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What Is Science Fiction?Read the article this discussion is about
This archived discussion is "read only".
» dougwood - Is it really SF? "There is a common tendency to think that SF must be filled with spaceships, exotic aliens, and far away worlds."Conversely, just because a story has "spaceships, exotic aliens, and far away worlds" doesn't necessarily mean that it's SF. This is especially true on the big screen. Alien was a horror/monster movie that just happened to take place on a spaceship. It has all of the classic elements of the horror-thriller-suspence story. Starship Troopers was basically a war movie. You could probably say the same about the book, but the movie left out so much of the philosophy (it did try to include it, but there wasn't enough time) and sacrificed military accuracy for the sake of action. The Star Wars movies are about myth. George Lucas studied Joseph Campbell's book The Hero With a Thousand Faces and (again IMO) also was trying to recapture the flavor of the Saturday matinee movie serials of his youth. A lot of the science was done poorly. The attack on the Death Star resembles every bad fighter pilot movie I've ever seen. Almost everything else is just bad SF (or a memory lapse on my part). Of course, I still think that the last good SF movie made was 2001: A Space Odyssey (hmm, sounds like a personal problem to me). -- posted by dougwood » CBJ - Re: Is it really SF? In response to message posted by dougwood:Hi Doug, Sorry I didn't get back to this thread sooner. Thanks for stopping by! You make some very good points. There are many cases where stories have been passed off as SF just because they have some aliens in them, or because they take place in space. Alien is an excellent example. A recent example from TV would be the drama show Roswell. Likewise, Star Wars is very much based on myth, as you pointed out. I also mentioned this in my very first article for Suite, "Down to Earth: An Introduction to SF and Society." I can remember talking about Campbell's book when I was in college. The science in Star Wars certainly has never been the franchise's strong point. One of the things that to me separates Star Trek from Star Wars is the fact that the attention to scientific detail makes it seem a lot more real and closer to home. (Of course a lot of science in Trek is poorly done, too. They try to keep it reasonably accurate... unless it interferes with the plot, in which case it's better to just make up something.) I'm not sure if you've seen the interviews that are at the beginning of the Star Wars Special Edition tapes released a few years ago. They show on there how they glue a bunch of battleship model kits together to make the Death Star and then drove by it in a pickup truck so some guys in the bed could throw things at it. About Starship Troopers, I agree about the movie. It was at best loosely based on the novel. The casting was horrible. I did kind of like the style though, I think it captured the political propaganda angle well and reinforced the underlying Cold War, democracy-vs.-communism theme. But still I do see your point. I'm sure others out there have some thoughts to add! What is Science Fiction to you? Feel free to share your opinion! Thanks again for dropping by, Doug. Hope to hear from you again. -- posted by CBJ » Chipka001 - Science Fiction: my own take on it I am a science fiction writer, though I cannot claim a substantial readership, as I have just worked up the nerve to send stuff out.I have often thought of what science fiction actually is, and to the best of my knowledge--from years of reading and writing it, and enduring "science fantasy" I have come to the conclusion that science fiction is, among other things, fiction which consistently explores the nature of reality. The five definitions given are great ones. I guess--to get to the point--science fiction, to me, is the only literature I find myself drawn to read...I don't really like science fiction movies--aside from such gems as 2001...and Gattaca, and a few Foreign films, such as Solaris. As an African American, with a Russian lover, I find most science fiction movies to be rehashes of xenophobia that ultimately hurt the feelings of the real "aliens" in western society. As for examples of excellent science fiction, I would have to cite the novels of such authors as Octavia E. Butler. She's a woman after my own heart as her concerns center on biology and sociology. Her Patternmaster series is great, but her shorter works stand out the most in my mind. Gregory Benford is another of my all time favorites, and as a writer who tries to tackle the harder and "drier" sciences, I find it refreshing to see someone who is able to make astrophysics "visceral" and even lyrical. Samuel R. Delany has to be my all time favorite, however, as his colorfully lyrical prose and choice of characters bring his stories to life. His novel "Nova" enraptures me to this day, even though some of the science is shaky... There are others, but as this has become a somewhat lengthy contribution to the thread, I will shut up (for now) and simply say that it's a real pleasure to come across this discussion, and NOT see the standard references to Lt. Uhura's sexy red miniskirt and space-babe boots, or other such (admittedly fun, in their own way) forms of chit-chat. More later. -- posted by Chipka001 » slim38 - i need your help please Hi everybody!Excuse me if i do much of fault but i french. Thank you very much for your help -- posted by slim38
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