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Post by Knightfall on Nov 30, 2010 23:38:51 GMT 1
Read this recent update of VGCats and it kind of touched on something I've been thinking about for a bit. There is very little original fantasy/science fiction these days that isn't heavily based on the grandmasters of the genre...I think. =O www.vgcats.com/comics/
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Post by Battlechantress on Dec 1, 2010 0:06:21 GMT 1
I noticed that too. I recently bought "Wicked Gentlemen" by Ginn Hale for my nook, and I realized today that it is the first new book I bought that had anything to do with sci-fi or fantasy in months (books from the used bookstore don't count, though I haven't bought many of those in a few months either). I find that I end up buying more books at the used bookstores due to the simple fact that every time I wander through the respective sections at the chain stores, I usually think, "Wow, there's nothing worth getting" and leave. Yeah, if I wanted more books that made me say "Holy crap, I can write better than this!" then I would probably come home with more damage done to my Visa, but I don't. I'm starting to think that if I really want to read new, quality fiction in the genre then I should start looking for more offerings from the small presses (not vanity presses, just smaller ones). I read one author's blog earlier today who said that the large publishers are definitely only wanting stories that they can make into a series now. (Excuse me while I dry heave. There is no way in hell that my book will ever become a trilogy, thank you much!) That officially means that we are going to end up with even more shit on the shelves from the bigger presses at our local bookstores. That leads itself to another problem: how do you get people interested in reading again when people just keep saying "Oh I'll wait until the movie comes out"? I think publishers are being extremely short- sighted on this, because if the number of people buying new books keeps going down, then who the hell will be left to buy them? They're paying way too much attention to the marketers (hence the insistence on series of books, rather than well- written stories that can stand on their own). Edit: Just thought I would add that I don't think that sci-fi and fantasy are going to die off, but it's probably going to get a lot worse before it gets better again in terms of books. (I've read some good short fiction in "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction" and "Asimov's" recently, so there's still hope there.)
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Post by Nemonus on Dec 1, 2010 2:30:37 GMT 1
I'm actually pretty sure that people have been saying "there are no original ideas any more" since The Odyssey. 99% of everything is crap, and because we're looking at all the new stuff we're seeing a lot of that. Thirty years from now, the creative, quality books from 2010 will still be around and somebody'll be saying "why can't people write like that any more, SF is dead!"
In my experience, the magazines are the place to go for more unconventional ideas.
That said, the comic brings up a really interesting point about the jadedness of a flying-car-less 2010. Our SF has none of the shining optimism of the Bradbury-era stuff, because it's becoming less likely that that future will exist.
Or maybe that just means that SF is becoming more like fantasy, more about creating worlds regardless of their plausibility.
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Post by Mister Buch on Dec 1, 2010 18:18:22 GMT 1
I'm actually pretty sure that people have been saying "there are no original ideas any more" since The Odyssey. 99% of everything is crap, and because we're looking at all the new stuff we're seeing a lot of that. That's a good point, there. Something to remember.
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Post by jklinders on Dec 1, 2010 19:17:27 GMT 1
People have been howling about the death of creativity for a very long time as Nemonus pointed out. One should not completely count Sci-fi out in either it's optimism or it's accuracy. After all 20 000 leagues under the sea all but predicted nuclear submarines with very good accuracy. It was just a fun story at the time but it turned out that it cut pretty close to the bone. Jules Verne kind of had the right idea on Journey to the Moon as well. I mean the rockets that were used were no "space cannon" but they really were not far from it.
Good sci-fi has the ability to fire up the imagination and make people think about making the impossible happen. Much of our present day tech is a direct result of it and we owe far more to literature than we give credit for I think.
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Post by Knightfall on Dec 1, 2010 19:38:13 GMT 1
I honestly think Sagan was the last great science fiction author. He knew what is very likely going to be out there when we start exploring the galaxy, and how it might affect us as a species. A lot of authors focus on how technologically advanced we will become, while he focused on pretty much everything else.
I agree with jklinders, I think all that needs to be done is for fantasy and sci-fi authors to use their imaginations more often than relying on popular tropes. There's no money in it, but still.
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Post by jklinders on Dec 1, 2010 19:43:44 GMT 1
You laid out my point way cooler than I did, Knight and with fewer words too. Regardless of where tech takes us I am pretty certain we will not stop finding ways to injure each other faster, better farther than ever before.
Definitive discovery of other civilizations (hostile ones at that) is the only way I see us uniting here on the homefront. That seems to be one of the few points most sci-fi writers can agree on.
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Post by Knightfall on Dec 1, 2010 20:04:34 GMT 1
I can't even imagine the social repercussions of actually finding another civilization out there. We would either go our of our way to impress them or break down completely. xD
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Post by jklinders on Dec 1, 2010 20:08:58 GMT 1
I can't even imagine the social repercussions of actually finding another civilization out there. We would either go our of our way to impress them or break down completely. xD That's the nature of stress though. You either react with enhanced ability to it or shut down. Response to stress is something that comes from your environment and overall experience. I think some would shut down, others would not react at all and others will come up with correct action and steer us out of the mess. The human race as a whole is more competent than not. It could not be otherwise or we would have died out. More than a few crazies would commit suicide over it though methinks.
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Post by Nemonus on Dec 2, 2010 21:19:19 GMT 1
Good point; I like how you apply the way individuals react to the way the species reacts. I like to think that humans would adapt to finding other sentient life. We are, as some SF writers have pointed out, particularly good at adaptation. Humans fill so many niche environments because we've needed to. I seem to recall that the American government actually has a plan in case of aliens showing up. I honestly think Sagan was the last great science fiction author. He knew what is very likely going to be out there when we start exploring the galaxy... This is interesting. Maybe it's because I tend to like "science-fantasy"--Star Wars-type stuff--but I don't think "knowing what is very likely to be out there" is a prerequisite for good SF. Not that I have anything against Sagan, but--Mass Effect is one of my favourite SF universes and I don't think we're going to find Protheans and biotics in the next few hundred years. Any plot-driven fiction assumes a cause-and-effect system that itself does not exist in the real world.
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Post by Knightfall on Dec 2, 2010 22:19:53 GMT 1
But the beauty of some of the stuff that Sagan (and Michio Kaku to a greater extent) talk about is that there are literally an infinite number of universes out there, each of them slightly-to-greatly altered versions of our own. The opening miliseconds of the Big Bang supposedly not only created our own universe, but every single possibility out there.
The hypothesis is that our universe dominated the others by way of cosmic natural selection, or is possibly existing parallel to the rest. But long story short: the Mass Effect universe COULD exist in some form, its just a matter of ending up in the right universe.
I think that was the real beauty of Sagan and Kaku; they allowed us a window to see how much we do not know about the galaxy, the universe, and everything. I think that really represents the "next phase" of sci-fi fiction, but only a few authors have taken complete advantage of it. "Heroes Die" by Matthew Stover being one, "Old Man's War" by John Scalzi being another (that I know of so far, I'm not well read =P).
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