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The Science Fiction Rant

Started by The Good Reverend Roger, January 31, 2011, 04:02:21 PM

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Igor

Haha no, it's not. Seems to be about absolutely everything else though.
Be what you would seem to be - or, if you'd like it put more simply - never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.

Don Coyote

:Mittens:

and I second Banks' Culture series even though I have only read through to Player of Games like Cain, and it is very space opera but not weird 'sci-fantasy' crap like some can get.

hooplala

Strangely enough I was just having an argument on Friday night about what constituted Science Fiction.  A friend was trying to claim that Star Wars was Science Fiction... I argued that it was Fantasy, dressed up as Science Fiction.  I was unable to win over the crowd.  Apparently, to the people, if there are robots and lasers, it's Science Fiction.  I eventually gave up, and just drank quietly.
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"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)"
— Walt Whitman

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: Hoopla on January 31, 2011, 09:16:56 PM
Strangely enough I was just having an argument on Friday night about what constituted Science Fiction.  A friend was trying to claim that Star Wars was Science Fiction... I argued that it was Fantasy, dressed up as Science Fiction.  I was unable to win over the crowd.  Apparently, to the people, if there are robots and lasers, it's Science Fiction.  I eventually gave up, and just drank quietly.

DON'T USE YOUR STATE OF THE ART TARGETING COMPUTER, LUKE!  USE DA FORCE!
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Triple Zero

When I was young, I read a Dutch SciFi children's book called Coriolis, the storm planet. A human stranded on an alien planet that turned really fast, causing a continuous storm to rage over the surface. For some reason that I forgot he had to circle the planet to get back to his spaceship. He built a wind-powered sail mobile which he used to make the trip, accompanied by a member of the planet's native intelligent lifeform ... large telepathic cats :)

Though apart from the cats' telepathy there was no magic or anything.
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Prince Glittersnatch III

This makes me wonder where Phillip K Dick would fit on the spectrum of Sci-fi/Sci-fantasy.
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AORTAL SEX MADES MY DICK HARD AS FUCK!

Adios

So where does all this leave Dune?

Cainad (dec.)

Leaving the realm of written sci-fi and going into film/tv sci-fi, I've noticed that there doesn't seem to be anyone who imagined a more optimistic, if incredibly fanciful, future than Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek.

When you get past all the advanced tech that made it possible to travel faster than light, heal wounds and diseases in a few moments, make any food item you wanted at a mere request to a machine, and numerous other Nice Things, you realize that Star Trek envisions one of the most beautiful yet utterly unlikely futures ever: A future in which humanity, for the most part, stops being stupid.

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: Triple Zero on January 31, 2011, 10:27:26 PM
When I was young, I read a Dutch SciFi children's book called Coriolis, the storm planet. A human stranded on an alien planet that turned really fast, causing a continuous storm to rage over the surface. For some reason that I forgot he had to circle the planet to get back to his spaceship. He built a wind-powered sail mobile which he used to make the trip, accompanied by a member of the planet's native intelligent lifeform ... large telepathic cats :)

Though apart from the cats' telepathy there was no magic or anything.

Telepathic cats = bad story.  Cannot be salvaged, even if it was written by Jules Vern with the crumbling ichor from Mary Shelley's coffin.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Jasper

Hard sci-fi, fuck yeah.  The point of spec-fic is to explore.  Not to escape.  I don't recall if this was my idea or one I stole, but I've always said that fantasy is better for metaphorical stuff and introspective themes, and sci-fi is better for social commentary and, you know, inventing sliding doors and geosynchronous satellites.  That sort of thing.

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: Charley Brown on January 31, 2011, 10:39:09 PM
So where does all this leave Dune?

In the rubbish bin, where it belongs.

There.  I said it.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Don Coyote

Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on January 31, 2011, 09:33:37 PM
Quote from: Hoopla on January 31, 2011, 09:16:56 PM
Strangely enough I was just having an argument on Friday night about what constituted Science Fiction.  A friend was trying to claim that Star Wars was Science Fiction... I argued that it was Fantasy, dressed up as Science Fiction.  I was unable to win over the crowd.  Apparently, to the people, if there are robots and lasers, it's Science Fiction.  I eventually gave up, and just drank quietly.

DON'T USE YOUR STATE OF THE ART TARGETING COMPUTER, LUKE!  USE DA FORCE!

OMG WHY DOES HALF DA SPACESHIPS HAVE WINGS AND BANK. THERE IS NO ATMOSPHERE, SO IT MUST BE THE FORCE!

Don Coyote

Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on February 01, 2011, 12:46:48 AM
Quote from: Charley Brown on January 31, 2011, 10:39:09 PM
So where does all this leave Dune?

In the rubbish bin, where it belongs.

There.  I said it.

Hey I like Dune, the rest of his work is rubbish though.

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: Canis latrans eques on February 01, 2011, 01:23:02 AM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on February 01, 2011, 12:46:48 AM
Quote from: Charley Brown on January 31, 2011, 10:39:09 PM
So where does all this leave Dune?

In the rubbish bin, where it belongs.

There.  I said it.

Hey I like Dune, the rest of his work is rubbish though.

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(Actually, it's the 3rd worst thing ever inflicted on the English language.)
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Jenne

I'm of the opinion of lit like I am with any other art genre--it's really in the eye of the beholder, at the end of things.  I do agree that Vamp fic and the like is NOT sci fi.  But the fantasy genre DOES tend to spill over quite a bit these days. 

I'm probably one of the few here who took a lit course in sci fi in college.  It opened my eyes wide to the world of sci fi authors, and I learned to appreciate it beyond Stars War and Trek.

Asimov, Octavia Butler, Vonnegutt (yeah, they used some of his work in that course, which I initially wrote off but then understood later on in the grander scheme of things)...those are some pioneers for me in a genre that spoke more about what humanity IS rather than what it SHOULD be.  And I was already a Huxley and Ray Bradbury fan.