Aristocracy in Space!

Why are there so many aristocrats in science fiction?

They're all over the place. In books you've got David Weber's Honor Harrington (who works for a Royal space navy and eventually becomes a Countess), Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan (a Count who works for an Emperor), Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's Rod Blaine (the son of a Marquis, who works for an Emperor), Frank Herbert's Paul Atreides (son of a Duke, and later Emperor himself).

In films you've got Princess Leia from Star Wars, and Princess Aura from Flash Gordon. And on television Star Trek was positively infested with aristocrats. The Federation and the Romulans were practically the only civilizations in the Galaxy which weren't run by some kind of autocrat.

I'm puzzled by this because science fiction began as the most anti-aristocratic literature there has ever been. Between Wells's working-class/lower-middle-class emphasis on self-improvement and a rational new world of Science, and Verne's bourgeois love of "self-made" men rising in the world by pure merit, science fiction's DNA is staunchly egalitarian. Transplanted to America, it thrived among readers not unlike Wells and Verne themselves — working-class and petit-bourgeois strivers reading about the marvels of Radio! Airplanes! The Atom! Thinking Machines! Spaceships! And it worked, too: many of those striving young men actually did become successful in the new technologies.

So where do the aristocrats come from?

Well, one answer is that it's simply easier to have a society in which authority is individual rather than collective. Miles Vorkosigan works for the Emperor, and the chain of command is very short and clear. (Although Mrs. Bujold did show us some nice parliamentary maneuvering in A Civil Campaign.) There's no bureaucracy in the way.

It's more satisfying when evil authority is individual, too. When Paul Atreides takes revenge on his father's murderers in Dune, he can hardly track down and wipe out every soldier involved. Putting him in a society with an Emperor and a wicked Baron means there's a single neck to sever, so to speak.

Another reason for the aristocrats lies in those two first examples of noblewomen in science fiction films. Since time immemorial, what have heroes of romance done? They save Princesses. So a Planetary Romance has to include at least one monarchy with a Princess in need of saving from something. It didn't take long for that trope to be subverted, reversed, parodied, deconstructed, and who knows what else, but the seed had taken root.

In more recent years, the hereditary aristocrat has taken on a new form, especially in film: the autocratic corporate executive, who can scheme and plot if he's the bad guy, or reward the hero if he's the reasonable authority figure. He can even have a spoiled but good-hearted daughter if there's saving to be done.

I doubt we'll ever completely outgrow aristocrats in fiction, whatever form they take. Humans are social creatures, and we form hierarchies. One of the most ancient and satisfying stories (Heinlein called it "The Little Tailor" plot) is of someone rising in status and gaining a high-status partner. Whether you call it A Princess of Mars or Pride and Prejudice, that story will be with us as long as we are human.

 

For stories about bourgeois and working-class strivers, check out my ebooks Outlaws and Aliens and Monster Island Tales!

Comments

[Mike S.]

I think the point you allude to that individual, relatively unaccountable (at least in the moment) power is more dramatically satisfying is a major factor. Democracy may be better to live under, but its compromises and limits are straitjackets for both heroes and villains.

Which is why even those leaders often get handed states of emergency or communications cutoffs by the author so that they're barking orders instead of attending committee meetings. Or they do things with sheer audacity that would get them impeached or primaried in reality.

SF also likes military officers on detached duty for much the same reason.