Science Fiction is Not Immortal
Having spoken of the non-death of science fiction, it occurs to me that I should also talk about the would-be-death of the genre. Because, unlike general fiction (or “literary” fiction, if you want to call it that, though that would be unfair), science fiction does have a limited lifespan. To be fair to SF, that […]
Science Fiction’s Not Dead, Fantasy is in the Golden Age
People are talking about the death of science fiction again. It’s not actually dead, far from it, but as soon as someone says “it’s dead” someone else goes crazy (either because they believe SF has long been dead or because they’re tired of hearing the argument). Apparently the genre has a few dozen lives and […]
Entrenched Opposition: A Rebuttal (Part Two)
Riadan, one of the commentators on my recent post on science fiction’s battle against an entrenched opposition had some interesting things to say. Since his or her comments were rather long and deserved significant rebuttal and discussion, I thought I would approach them via a dedicated post. So, without further adieu, here goes a (mostly) […]
Entrenched Opposition: Science Fiction Ain’t There Yet (Part One)
(This is part of a potential new series of posts. I really want your thoughts on this, particularly constructive criticism. If you hate this, say so. I don’t care if you hate it. It’s what’s on my mind, and if it’s leading me in pointless directions, I’d like to know.) When can we say that […]
Science Fiction, Writing, and the Race Gap
I have recently been reading a unique book called Astrofuturism: Science, Race, and Visions of Utopia in Space by De Witt Douglas Kilgore (that name is a mouthful). One of the unique points he tries to make is that science fiction is, in some respects, racist; Kilgore does not argue that the fiction of writers […]
Preliminary Cyberpunk Curriculum, and Other Considerations
I mentioned somewhere (maybe Twitter, though, to be honest, my online correspondence has largely become a blur in the last few months) that I am considering developing an independent study graduate course dealing with cyberpunk and capitalism. This interest follows my attempts to conceptualize cyberpunk as a genre and the pressing curiosity as to the […]