MobileRead Forums - View Single Post

Steven Lyle Jordan · 05-30-2011, 09:19 AM

Although the article laments the influence of media--mostly movies--as participating in the decline of SF--always considered as only legitimate in book form--the dated article obviously couldn't see into the future of media, and so couldn't predict that the Star Trek series that it considered dead would, in fact, continue on for several more movies and do stunningly well.

In fact, since STVI's debut in 1991, we have had some excellent SF representations in media: 12 Monkeys, The Matrix, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Time Traveler's Wife, The Thirteenth Floor, Jurassic Park, Ghost In The Shell, The Fifth Element, Dark City, The Truman Show, A.I., Moon, Vanilla Sky, Minority Report, Cowboy Bebop, Serenity, Solaris...

Sure, there were many others that fit the "90% of SF is crap" quote (and we can argue which movies fit into the 90 or the 10 percentile 'til the cows come home), but the point is that there is plenty of good SF in media, and many people who see those movies will want to check out books in similar genres at some point.

But I think the most important thing to note is that, as indicated above, SF isn't just books. In my area, SF shelves are shrinking fast. But as I can always pull out my Firefly or Farscape DVDs and have a ball--something that wasn't as readily available in 1991--I'd say that SF is still doing very well. It's just shifting its presentation priorities lately, skewing more towards material like movies, TV shows and other digital content that's available online.

Does this bode well or badly for books? I can't tell. I do think digital books will come to dominate printed books soon... on the other hand, the lack of security afforded ebooks will make it very hard for all but the highest-list authors to be profitable, so we might see a decline in available ebooks until they can become more secure.

But until that problem is worked out, the media that have already created working sales models--TV, movies and DVDs--will carry the torch for SF for the immediate future. Nothing wrong with that.

05-30-2011, 09:19 AM	#12
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	Although the article laments the influence of media--mostly movies--as participating in the decline of SF--always considered as only legitimate in book form--the dated article obviously couldn't see into the future of media, and so couldn't predict that the Star Trek series that it considered dead would, in fact, continue on for several more movies and do stunningly well. In fact, since STVI's debut in 1991, we have had some excellent SF representations in media: 12 Monkeys, The Matrix, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Time Traveler's Wife, The Thirteenth Floor, Jurassic Park, Ghost In The Shell, The Fifth Element, Dark City, The Truman Show, A.I., Moon, Vanilla Sky, Minority Report, Cowboy Bebop, Serenity, Solaris... Sure, there were many others that fit the "90% of SF is crap" quote (and we can argue which movies fit into the 90 or the 10 percentile 'til the cows come home), but the point is that there is plenty of good SF in media, and many people who see those movies will want to check out books in similar genres at some point. But I think the most important thing to note is that, as indicated above, SF isn't just books. In my area, SF shelves are shrinking fast. But as I can always pull out my Firefly or Farscape DVDs and have a ball--something that wasn't as readily available in 1991--I'd say that SF is still doing very well. It's just shifting its presentation priorities lately, skewing more towards material like movies, TV shows and other digital content that's available online. Does this bode well or badly for books? I can't tell. I do think digital books will come to dominate printed books soon... on the other hand, the lack of security afforded ebooks will make it very hard for all but the highest-list authors to be profitable, so we might see a decline in available ebooks until they can become more secure. But until that problem is worked out, the media that have already created working sales models--TV, movies and DVDs--will carry the torch for SF for the immediate future. Nothing wrong with that.