Spider Robinson And The State Of Science Fiction

pcb writes "There is a rather decent rant in today's Globe & Mail from Spider Robinson (of the Callahan series fame) regarding the dismal state of science fiction, in which he laments that the future is not what it used to be. While attending Torcon 3, the 61st World SF Convention, he notes that SF readers today seem to prefer the Tolkienesque fantasies of some forgotten past, rather than the forward-looking works of science and space travel that used to dominate the genre. Are SF stories from authors like Heinlein, Clarke or Asimov irrelevant today, as people look into the past to dream rather than the future? Robinson asks: 'Why are our imaginations retreating from science and space, and into fantasy?'"

STINKY STINKY!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

If you think that's bad, you should see the state of science-fiction fans! PEEEEEE-U!

It's all about the chicks

[ulbador]

There are only so many ways you can fly around in a starship going back and forward in time and mating with green aliens. Technology is no where near as fun as magic and elf chicks

For me, at least...

[GoofyBoy]

They were wrong about flying cars by the year 2000. Once bitten, twice shy. :)

space legos

[kisrael]

You know, this reminds me of why I always preferred space Legos to the other series; we KNOW that in the current day, cars and trucks and houses and what not weren't covered with little dots, same with castles and pirates and all of that; but the future...the FUTURE...those little dots might be what keeps it all together!

Actually, that kind of applies to why I liked scifi over fantasy in general.

Steampunk is an interesting crossover genre, I jsut discovere Steam Trek [steam-trek.com], a mapping of Star Trek onto the "what if the Victorians got space travel" theme.

Re:It's all about the chicks

[Anonymous Coward]

No, no, no. You don't mate with the green ones. They're not ripe yet.

Re:Reality vs. Fantasy

[Razor Blades are Not]

Well if we could travel at 2c we'd make it there a lot faster.

So let me get this straight.

[Doktor Memory]

Spider Robinson, the living definition of the hack SF author who survives purely by pandering to his arrested-adolescent fanbase and recycling the same appallingly trite scenario into an endless stream of identical "novels," is complaining about the state of modern SF writing?

Oh! The! Irony!

If speculative fiction needs to be saved from anything, it's the Spider Robinsons, Mercedes Lackeys and Piers Anthonys of the world. If they're complaining, that's probably a good sign -- hopefully that people are starting to spend their money on books by authors with actual talent [locusmag.com] rather than the 2,387th entry in the Callahan's Cross-Time Dragonquest for Telepathic Cats series.

Re:Magic Vs. Technology

[Anonymous Coward]

Most people couldn't tell you what Newton's 3 laws were, and Einstein's relativity was considered utterly incomprehensible

Some things that haven't changed... =)

Re:Reality vs. Fantasy

[Anonymous Coward]

>>"Even given billions of dollars, NASA could not create a race of half-orcs"

Ever been through Alabama?

Re:'Why are our imaginations retreating ?

[fucksl4shd0t]

Did you watch "the matrix"?

No, the question is, did you watch the matrix?

In soviet russia, Matrix watches YOU.

The past *is* the future

[ariux]

Anyone who doesn't realize this clearly hasn't been following the news.

Re:Magic Vs. Technology

[PetoskeyGuy]

I found an article that explained the whole thing. From the Onion...

VOLUME 31 ISSUE 18 -- 13 MAY 1997

Study: Uneducated Outbreeding Intelligentsia 2-To-1
CHICAGO--In a report with dire implications for the intellectual future of America, a University of Chicago study revealed Monday that the nation's uneducated are breeding twice as soon and twice as often as those with university diplomas. "The average member of the American underclass spawns at age 15, compared to age 30 for the average college-educated professional," study leader Kenneth Stalls said. "America's intellectual elite, as a result, is badly losing the genetic marathon, with two generations of dullards born for every one generation of cultured literates." Added Stalls: "At this rate, by the year 2100 there will be five smart people on Earth, swallowed whole by more than 12 billion mouth-breathers incapable of understanding the binary exponentiation that swamped the Earth with their like." High-school dropout Mandi Drucker, 16, said of the findings, "All I know is, we're in love."

Re:Research vs not researching

[ccp]

Believe me, I don't want to be mean, but you read Asimov for the characters?

Oh, boy!

Re:Reality vs. Fantasy

[Thjorska]

No, you shut up!

a quick calibration of perspective

[Doktor Memory]

Terrible events in my life, listed in descending order of their personal importance, abridged:

1. Death of my father.
2. Hit by taxicab in Philadelphia.
3. Dumped by first girlfriend in junior high school.
4. Held up at gunpoint.
.
.
.
57. Bicycle stolen.
.
.
.
1,294. Embarrassing facial blemish on night of big date.
.
.
.
7,837,129. Recipient of pathetically obvious "so how many books have you published, huh?" flame on slashdot by the author of "Lady Slings the Booze" or, as likely, a fanboy using his name.

Re:Reality vs. Fantasy

[Anonymous Coward]

Let me be clear. I would kill, with my bare hands, each and every person reading this post if it meant I could have a chance to go into space.

I'm not reading this post.

Q. Why Don't We Have a Future? ...

[LaCosaNostradamus]

... A. Because We Don't Have One.

America had been aligned into an Orwellian world of constant terror of the rest of the world, from the Cold War onward, and we have the utter gall to wonder why the future is not appealing?

Education systems in America are producing the best educated morons the world has probably ever seen since the British Empire, and there we are with a finger up our collective nose, lamenting the lack of workable foresight?

Generations of space development have been so obviously wasted on producing a welfare system for aerospace companies, the US Air Force, and NASA in general, and yet we still hem and haw and demand that practical applications still exist?

I'm not buying the lies, I won't honor the ignorance, and I won't tolerate the frauds any-friggin'-more. My eyes are now as open as my mouth, and it can only take death to close them.

Space development is gone ... squandered on a massive bureaucracy that is unable to launch anything without spending billions of dollars, and is still unable to launch anything that is really useful, like a goddamn factory or habitat. Their mission of launching people into space was lost to the more preferred mission of launching money into people's pockets.

Cultural development is gone ... lost in fear and loathing as the Western World's flagship (America) heads straight towards wrecking upon the reef of Empire. Profit motives have displaced the Human condition, and a vast hole in Human culture is still growing. It can crash all Human civilization for many generations.

We have dared to put a price tag on a child's smile. We are done. Any fool can see this. Hopefully some microculture somewhere in South America, Africa or Asia will arise from our (probably radioactivity- and bacteria-infested) ruins and build a better world.