Though it has an unfortunately hyperbolic title (Is Science Fiction Dying?), this piece has some interesting thoughts about the state of writing in science fiction right now. Anyone agree? Disagree? Have thoughts on the books he mentions (with which I’m not entirely familiar, but I admit that alongside vampire stuff, steampunk is just something I haven’t read much in)
Interesting article. I agree with most of his assessments, but I’m surprised he overlooked podcasting as an outlet for short stories, particularly Escape Pod and StarShipSofa. It’s all the more puzzling because di Filippo has had stories in both of them!
Maybe he wanted to avoid the appearance of self-promotion?
Help me out here. I read the whole article and I’m still a bit baffled. Where was the part about science fiction dying? Is it just because we live in the 21st century? Is it because stuff written about the future that didn’t come true isn’t pertinent? Because that’s ridiculous. SF is not so much about predicting the future but commenting on the present. Is it about the death of SF pulp? Ray guns and aliens?
The best I can tell is that he means, Is SF still useful? Does it still serve its purpose?
Let me answer that, Yes. As long as there is science, there will be science fiction. The more we learn about the universe (or anything, really), the more we want to dream and fantasize about it.
I read some of the comments and I can’t speak about the intellectual prowess and impact on literature of the genre. Some of them folks are a bit snobbish and narrow-minded.
Science fiction is 99.9% garbage - arrested adolescent crapfests for grownup children who can’t get past zap guns and robots and think William Gibson’s simpleminded, reactionary claptrap is “transgressive” and “visionary” - and who don’t know <<snip>> about the elegant use of this English language of ours.
This one, in particular, was uncalled for.
Possibly, although neither of his appearances were recent. He may just have just decided to confine himself to print (especially since the piece originally ran in Barnes & Nobel’s newsletter)
Yeah I think the title was a bit of a misnomer. I also didn’t read the comments precisely to avoid the kind of comment you mentioned - a lot of people see the genre name and think NO, even when a lot of things that they watch/read and enjoy are science fiction, or share characteristics with the genre.
I want to say that Science Fiction has been in a state of evolution in the last 10 to 20 years. I had recently gone back to the golden age of Asimov and Bradbury and find that back then, eveb in more of the more serious sci-fi work, there is wonder found in the science of the stories. Possibility was boundless back then because people were lead to think anything can be done. Hell, America made it to the moon in less than a decade!
But as technology started to become mainstream and science innovation became trivialized by ignorant people, science fiction became a darker place as we start to see and just imagine how technology and social order worked together. I keep thinking back on two of the most recent Saturn winners Spin and The Wind-Up Girl. Both are brilliant concepts, and both are so bleak that it’s depressing. Science fiction has lost the wonder of exploration as it has grown cynical of advancement.
In shorter terms, contemporary science fiction writers have seen the future and they need night vision to see it.
My current series that I’m writing is what I hope to be a return to the exploration and wonder of science fiction. It has heavy stuff in it (as it is about homeless children in the future), but still holds the wonder and awe that I found in classic sci-fi. And I hope others will break free of the bleak and find light in the darkness. The future doesn’t have to be apocalyptic.
Dude, it sounds like you’ll want to check out the Shine anthology that di Philippo mentioned.