown possibilities are awe-inspiring. Nebula clouds, volcanoes larger than the human mind can conceive, even different forms of life. Such an infinite set of possibilities is akin to magic — effectively, anything is possible. And I think the most beautiful and awe-inspiring moments come from unexpected collisions between these fantastical phenomena.

Throughout history, humans have come face to face with surprises from the universe. Things that they didn’t expect or didn’t think possible. Sometimes that’s scary. But mostly, it’s awe inspiring. Those chance meetings and discoveries are what keeps us going as a species. We want to learn more, to see more, and every time we do it changes our world for the better. Discovery is a net positive in my eyes. And the future contains so many discoveries, by humans and by others. New things will happen, new combinations will occur, the universe will conceive of new ways to express its magic.

That’s why I’m hopeful about the future, and that is the message I hope to convey through Soft Star. I know that magic is happening all the time, and that it will only continue. And I especially look forward to the ways in which humans will interact with that magic, and how it will change us. In general, I think that every time we come face to face with new surprises from outside of ourselves, it does change us for the better. We are humbled, we are inspired, and we are reminded of our innate need to explore.

Until next time,

Miranda