Is today's SF too pessimistic?

[DiapDealer]

I love all the gritty, pessimistic dystopian stuff, myself—love it to death—but I would still hope that other readers' needs and preferences are being met as well. I'm not greedy.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

I thought I was the only one who thought that dystopia was getting overdone. I remember an old science fiction story where a man travels to the future, and sees that the world of the future is a nightmare. He comes back and instead of telling people that the future is a nightmare, he tells that that it is a paradise. And the people then go out and build that paradise. I think there needs to be a balance. When things are in unrest, that is when we need something more optimistic, and when things are looking pretty good, that's when we need something that is more cautionary. That way, it keeps us from falling into the twin traps of complacency and despair. I have grown tired of the phrase "gritty realism", because it may be gritty, but it isn't very realistic. Most people's reality doesn't look anything like the so-called "gritty realism".

That sounds like a good book!

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

Most people's reality doesn't look anything like the so-called "gritty realism".

Depends on where you live.
And what people "most people" refers to.

There are plenty of places that are as far beyond "gritty realism" as "gritty realism" is beyond Pollyanna.

When it comes to dystopias, fiction has nothing to compare to the reality of life on Planet Earth Ca. 2012. There are places that put Orwell's realms to shame; Big Brother might have been watching, but at least folks got fed. And not with bark or grass.

[PatrickPurcell]

And I thought "gritty realism" was hard to come by, personally. As a writer of sci fi and cyberpunk, I'm reminded of a quote: "It's isn't the science fiction writer's job to predict the automobile, it's the writer's job to predict the traffic jam."

No idea who made the quote, but it's always stuck with me.

[Penforhire]

cjr, I'm certainly pro-science and research. My day job is R&D management. But the majority of professional authors are going to write what sells. It does feel like a dark future is what sells now. And zombies, lol. I notice today's stories still most often have hope and success as their theme ('even against such darkness and long odds our hero does his thing').

One of the darkest of my recent dystopian reads, Charlie Huston's "Sleepless," has a ray of hope at the end (a child survives).

There are pollyanna (my dad used to call the whole upbeat approach "Disney") authors still doing their thing too. But the market will trend to follow the money.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by PatrickPurcell

And I thought "gritty realism" was hard to come by, personally. As a writer of sci fi and cyberpunk, I'm reminded of a quote: "It's isn't the science fiction writer's job to predict the automobile, it's the writer's job to predict the traffic jam."

No idea who made the quote, but it's always stuck with me.

Good quote.
Reminds me of Alfred Bester's jaunting world and the culture it made.
Or Larry Niven's teleport booths and flash mobs.
(Which we now have *without* the booths. Most unfair.)

[Nancy Fulda]

One other factor: it is easier to manipulate a reader's emotions with grim, gritty material than it is with upbeat material. Straight comedy comes easily to writers, as does straight tragedy. Walking the fine line in between, as the excellent Lois McMaster Bujold does, is a very delicate task.

[xg4bx]

not science fiction per se but i've had to give up reading dystopias,zombies and 'survival horror'. i was consuming a steady diet of it and it just felt unhealthy.

i'm still reading 'gritty' fantasy and sword&sorcery but at least there still seems to be a sense of wonder without the soul crushing depression.

i think you can still have realistic, good characters and a positive outlook without seeming naive.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

not science fiction per se but i've had to give up reading dystopias,zombies and 'survival horror'. i was consuming a steady diet of it and it just felt unhealthy.

i'm still reading 'gritty' fantasy and sword&sorcery but at least there still seems to be a sense of wonder without the soul crushing depression.

i think you can still have realistic, good characters and a positive outlook without seeming naive.

Agreed.

I love the first few books in Anne McCaffery's Brain & Brawn series. She shows a world where a lot of wonderful (and horrible) things can happen. But she always came back to people who tried their best and made a difference by doing so.

Maybe I should pick that up again this year.

[cjr72]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

cjr, I'm certainly pro-science and research. My day job is R&D management. But the majority of professional authors are going to write what sells. It does feel like a dark future is what sells now. And zombies, lol. I notice today's stories still most often have hope and success as their theme ('even against such darkness and long odds our hero does his thing').

One of the darkest of my recent dystopian reads, Charlie Huston's "Sleepless," has a ray of hope at the end (a child survives).

There are pollyanna (my dad used to call the whole upbeat approach "Disney") authors still doing their thing too. But the market will trend to follow the money.

Understood. And I never meant to imply that you or anybody else is ant-science. I'm not necessarily advocating against darker themes, I tend to gravitate towards them myself. Still, I'll be interested to see what comes of Neal Stephenson's project.

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Depends on where you live.
And what people "most people" refers to.

There are plenty of places that are as far beyond "gritty realism" as "gritty realism" is beyond Pollyanna.

Sure, there are some awful places and situations in the world. But "gritty realism" is rarely about those places or situations. It is seldom a realistic depiction of the type of situations depicted.

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

not science fiction per se but i've had to give up reading dystopias,zombies and 'survival horror'. i was consuming a steady diet of it and it just felt unhealthy.

i'm still reading 'gritty' fantasy and sword&sorcery but at least there still seems to be a sense of wonder without the soul crushing depression.

i think you can still have realistic, good characters and a positive outlook without seeming naive.

If you went back a few hundred years and told them a story about a future where smallpox was gone, where the black death didn't come anymore, where people's problems weren't too little food, but too much food, people would have called that Pollyanna. But that's the world we live in.

Life can be Lord of the Flies at times, but a whole lot of times, it isn't, and people cooperate rather than disintegrate.

[wyndslash]

I'd love to read some optimistic sci-fi myself. life is hard enough :c

[VaporPunk]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

If you went back a few hundred years and told them a story about a future where smallpox was gone, where the black death didn't come anymore, where people's problems weren't too little food, but too much food, people would have called that Pollyanna. But that's the world we live in.

But if you then told them there is increasing evidence that whole nations will be swallowed up by rising ocean waters, a man with a suitcase or a test tube could kill thousands and make vast cities uninhabitable, or that our entire civilization is relying on a cheap energy supply that will run out in the next few decades with cataclysmic consequences, they might not wanna swap.

Some might argue that SF isn't pessimistic enough.

Still, anything that's written or approved by Neal Stephenson would be a near must buy for me.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by VaporPunk

Still, anything that's written or approved by Neal Stephenson would be a near must buy for me.

This.

But honestly... good writing is just good writing to me. Regardless if it's fuzzy-bunny, bleak, or somewhere in between.