Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Science fiction

Science Fiction is a Genre That Everyone Should Read

Science fiction authors are rarely great stylists. "A lot of the best known science fiction looks either dated (Jules Verne, HG Wells) or dumb: the platitudinous and banal ‘philosophical’ discussions of the Star Trek crew on their pointless and endless galactic cruise."

The value of science fiction is neither stylistic or strictly scientific; its value is truly literary, in the highest sense.
It is fiction that asks questions about the human condition and the meaning of life by taking us beyond everyday life. We go to strange planets, far distant futures or even to our own past — in order to learn about who we really are. Science fiction takes its readers to far off galaxies in order to help them understand life on earth more clearly — just as Dorothy traveled to Oz to learn what Kansas was really all about. The results can be startling and profound...
(via toomanytribbles)

4 comments:

  1. Have you read Blindsight by Peter Watts?

    http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm

    In my opinion, the best science fiction novel of the past decade.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Couldn't agree more. Much of today's science fiction is literary fiction; ie Dan Simmons Hyperion series.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Almost all the questions that got me to thinking about morality and man's interactions with the world were from the SciFi masters who asked what if? It was in a SciFi book that I finally read about Incest...Why is it bad? Is it bad? Is it OK in certain ways?
    I NEVER had that discussion in religious class or biology or philosophy only in a SciFi book was there someone with courage to ask the questions on many topics.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It was in a SciFi book that I finally read about Incest...

    Most of Heinlein's later works have strong themes of incest.

    You might also be thinking of Theodore Sturgeon's anvilicious 1967 short story, If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister?, which appeared in Dangerous Visions.

    ReplyDelete

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