[#]
Thu Sep 13 2018 00:03:17 EDT
from
IGnatius T Foobar
@ Uncensored
Subject: Re: Where has all the Science Fiction gone??
I don't know how Fantasy became the conjoined twin of Science
Fiction, but I really wish it hadn't. Science Fiction is NOT
supposed to come across as magic. Unfortunately, I think it is
I suppose they have elements in common ... anachronism, the same suspension of the real world, but in different directions...
One depicts the world as it might have been, the other depicts the world as it might be...
I have to admit I was dressed in the style of the late 1500's when I met Leonard Nimoy at a convention.
It was absolutely a mistake for literary awards to merge fantasy and scifi. Detrimental to both genres, and to fiction as a whole.
Right... how much science fiction is really just fantasy posing as a kind of pastice of science fiction?
*Real* science fiction makes you think, right? It isn't science soap-opera.
Which isn't to take away any joy from the science soap-operas out there... they can be a fun watch. But they don't make you really think. They don't get you to contemplate things like the influence of language on human thought processes, or how string theory might be used for space travel.
So, yeah, much of that list didn't really have good, hard-hitting sci-fi.
And, truthfully, it's *hard* to make decent sci-fi... because you have to THINK.
(And I'm not given to believe a lot of thought happens these days).
Right... how much science fiction is really just fantasy posing as a kind of pastice of science fiction?
Most of it, now that you mention it. Pretty much all of Star Wars is fantasy-in-space, or perhaps even just a space opera. Real science fiction requires some imaginative speculation, some radical departure.
Well that certainly doesn't disqualify it, it just means it isn't hardcore
sci-fi. Like anything else, space opera runs the gamut from insanely great
(for example, 20th century Star Wars) to completely unwatchable (for example,
21st century Star Wars).
At least Hulu is bringing back Animaniacs.
Which has absolutely nothing to do with Science Fiction.
Or *does* it?
I read about that the other day. Animaniacs was awesome. I hope Speilberg
is able to keep his politics out of it.