Should contemporary SF *always* be politically oriented? Heaven forbid. SF is many things, and attempting to force it to become an instrument of political change -- as opposed to philosophical transformation or existential shock -- is futile. The genre wants to be free, and so do its authors.
Monday, March 27, 2006
Your host holds forth on science fiction and politics at Meme Therapy:
3 comments:
Thanks again for that contribution Mac, its a great piece.
I agree with your basic point. My bone of contention is that the genre isn't putting out the kind of relevant political thought that it once did.
A couple of things that sparked this in my mind is this excellent essay by Eleanor Arnason
http://www.infinitematrix.net/faq/essays/arnason.html
And I've also come across a lot of science fiction readers that believe that global warming is some kind of marxist conspiracy. I think back on all the great political SF that's been written and I mostly come up with books that are 20-50 years old. Many of those books, like Stranger in a Strange Land or 1984, are just as relevant today as they were then. But where are the modern equivalents. Am I missing them or have we stopped producing them? And if its the latter why?
If anything the kinds of political issues that science fiction covers are becoming more important not less. It seems like an odd time for the genre to change tack.
But then again that just may be a flawed perception on my part.
Should contemporary SF *always* be politically oriented? Heaven forbid. SF is many things, and attempting to force it to become an instrument of political change -- as opposed to philosophical transformation or existential shock -- is futile. The genre wants to be free, and so do its authors.
If I agreed any harder with this statement, I'd give myself a hernia.
Personally, I'd rather see SF as politicaly oriented. As it hardly can be wrong-politicaly oriented. I mean - to the left. With leftists on the winning side SF can forget about space exploration, about state-of-the-art technologies, about reaching new frontiers. We're gonna simply immerse ourselves in a slow-paced, never-to-risky, stagnant and boring life. Can you see any SF in that? And BTW, what if it's really a marksist conspiracy? :)