Why Science Fiction Still Hates Itself »
Posted By Wil 1 year, 2 months ago in Arts & EntertainmentIf geek stuff is so hip, then why are two of the season's biggest scifi hits, CBS show Eleventh Hour and bestselling Neal Stephenson novel Anathem, adamantly classified as Not Scifi? Because nerd culture will never be pop culture. That's why Borders slashed its scifi section. And it's why JJ Abrams, director of the new Star Trek movie, denied that it's for fans of the scifi franchise, instead telling Entertainment Weekly that "it's for fans of movies." Successful science fiction, in other words, is still stealth. To get your spaceships and freaky science into the mainstream, you have to hate yourself just enough to shove your inner dork into a gym locker and keep her there.
Read Full Story at io9.com »
249 Views Share Story 2 Comments Report
Submitted By:
Wil
I was a Propeller Scout, and I ran the Geeks Group. AOL sent me to the land of Wind and Ghosts, though, so I don ...
RSS Join the Discussion
+ Add CommentComments So Far: 2 (view all)
-
Neutral
Wil1 year, 2 months ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
I don't think the title of this article is entirely correct. I don't think Science Fiction hates itself; I think Hollywood doesn't know how to approach Science Fiction intelligently, so the creators who really get SF have to wrap it up in something the studios and networks can understand, like action or mystery.
Reply
I wrote a column for SG once called "Sci-Fi Guilty Pleasures of the 80s" where I looked at movies like They Live and Scanners. Each of the movies I reflected upon was some kind of hybrid, like Sci-Fi/Horror or Sci-Fi/Action.
I still complain about the garbage we get in movies and television that is nominally SF, but is actually the other side of the hybrid. I especially loathe the action movies that are disguised as SF, because it makes non-geeks think that SF is crap like Riddick, and Fantasy is crap like Reign of Fire.-
Neutral
Rollic1 year, 2 months ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
I'd agree with this. Terry Pratchett said something very similiar when he accepted his Carnegie Medal for The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, one of the man's few literary awards EVER even though he's one of the best selling English authors of all time. But critics regard him as a "fantasy" writer, so, apparently, that sets him aside from every other writer who is, apparently, just writing "literature."
Reply
Fantasy (or sci-fi) as genres don't hate themselves, but too many people in mass media think that genre is an end-all-be-all definition. If there are fantastic elements in a story, it's a FANTASY and that's it. Nothing further to explore or acknowledge. It's just a fantastic romp. Oh, there's a space-ship? That's sci-fi. Can't be anything else.
They can't acknowledge there are specific characteristics in sci-fi and fantasy fiction that go deeper than dragons and robots. There needs to be an acknowledgement that sci-fi/fantasy as genres are both separate and equal - they have their own defining traits (story traits and concerns that go beyond flying cars), but, as stories, they're still subject to all the normal laws of storytelling and have just as much humor, drama, and depth as any crime fiction, coming-of-age novel, or Oprah book of the month.
-
Add a Comment
Sign In With Your Propeller Account
Please keep your comments relevant to this story.
To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.