"By the way, what happened to science fiction with vision? It seems to me that modern science fiction is mostly about dystopic futures and characters who are petty criminals and druggies."
Alex commented:
All the glitz and wow SF I've read may have had the hi-tech and the bold dreams, but once you passed the surface image you were soon in a dystopia. Very little SF I've read has had the golden age be a lasting thing. It all seems to be not so much about how good things could be, but how man will be lost in it all. Take an old simple example, Flash Gordon - technology abounds, and is abused by an evil dictator. Farenheit 451 is set in a tech age similar to ours, but man is becoming an ignorant consumer. The hopeful Foundation stories still have a decline between golden ages. The Silver Locusts have colonization of Mars, but Earth falls victim to internal politics. Likewise "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress". I guess we have to go back to tales like "Argonauts of the Air" to see someone striving for technology, and doing okay by it (even though the hero gets killed). There is "A Transatlantic Tunnel(Hurrah)", apart from some antagonism from the shipping lines, the technical side is a success. The future in "Seksmisja" seems pretty good, until we realize it was actually someones play pen in the now. I cannot think of a single High Tech SF where there is not strife. Maybe there is a whole sub-genre I've missed.
Back to Eolake:
Strife, OK. There has to be some conflict for most readers to pay attention. But what I don't like is the small-think, claustrophobic feel to most of it. A feeling of apathy and grime, without relief.
A good example of the opposite is Iain M. Banks' Culture books. Yes, most stories take place on the edges of the Culture, where the action is, but The Culture itself is "as close to a utopia as I could get it and still have a recognizable human society," in Banks' own words.Banks was asked by a journalist if he would (really) like to live in the Culture, and he said "god yes!" And I can understand that. The Culture, covering thousands of worlds, is so affluent that it has no use for money, anybody can live like Bill Gates without working. It has great artificial worlds and intelligent machines, and it has spaceships which are small civilizations in their own right. And it's benevolent. The Culture is just cool!
3 comments:
Some people think utopia is cool, some think dystopia is cool. I think it's unrealistic to not mix a bit of both into the universe. Someone's going to have it better than someone else... some want all the neat toys, and some actually choose to live in tiny walkup garrets in a run down neighborhood without running water, for art's sake, or because mama didn't leave a legacy. Personally, I prefer watching dystopian SF. But utopian SF works pretty well on the printed page.
Good point. A mix is both more realistic, and more interesting.
Utopia would be boring to read/watch which is why the events take place in the remote regions and not in the strongholds of The Culture.
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