The major function of science fiction writers is to describe the nature of and to find resolutions for the role conflicts which confront their social group as it moves into the future. Most science fiction performs what is best described as a "magical" function. The conscious exploration of the meaning of various social roles is seldom attempted; neither is there any real critical examination of the means-ends relationship in characters' actions. Expression in science fiction can be perceived within the context of a specific social formation with its attendant superstructure. The hierarchy established by this value system reflects a social order which is fundamentally bourgeois in nature. (KS)