Proper sf explores the edges of reality and then goes beyond.
Popular “sf” is old tropes and popular ideas rendered in terms of spaceships and robots.
The first is a real live alien. The second is cosplay.
Proper sf explores the edges of reality and then goes beyond.
Popular “sf” is old tropes and popular ideas rendered in terms of spaceships and robots.
The first is a real live alien. The second is cosplay.
I raise the torch because I was just over at a Star Trek community where the subject of politics in Star Trek was brought up.
I offered that politics is a popular substitute for proper sf. Which got me immediately banned of course.
But yes, what we’re seeing here is a manifestation of an age old phenomenon : Diamond is generated by a few lone weirdos. Popularized. Then the populace proceeds to sell its tired shit branded as diamond. Until the next diamond appears. (And the populace will be damned before they relinquish their grasp on that brand)
Call me whiny.
(and yes, we disagree about firefly)
There’s a problem with social media. There are a thousand communities selling themselves as niche when they are anything but. Everywhere you go it’s mere cosplay and drag.
You don’t think politics should be part of sf, then? Ursula LeGuin would like a word.
Yes, politics is shit, comparatively.
What scifi movies/books do you like, then? Because I would say most great scifi is political.
Books : I like the works of Greg Egan (early stuff), Sam Hughes (pretty much everything), Iain Banks
Movies : Primer, Immortal (2004), 5 Million Years to Earth
Then your experience is narrow.
“I got banned from a Star Trek discussion forum” is a bumper sticker I want to print and slap onto the bumpers of badly parked cars.
The driver might not realize the implication, but the rest of the world will know…
What’s the implication?