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Spider Robinson And The State Of Science Fiction
pcb writes "There is a rather decent
rant in today's Globe & Mail from Spider Robinson (of the
Callahan series fame) regarding the dismal state of science fiction, in
which he laments that the future is not what it used to be. While
attending Torcon 3, the 61st
World SF Convention, he notes that SF readers today seem to prefer the
Tolkienesque fantasies of some forgotten past, rather than the forward-looking works of science and space travel that used to dominate the
genre. Are SF stories from authors like Heinlein, Clarke or Asimov
irrelevant today, as people look into the past to dream rather than the
future? Robinson asks: 'Why are our imaginations retreating from
science and space, and into fantasy?'"
There are only so many ways you can fly around in a starship going back and forward in time and mating with green aliens. Technology is no where near as fun as magic and elf chicks
They were wrong about flying cars by the year 2000. Once bitten, twice shy.
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
You know, this reminds me of why I always preferred space Legos to the other series; we KNOW that in the current day, cars and trucks and houses and what not weren't covered with little dots, same with castles and pirates and all of that; but the future...the FUTURE...those little dots might be what keeps it all together!
Actually, that kind of applies to why I liked scifi over fantasy in general.
Steampunk is an interesting crossover genre, I jsut discovere Steam Trek, a mapping of Star Trek onto the "what if the Victorians got space travel" theme.
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
Well if we could travel at 2c we'd make it there a lot faster.
Spider Robinson, the living definition of the hack SF author who survives purely by pandering to his arrested-adolescent fanbase and recycling the same appallingly trite scenario into an endless stream of identical "novels," is complaining about the state of modern SF writing?
Oh! The! Irony!
If speculative fiction needs to be saved from anything, it's the Spider Robinsons, Mercedes Lackeys and Piers Anthonys of the world. If they're complaining, that's probably a good sign -- hopefully that people are starting to spend their money on books by authors with actual talent rather than the 2,387th entry in the Callahan's Cross-Time Dragonquest for Telepathic Cats series.
News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters? Like hell.
>>"Even given billions of dollars, NASA could not create a race of half-orcs"
Ever been through Alabama?
Did you watch "the matrix"?
No, the question is, did you watch the matrix?
In soviet russia, Matrix watches YOU.
Like what I said? You might like my music
Anyone who doesn't realize this clearly hasn't been following the news.
Believe me, I don't want to be mean, but you read Asimov for the characters?
Oh, boy!
No, you shut up!
Current Karma Status: Roadkill
Terrible events in my life, listed in descending order of their personal importance, abridged:
1. Death of my father.
2. Hit by taxicab in Philadelphia.
3. Dumped by first girlfriend in junior high school.
4. Held up at gunpoint.
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57. Bicycle stolen.
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1,294. Embarrassing facial blemish on night of big date.
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7,837,129. Recipient of pathetically obvious "so how many books have you published, huh?" flame on slashdot by the author of "Lady Slings the Booze" or, as likely, a fanboy using his name.
News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters? Like hell.