Whither SF?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Already did: Brave new World, 1984, pretty much all of Vonnegut, Bradbury...
You see it in this very thread.

Easy to bury a field when you deny it its best examples and only recognize its fringes.

Thanks and apologies - I'd overlooked the earlier post.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

I also don't bother to distinguish SF from sci-fi, because the definitions that separate them are too vague and often broken. By some definitions, for example, Solaris would be sci-fi because it doesn't focus on the technology as much as the human conflict. It's all science fiction.

Actually, I don't have a problem with authors/publishers who want to write a story with alien worlds and spacecraft and not call it SF... or, who want to write an SF story and not want it to be associated with alien worlds and spaceships. The SF label, and the content defined by it, have evolved so much, while still maintaining a stigma with many groups, that they're ready for a change.

I think the very broad word "science" is due to be dropped, in favor of more defining terms: New labels as sub-genres of Fiction, like Tech Fiction, Future Fiction, Alternate (as in Alternate Reality) Fiction, that kind of thing.

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

The Hunger Games, AFAIK, isn't specifically denied as science fiction, but the media blitz about it certainly seems to be avoiding the label.

The Hunger Games marketing has directly targeted Young Adult, to pull in all those Harry Potter graduates. They are avoiding that SF stigma, and it's working. Maybe others should take their cue.

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Margaret Atwood insists that her novels are spec fic, not science fic, because "Science fiction has monsters and spaceships; speculative fiction could really happen."

Yeah, space ships? That'll never happen.

[elcreative]

How people's memories and recall change history... when the term "speculative fiction" started to be used back in the days of "New Worlds," it was regarded as a sub-set of SF (and that is Science Fiction) because SF was a wide-ranging genre not tied hard and fast to domination by hard science... Over the intervening years, everyone seems to be getting pickier...pity really as I keep a wider ranging reading area than one chopped down by OCD nerds aimed at restricting things ever more tightly into ever decreasing genre segments...

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

Yeah, space ships? That'll never happen.

Along with glow-in-the-dark cats and venomous cabbages, goats that produce spider silk, or the ability to carry a hundred thousand books in your pocket. (Probably a quarter-million, if you can cope with plaintext reading.)

Yeah, wouldn't want exotic creatures and weird technology getting in the way of our plausible real-world reading.

[GoSharks]

Science Fiction, SF, SyFy, Sci-Fi, Speculative Fiction..... Let's ask JSWolf what he thinks!

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Thanks and apologies - I'd overlooked the earlier post.

No apologies needed.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by GoSharks

Science Fiction, SF, SyFy, Sci-Fi, Speculative Fiction..... Let's ask JSWolf what he thinks!

SyFy is a trademarkable term intended to reflect the reality that the network programing chief dislikes SF, fantasy, and all that "scifi crap". They'd rather have more wrestling and beer vending shows.
(Honest!)
http://blog.moviefone.com/2009/03/17...udience-in-th/

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

SyFy is a trademarkable term intended to reflect the reality that the network programing chief dislikes SF, fantasy, and all that "scifi crap". They'd rather have more wrestling and beer vending shows.
(Honest!)
http://blog.moviefone.com/2009/03/17...udience-in-th/

Too true.

Kind of like how the History Channel has become the Aliens, Red-neck Morons You Can't Understand, and Conspiracy Theories Channel®

[5thWiggle]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Too true.

Kind of like how the History Channel has become the Aliens, Red-neck Morons You Can't Understand, and Conspiracy Theories Channel®

+1

And The Learning Channel has become Momzilla, bikerzilla and cakezilla central.



I do have to admit a certain train-wreck facination with the Ancient Aliens show. I keep watching to see if Giorgio A. Tsoukalos' hair will crawl off his head and return to the mothership...

[DiapDealer]

We're not really sure.............. sooooooooooooo..... ALIENS!!

You could blindfold that dude with a piece of dental floss.

[QuantumIguana]

The Learning Channel used to have good content. I used to watch Connections and Archaeology on TLC. Now there's no learning content at all there. I like the History Channel, but it was too littered with junk like ghost stories. Some of their content was good, if a bit lightweight. I remember when The History Channel started running movies and then having people talk about the real history versus the movie version. They soon stopped having the discussion. It seemed like a think excuse to run movies instead of history content.

When the Sci-Fi channel first started out, they would run whatever was cheap, like old failed sci-fi TV series or old obscure movies. Then they started putting out some good content, but that got eroded by content like wrestling, which doesn't fit on a channel supposedly devoted to science fiction.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Too true.

Kind of like how the History Channel has become the Aliens, Red-neck Morons You Can't Understand, and Conspiracy Theories Channel®

Top Shot is fun.
Where else can you see historical and state of the art weapons in action, without having to run for your life?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

Then they started putting out some good content, but that got eroded by content like wrestling, which doesn't fit on a channel supposedly devoted to science fiction.

So they changed the name to make sure you no longer expect good SF content.
Makes perfect sense...
...on a cube-shaped world somewhere in deep space...

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Top Shot is fun.
Where else can you see historical and state of the art weapons in action, without having to run for your life?

Surely you meant "iconic" weapons? I'm fairly certain Colby Donaldson is contracted to use that word in every-other sentence.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Along with glow-in-the-dark cats and venomous cabbages, goats that produce spider silk, or the ability to carry a hundred thousand books in your pocket. (Probably a quarter-million, if you can cope with plaintext reading.)

Yeah, wouldn't want exotic creatures and weird technology getting in the way of our plausible real-world reading.

Good list. Don't forget pocketable devices that make phone calls, track you across the planet, carry a few thousand songs to listen to, keep your appointments in order, and can allow you to set your DVR when you're on the other side of the country. And fans with no blades. And meals that get hot when you pull a string. And a network that lets people trade messages in text or video across the globe in realtime.