Whither SF?

[ApK]

Originally Posted by nathanm

What with the turbulence in the climate, politics and economies of the world, it's no coincidence that dystopian scifi is flavour of the month at the moment.

No. Through any given period over the history of literature, people have fought vast wars, committed wide-spread crime, faced plagues and natural disasters, experienced economic strife, treated people unjustly, committed atrocities, oppressed societies, saw doom in the future.

During those very same periods, people made peace, cured diseases, increased prosperity, protected human rights, freed societies, and saw hope in the future.

Which stuff you want focus on and write about is a matter personal outlook and choice, not an inevitability, and either way is very much a coincidence with any particular facet of the state of the world, and an unavoidable coincidence at that.

ApK

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by nathanm

I've been an avid scifi reader since the age of 14, that was a helluva long time ago. I'd go through a couple of books every week with regular visits to the library and Foyles in Tottenham Court Road.
The rapid advances in science, and the convergences between say nanotechlonogy, genetics, biotechnology, neurosciences quantum computing and communications, offer spectacular new fields of scifi literature.
As as result, as writers of science fiction, we must be even more disciplined and meticulous in our attention to technical detail so as not the stretch credibiltiy beyond the current ken of tech savvy followers - which most, if not all, scifi readers are.
I took Kim Stanley Robinson as my role model because his Mars Trilogy books are a testament to a real professional approach to all the sciences that impact upon the story and characters in the three books.
I term what I write 'nanopunk' and I hope that new genres of science fiction emerge to explore and expand the current work being undertaken in labs and universities across the globe - along with the emerging political, climate and economici trends.
What with the turbulence in the climate, politics and economies of the world, it's no coincidence that dystopian scifi is flavour of the month at the moment.

First post, I notice.
And a good one.
Welcome aboard!

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by ApK

No. Through any given period over the history of literature, people have fought vast wars, committed wide-spread crime, faced plagues and natural disasters, experienced economic strife, treated people unjustly, committed atrocities, oppressed societies, saw doom in the future.

During those very same periods, people made peace, cured diseases, increased prosperity, protected human rights, freed societies, and saw hope in the future.

Which stuff you want focus on and write about is a matter personal outlook and choice, not an inevitability, and either way is very much a coincidence with any particular facet of the state of the world, and an unavoidable coincidence at that.

ApK

Everything good in the world is the result of people who imagined a better world and worked to make things better. Perhaps it takes a much worse world than this to make people imagine a better one. When people say that this world is so awful that it is obvious that people will write dystopias, I say "comapred to what?" Let's not look at the past with rose-colored glasses. I'm certainly not saying that there is no place for dystopias, we do need to be reminded of dangers. But the world isn't so bleak something better can't be imagined. I'd like to see some more balance, but of course the market will determine what books sell.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

Everything good in the world is the result of people who imagined a better world and worked to make things better. Perhaps it takes a much worse world than this to make people imagine a better one. When people say that this world is so awful that it is obvious that people will write dystopias, I say "comapred to what?" Let's not look at the past with rose-colored glasses. I'm certainly not saying that there is no place for dystopias, we do need to be reminded of dangers. But the world isn't so bleak something better can't be imagined. I'd like to see some more balance, but of course the market will determine what books sell.

Indeed. And I think if you say dystopias are currently popular because of the state of the world, then how do you explain the popularity of twinkly vampires?

By the way, while I'm not a fan of 'dysopia' as a genre (or an outlook) by and large, I did just finish the aforementioned 'Ready Player One' last night.
This child of the 80s found it absolutely fantastic.
(I so could have cleared the first gate....)

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by ApK

Yeah, but the BSG version seemed more electro-psychedelic

But Dylan was the key to tying it all up.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by kennyc

But Dylan was the key to tying it all up.

Then please send me a PM and explain it to me.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

The "popularity" of dystopia has nothing to do with the state of the world, or even with the public's perception of the state of the world. We're talking about entertainment, and a story can be captivating whether it is utopian, dystopian or something in-between...

Say... did we just wander over from another thread?...

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

Say... did we just wander over from another thread?...

Nothing wrong with a thread crawl.
As with pub crawls, they start to blur together after a while.

[BeccaPrice]

Originally Posted by ApK

Then please send me a PM and explain it to me.

and one to me, please!

[hidari]

Well put... a good story is a good story....anyways...it all comes out in the wash.....

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

The "popularity" of dystopia has nothing to do with the state of the world, or even with the public's perception of the state of the world. We're talking about entertainment, and a story can be captivating whether it is utopian, dystopian or something in-between...

Say... did we just wander over from another thread?...

[VydorScope]

So I just read all nine pages of this thread and come back to the same opinion I have had since getting into the ebook world...

Many years ago when you bought books in stores (Kids, those are buildings where you could trade green paper for items... ask your parents about them...) you needed a way to SORT the books. Say I wanted to read about world with elves, dragons, and trolls. For the most part I knew to look for the sign that said "Fantasy" on it. If I wanted spaceships, aliens and a futuristic setting, I knew to look for "science fiction" signs. There has always been those books that straddle those to categories, and many others but there was a general understanding that "Star Wars" had spaceships and aliens so could be found in Sci Fi, and "Lord of the Rings" had dragons and elves so could be found in Fantasy.

This worked well when you had only a few hundred books to sort in your store, maybe a thousand... but today we live in a different world. Hit up a store like Amazon and there are a gazillion squared books that cover and corss every "genre" you could think of. The idea of hard categories is what must die. Today "labels" or "tags" work better. Using the Star Wars example we could tag it with ...

Space Opera, Magic, Sorcery, Wizards, Sci Fi, Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Then a reader could search for "A space opera with wizards" and find it. We "search" for books more then we browse anymore. Browsing fits better with hard categories, search works better with tags.

That is how I see it at least...

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

Then a reader could search for "A space opera with wizards" and find it. We "search" for books more then we browse anymore. Browsing fits better with hard categories, search works better with tags.

That is how I see it at least...

Except that there are no wizards in Star Wars.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

Except that there are no wizards in Star Wars.

What the heck do you think Obi Wan was?

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by kennyc

What the heck do you think Obi Wan was?

Or Yoda, for that matter.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by kennyc

What the heck do you think Obi Wan was?

Uncle Owen even refers to him explicitly as such:

Spoiler:

Luke: Well, I stumbled across a recording while I was cleaning him. He says that he belongs to someone named Obi-Wan Kenobi. I thought he might have meant old Ben. Do you know what he's talking about?

Uncle Owen: Uh-uh.

Luke: I wonder if he's related to Ben.

Uncle Owen: That wizard is just a crazy old man. Now, tomorrow I want you to take that R2 unit to Anchorhead and have its memory erased. That'll be the end of it. It belongs to us now.

Though I suspect he meant the "old wise man" sense of the word.

ApK