Another take on science fiction…
If you read my recent post on the problems with Spider Robinson and other such writers, then you might like Clive Thompson’s post in Wired “On Why Sci-Fi is the Last Bastion of Philosophical Writing.”
In it, Thompson mentions but does not link to a recent Cory Doctorow novella, “After the Siege.”
I’m not sure I agree with Thompson’s slap at Heinlein in the antepenultimate paragraph, by the way.
2 Responses to “Another take on science fiction…”
1 » Another take on science fiction… 25 January 2008 @ 9:02 am
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2 Tom Hespos 25 January 2008 @ 10:10 am
Yeah, that’s a great post by Thompson.
I’ve always believed that the best sci-fi is primarily about humanity. (At least this is what I tell my wife, who hates all things sci-fi. She doesn’t buy it.)
One of the reasons I love the Star Trek franchise is that it’s not all about explosions, laser beams and creative ways to use antimatter. It’s about, to paraphrase/steal from Thompson, seeing what happens to humanity after we change the physics in the sim.
What if we could travel faster than light? How does that change humanity? What if we could use matter and energy interchangeably (the transporter)? How does that change how we relate to one another?
So yeah, I’ve been trying and failing to convince Lauren of all of this. It’s a logically sound argument – if you like all these chick flicks about human interaction, you’ll really dig “The Wrath of Khan.”