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High tech "primitive" sci-fi

Started by Buckaroo Banzai, October 11, 2013, 05:17:29 AM

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Buckaroo Banzai

So I've nurtured an interest in science fiction that presents a non-western aesthetic and culture since childhood. Like any good nerd I love Star Trek, BSG, yadda yadda yadda, but watching the original Star Wars trilogy and Dune really captivated my imagination and sent me into a tizzy of ".......I want to go to there." I dug the Otherness of their worlds. A couple of nights ago I watched the new Will Smith picture "After Earth" (I know) and it was, as you may well have imagined, a Godawful double serving of abortion-cobbler (I KNOW!) but recognized that wondrous paleo-future vibe and makes my little heart as gay as springtime. Gone were the mandatory automatic doors which adorn every good, stale and sanitized spaceship in the galaxy and instead in their place were hanging palm leaves standing as barrier between the chambers. And with that an old flame within me was reignited. Does anyone else know of any novels, movies, or tv shows that don't follow the path laid out by Clark and Roddenberry and instead opted to go with a more tribalistic (primitive is a culturally biased as fuck term but it does evoke what I'm going for) interpretation of humanities future amongst the stars? I'd also adore anything Asiatic, Middle Eastern, or whatever. Any recommendations would be much appreciated.  :wink:
Entropy and optimism; the twin forces that make the universe go around.

Bu🤠ns

I recently finished Stephen King's The Gunslinger (I Know) but was rather surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It's supposed to be King's magnum opus.  It's a western with elements of science fiction and magic.  Its the one freshest in my mind so if I think of any more, I'll let you know.

Buckaroo Banzai

The whole Dark Tower series is so money, my greatest fear/hope is that Hollywood will finally get to filming it. I highly recommend you continue with it Sir and or Madam
Entropy and optimism; the twin forces that make the universe go around.

Bu🤠ns

Thanks, I will.  I have it on a couple of folks' opinions that it's fantastic.  I tend  to go by Sir, btw.

OH and you might consider David Wong's John Dies at the End....it might not give you that vibe you're looking for but the scifi is more horror/organic.  Plus it's funny as hell.


LMNO

I'm confused.  What does any of this have to do with the O'Hare airport?


That said, I suggest the Gor series.

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on October 11, 2013, 03:05:53 PM
I'm confused.  What does any of this have to do with the O'Hare airport?


That said, I suggest the Gor series.

Meh.  Misogyny porn.

The Horselords.
The Road Warrior Trilogy.
Outland.  (Sean Connery as SPACE VICE COP, great chase scene).
" 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.

LMNO

I meant that as a joke, FWIW.

As far as "primitive Sci fi", perhaps Anathem? Quantum physics as presented in a world where the physicists are Franciscan monks.

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on October 11, 2013, 05:15:42 PM
I meant that as a joke, FWIW.

I was hoping so.

Christ, 1960s/70s written SF SUCKED MONKEY BALLS.
" 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.

Buckaroo Banzai

Those all sound great and give me teh supple literary erection which poets have long searched for, but post apocalyptic isn't quite what I mean. What I mean is advanced civilizations that are not western in nature. Like if the Yanomami people of the Amazon or the Iroquois confederacy had developed the internal combustion engine or warp drives instead of the west. There was a recent string of books that did this to varying degrees from a Middle Eastern perspective like "Alif the Unseen". But I'm not even sure if the tribal sci-fi that I'm looking for is even a thing, perhaps it is the new fabled literary erection of our time
Entropy and optimism; the twin forces that make the universe go around.

The Good Reverend Roger

Quote from: Buckaroo Banzai on October 12, 2013, 12:07:57 AM
Those all sound great and give me teh supple literary erection which poets have long searched for, but post apocalyptic isn't quite what I mean. What I mean is advanced civilizations that are not western in nature. Like if the Yanomami people of the Amazon or the Iroquois confederacy had developed the internal combustion engine or warp drives instead of the west. There was a recent string of books that did this to varying degrees from a Middle Eastern perspective like "Alif the Unseen". But I'm not even sure if the tribal sci-fi that I'm looking for is even a thing, perhaps it is the new fabled literary erection of our time

Yeah, done with this thread.
" 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.

Prelate Diogenes Shandor

Does Stargate count? Its definitely not tribalistic but most of the motifs are modeled off of ancient Egypt rather than standard sci-fi decor
Praise NHGH! For the tribulation of all sentient beings.


a plague on both your houses -Mercutio


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrTGgpWmdZQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVWd7nPjJH8


It is an unfortunate fact that every man who seeks to disseminate knowledge must contend not only against ignorance itself, but against false instruction as well. No sooner do we deem ourselves free from a particularly gross superstition, than we are confronted by some enemy to learning who would plunge us back into the darkness -H.P.Lovecraft


He who fights with monsters must take care lest he thereby become a monster -Nietzsche


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHhrZgojY1Q


You are a fluke of the universe, and whether you can hear it of not the universe is laughing behind your back -Deteriorata


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LMNO

Um. Buck, has it occurred to you that there are non-western authors that currently exist, and that they write science fiction that are culturally non-western-based?


More to the point, do you understand that non-western cultures are not automatically "tribal"?

Buckaroo Banzai

Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on October 13, 2013, 05:07:18 AM
Um. Buck, has it occurred to you that there are non-western authors that currently exist, and that they write science fiction that are culturally non-western-based?


More to the point, do you understand that non-western cultures are not automatically "tribal"?

Of course not all non-western cultures are tribal, and would love to read more sci-fi stories written about them, but the point of my post was to try and find it any sci-fi stories exist about technologically advanced tribal civilizations. As I said, if one of Earths many low-tech tribal civs and developed advanced technology
Entropy and optimism; the twin forces that make the universe go around.

LMNO

Hm. It seems the trick here is that they FOUND technology.

I'd hazard a guess that a culture that develops advanced tech would, in the process, lose their "tribality".

Roger, wasn't that a theme in one of your pre-Charley-fallout stories?