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No Need For Trek Anymore

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the where-no-one-has-gone-before dept.

dcsmith writes "In an article at the LA Times, Orson Scott Card says 'So they've gone and killed Star Trek. And it's about time.' SciFi blasphemy? Not really. Card makes several good observations about the growth of SciFi over the past 30+ years. The article also comments on several other genre gems, including Joss Whedon's Firefly." From the article: "...the hungry fans called their friends and they watched it faithfully. They memorized the episodes. I swear I've heard of people who quit their jobs and moved just so they could live in a city that had Star Trek running every day."

4 of 790 comments (clear)

  1. New focus needed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Everythings become so staid or stupid in StarTrek. They need to get name authors to pen plotlines if they ever want to do Trek again. Perhaps if they set everything in the Mirror Universe, it would be good. Afterall, how many TV series set out to be evil all the time?

  2. The best Sci-Fi is short. by Future+Man+3000 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    It drops you into a not-entirely-alien universe, first amazing you with how different things are then amazing you with how little has really changed. Then it ends at the end of one or two books or two seasons, wrapping everything up.

    The worst stuff just drags on and on, rehashing the same tired prejudices and routines with regularity until it's mercifully cancelled. You're not normally supposed to hate the protagonists and root for the end of humanity by raging alien hordes, but each Star Trek has gotten better at inspiring this kind of "hope".

    --

    I never vote for anyone. I always vote against.
    -- W.C. Fields

  3. Re:Orson Scott Card by Future+Man+3000 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    If anything, his background enhances his SF writing. I disagree that he's insane (although I reject his opinions in that essay) but I've noticed that much of my favorite science fiction has been written by people with radically different opinions or, um, mental deviations from contemporary social norms.

    Part of what makes this country great is the (unfortunately declining) encouragement to tolerate people that are wrong. The alternative is worse.

    --

    I never vote for anyone. I always vote against.
    -- W.C. Fields

  4. Re:I Don't Want To Admit It ... But It's True by daigu · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Even Homer was great mostly because he was the first (have you every actually read the Illiad (even in translation?) It's not that good!)

    Homer is great because he captured Greek culture and managed to pass down to posterity a story that express the goals, hopes and dreams of that culture. The Illiad is the closest the Greeks have to a Bible, and it is brilliant.

    Perhaps you read a bad translation. Try Lattimore. You might also want to try a good commentary (although, I haven't used this particular one). For other suggestions on what else you might read to really appreciate Homer, try The New Lifetime Reading Plan which suggests good translations and sources for literary criticism, historical background, and other information.

    The New Lifetime Reading Plan is - without question - the most important book I have ever owned. It can help you to appreciate Homer just at it helped me to read what I thought was unreadable - James Joyces' Ulysses. The key tip is that Ulysses should be read with the help of Stuart Gilbert.