sorry, meant to link to Vonda McIntyre's "Little Faces": http://freesf.blogspot.com/2008/06/little-faces-vonda-n-mcintyre.html
On 2008-09-12, Eric Scoles <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Sure, you have to hang yourself out there when you write near-future SF, > and maybe you're wrong. That doesn't bother me so much, because I don't > think it's about being "right" or "wrong" as a matter of prediction. You > have to get things right with regard to narrative logic and worldbuilding > logic. It may mean you end up with an obsolete vision. But people still read > and enjoy "Red Star, Winter Orbit" even though it's totally obsolete. > (hey, the Soviet Union collapsed! whaddya know!) > > I'm really down on far-future SF these days, myself. Most of it seems kind > of devoid of imagination. I mean, will we really be drinking coffee 250 > years from now? We weren't 300 years *ago*. Will we still put on clothes > and feed and mate and evacuate our bowels in the same way in space ships 500 > light years or 500 solar years distant? Given just recent advances in > genetics and nanotech, I find it difficult to believe. Of course > you have to find familiar things for people to relate to, so you can say > "well, the ship's captain is going to share a glass of scotch with his first > officer" (which assumes the preservation without replacement of scotch, > human control of ships, 19th-21st century shipboard chains of command, a > fascination with imbibing toxins for entertainment, and so on), but I guess > for me it kind of strips away the pretense at extrapolation and turns it > into fantasy. That is, it's not believably different enough, for me. > > I'm much more interested in far future SF visions that are really very > different from the present. Vonda McIntire's "Little Faces" is an example of > what gets me jazzed: A geniunely different vision of a human future, not > something that gives us comfortable lifelines into our present. (I have > quibbles with her cavalier treatment of long time passages, but that's a > minor point.) > > Sometimes even when I think the vision isn't far out enough, the strength > of the project, so to speak, wins me over. *The Forever War* was like this > for me. I didn't think there was nearly enough change going on back home > while the protagonist is zooming around at relativistic speeds. But it > worked for me because the whole thing was a pretty naked metaphor for > Haldeman's experiences as a Vietnam veteran. > > OK, I'll come out and say it: Most far-future SF is, in my analysis, more > Fantasy than SF. I think SF is really properly a sub-division of Fantasy, > anyway, which is why as a more or less middle-aged guy I'm now liking the > term "speculative fiction" whereas when I was a kid I thought it was a wimpy > term. (I was all about aggressively claiming my geekhood.) "Fantasy" isn't a > good over-arching label because it has too many established connotations, > even though I think it's accurately descriptive if you strip those away. > Which we can't do, as a practical matter, so nowadays I'm happy to settle > for "speculative fiction." > > > > On 2008-09-12, Alicia Henn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> >> I would add that near future SF is more difficult to write because >> you're proven wrong quickly, as opposed to 100 years after you're dead >> and don't care. You have to write something you can live with. >> >> >> Alicia >> >> On Sep 11, 2008, at 11:20 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >> >> > >> > >> > ...Not so easy: >> > >> > >> http://futurismic.com/2008/09/11/why-near-future-science-fiction-is-diffi >> > cult/ >> > >> > >> > Frank >> > >> > Check out my web page at: >> http://www.geocities.com/stardolphin2/link3.htm >> > >> > "A perfect test teaches you nothing, but you learn a lot from >> > failure." >> > - Rocket engineer Wernher von Braun >> > ____________________________________________________________ >> > Turn your passion into a profession. Click here to find a film >> > school near you. >> > >> http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/Ioyw6i3l7QB2DVhbMlsTCkVtE7wCGqNht5rf8IvRqd532iJnswuyJv/ >> > >> > > >> >> >> >> >> > > > -- > eric scoles ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) -- eric scoles ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
