Science fiction

From RationalWiki

Science fiction, also referred to as speculative fiction by those who want to shake off the stigma of the cheesiness of most sci-fi, refers to various genres of literature and film featuring some fictitious element based on real or hypothetical science and technology. Generally, sci-fi is set in the future, but some are set in the modern day (or even the past) but still prominently feature science and technology as a theme.

[edit] Overview

Space is big, really big, big enough to contain every random and senseless plots you can conceive of.

Science fiction may take place in a futuristic setting, alternate universe (including a novel planet, culture, society, etc.) or involve a plot-driving idea somehow related to science, or an extrapolation thereof. It took off in pulp magazines in the early 20th century, after a few 19th century precursors (H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, for example).

In the popular perspective, "Sci Fi" is blended with, and even assumed to be part of, the "fantasy" genre, within the umbrella of speculative fiction. Science fiction is typically divided in three sub-genres: hard science fiction, soft science fiction, and social science fiction. It is also often distinguished by setting, such as alternate reality, cyberpunk, military science fiction, etc.

The fantasy genre is often lumped together with science fiction, although in reality the two have little in common; fantasy books tend toward "sword and sorcery" themes with emphasis on the "sorcery" part, medieval settings, supernatural beings such as dragons and elves, and little science at all. J.R.R. Tolkien and Fritz Leiber are examples of the old school of fantasy writing. However, as far as the book publishing industry is concerned the two genres are one and the same: "Sci-Fi/Fantasy".

"Hard science fiction" has nothing to do with being "hard to read". It explores ideas generated from actual real ("hard", or serious) science, theoretical or not, and how people might deal with such situations. The "big three" of science fiction - Heinlein, Asimov, and Clarke - tried to write stories that did not do more than project or extrapolate real science, usually into a hypothetical future. Utopian and dystopian societies that are reflections of our own are frequent subjects of social science fiction.

Much of science fiction has a social message. George Orwell's 1984 was primarily intended as a satire, but was dressed up as science fiction. Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 played with information control techniques as had been tried with varying degrees of success in totalitarian regimes. And then there's Philip K. Dick, who experimented with every kind of society in his fiction. Ursula K. LeGuin also wrote science fiction novels with social themes, including feminist themes. Modern near-future science fiction (William Gibson, e.g.) often depicts corporations ruling the world, whether overtly or covertly, whereas far-future science fiction is often virtually anarchistic, using the assumption of ultra-cheap power and total information availability (Iain M. Banks, e.g.) as justification. The precious spice in Dune, which is found only on Arrakis and mined amid terrorist attacks from the vaguely Islamic Fremen, stands in for petroleum here on Earth.

"Soft science fiction" is intended primarily to entertain and to make money, and is the most common form of science fiction in television, films and comics. Its themes and characters are often simplistic, with a greater focus on action and excitement, and the "science" element (spaceships, time travel or other fictional technology) is largely a plot device. Examples include Star Wars type action films, anything with superheroes, in fact anything that represent a battle between Good and Evil.

There is quite a lot of grey area between the "hard" and "soft" genres, with sci-fi aficionados disagreeing on how serious a particular work should be taken. For example, the various Star Trek series are formulaic, and regarded as junk by some, but do regularly explore themes of philosophy and morality, as well as some ideas from real science. The Matrix was primarily a blockbuster action film, but did explore thought-provoking themes of simulated reality. Its sequels, however, were atrocious.

Fundies don't like SF: "Science fiction is intimately associated with Darwinian evolution. Sagan and Asimov, for example, were prominent evolutionary scientists. Sci-fi arose in the late 19th and early 20th century as a product of an evolutionary worldview that denies the Almighty Creator. In fact, evolution IS the pre-eminent science fiction. Beware!" ^[1]

[edit] Movies and Television

Sci-fi, yeah, it's sort of like that.

Many science fiction movies and television programmes fall within the soft sci-fi sub-genre called "space opera": these often draw on archetypical literary themes such as an epic fight between good and evil. A defining characteristic of the genre is exotic and large-scale settings and a focus on story over setting. Futuristic (read "cheesy") sets and costumes typical of those that graced the pulp Sci-Fi magazines of the 1940s and 50s, along with the liberal use of "ray" guns and other futuristic weapons are de rigeur. Examples incude:

• Buck Rogers
• Flash Gordon
• Star Trek (and spin-off series and movies)
• Star Wars (Episodes I to VI)
• Battlestar Galactica (The Original Series)
• Battlestar Galactica (Reimagining, 2004)
• Stargate (movie and TV series SG-1 and Atlantis)
• Firefly
• Babylon 5
• Blake's 7
• Doctor Who (numerous incarnations, 1963 to present)
• Alien (Parts II and III)
• Sanctuary

The majority of the above emphasise plot over scientific accuracy. Very few hard science fiction films have been made, which are scientifically honest, and explore the possibilities that might occur in our real universe. Here is a short list of them:

• Metropolis
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Gattaca
• Cube 2:Hypercube
• A Clockwork Orange
• Contact
• Outland
• Alien
• Bladerunner

The list of sucky, crappy science fiction films would reach into the thousands. Even the "Sci Fi" cable channel sucks (mostly because of the supernatural-promoting Ghost Hunters).^[2]) The best parts of the channel are the reruns of The Twilight Zone, reruns of The X-Files, and the original shows Eureka and Mind Control. Whether their made-for-TV B-movies are awesomely bad or just bad is up for debate. As Theodore Sturgeon once said, "Ninety percent of science fiction is crap...then again, ninety percent of anything is crap".

Generally SF movies and TV programmes cannot match the imagination, although computer driven special effects are slowly closing the gap.

[edit] Authors

This is a short increasingly long list of SF authors enjoyed by various RationalWikians:

• Douglas Adams
• Brian Aldiss - a British veteran
• Poul Anderson
• Neal Asher
• Isaac Asimov, The Foundation trilogy, I Robot et al.
• Iain M. Banks, the Culture universe
• Greg Bear
• Alfred Bester, The Demolished Man, The Stars My Destination (Tyger, Tyger in the original edition)
• Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, The Illustrated Man
• David Brin, The Postman, et al.
• Lois McMaster Bujold - Author of the long running and deservedly award winning Vorkosigan Saga.
• Orson Scott Card, best known for the Ender's series. Since 2008, also known as a Mormon and a supporter of Prop 8.^[3] Believes homosexuality is a result of psychic trauma.
• Arthur C. Clarke, Tales from the White Harte, Childhood's End, 2001 et al.
• Jack L. Chalker
• Hugh Cook - One of the few fantasy series worth reading
• Samuel Delaney - subversive, The Einstein Intersection, Nova, Dhalgren (V Good)
• Philip K. Dick - genius? (his earlier work is wildly imaginative; his later work is essentially a detailed, thinly fictionalized account of his descent into the inevitable psychosis)
• Stephen Donaldson - Gap series
• Greg Egan
• Harlan Ellison - although he hates the term "science fiction." But then, he hates almost everything.
• William Gibson, Neuromancer, Virtual Light, et al.
• Harry Harrison - The guy responsible for the book that would become Soylent Green, and The Stainless Steel Rat series. ^[4]
• Robert A. Heinlein--One of the Grand Masters. His early politics and writings were left-leaning, but they soon began moving hard to the right.
• Frank Herbert, Dune et al.
• L. Ron Hubbard heh heh heh
• Cyril M. Kornbluth, The Space Merchants (in collaboration with Frederick Pohl)
• Tanith Lee, Don't Bite The Sun and Drinking Sapphire Wine being the best adolescent utopian angst SF out there, and Silver Metal Lover a charming, very early, example of SF exploring human/robot sex and love.
• Anne McCaffrey--Pern
• Walther M. Miller, A Canticle for Leibowitz
• Elizabeth Moon, Serrano Legacy, Vatta's War
• Richard Morgan
• Larry Niven - anything
• Daniel Pinkwater^[5]
• Frederick Pohl
• Jerry Pournelle ^[6]
• Terry Pratchett--mostly fantasy, with even his SF books (like Dark Side of the Sun) being more of a space fantasy, but still amazing.
• Alastair Reynolds
• Spider Robinson
• Eric Frank Russell - with a sense of humour
• J. Neil Schulman - the other Neil, "J., not L." Further contributing to confusion between the two is both J. Neil and L. Neil are known as anarcho-libertarian gun nuts, not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that.^[7]
• Robert Sheckley - wicked sense of humour
• Robert Silverberg
• Clifford Simak
• Dan Simmons, the Hyperion Cantos
• John Thomas Sladek - surrealist, conspiracy theories, pseudoscience.
• Cordwainer Smith - weird universe
• L. Neil Smith - "L., not J." (by any chance, is the use of first initial L. by a sci-fi writer a tribute to L. Ron Hubbard?)
• Olaf Stapledon - Star Maker started and finished the "History of the entire universe" genre. Nothing else is quite like it. When it comes to SF, "Stapledon did it first" is generally true.
• Allen Steele - Orbital Decay was great, but then he tried repeating that formula for a few unreadably tedious books before getting better again.
• Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, Cryptonomicron
• Charles Stross
• Theodore Sturgeon - caviar!
• Karen Traviss- Wess'har series. Star Wars Republic Commando Series, 3 of the Legacy of the Force Books
• A E. Van Vogt
• Jack Vance - Amusing
• Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse 5, The Sirens of Titan etc.
• Robert Anton Wilson
• John Wyndham
• Roger Zelazny--Particularly A Rose for Ecclesiastes or Lord of Light

[edit] Footnotes

1. ↑ Fundies
2. ↑ I once wasted an hour of my life on this show. Unlike Arthur C. Clarke's "ghosty" videos, which promise woo but debunk, this stupid show promises debunking, but only offers crappy woo.
3. ↑ Card, Orson Scott. "Heroes and victims in Prop. 8 struggle" Mormon Times website, 13 November 2008, accessed 14 December 2009. (In the sixteenth paragraph he wrote, "All my gay friends who might have repudiated me for supporting Prop. 8 had already condemned me long ago for standing by a Christ-centered, prophet-led church.")
4. ↑ As well as writing good books, Harrison is also interesting because he describes technical detail in a period spanning the switch-over between circuitry dominated by electromagnetic components, and solid state microelectronics. The giant leap forward in what is possible is hilariously highlighted in his imagined future.
5. ↑ Never heard of him? You poor, deprived soul. A swift google will tell you why.
6. ↑ Pournelle was one of those poor unfortunates who went completely insane after 9/11. His transformation from mild mannered tech columnist to rabid nuke-the-middle-east-and-sow-the-ground-with-rock-salt nutcase was pretty swift. Now his tricks include being geriatric, fantasising about space technology we can't even realistically hope to build for 50 years and denying global warming. Oh, and his books are tedious.
7. ↑ There certainly is something wrong with that when said "anarcho-libertarian" principles are instantly discarded after 9/11, in favor of bomb-bomb-Iraq militarism, as is apparently the case with Schulman, Randy Barnett, Eric Raymond, Victor Koman, and a few too many others. Anarchists, my ass.