Is it time for a rethink in Science Fiction?

[Robert Zwilling]

It doesn't seem to be getting better for awhile anyway. Plenty of time to write something. Or read up about what others have said. In some of his stories, John Brunner wrote about viral outbreaks running in the backgrounds that kept popping in and out of the foreground. It was just something that happened as a consequence of living. It also looks like we might get more than one chance to be bitten by the apple, so to speak.

There is a report out about corona from "Britain's National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), in which testimony suggested ongoing COVID can be cyclical, Dr Elaine Maxwell, who led the report, said' with symptoms fluctuating in severity and moving around the body including around the respiratory system, the brain, cardiovascular system and heart, the kidneys, the gut, the liver and the skin."

In around 5 percent of patients, this can last for months. The lingering effects show no preference for age, or background of the person. Most people don't realize how many roles the skin plays in the performance and maintenance of our bodies. Colds and flus can also produce lasting after effects, but these aspects were hardly ever studied by anyone, which led to the assumption that one got over them and that was that.

 

[Justin Swanton]

The fact that science fiction doesn't have to be hard science fiction should be clear enough from the fact that a lot of it isn't. Science fiction, like any fiction, is all about the story. We humans love stories, I mean, we really, really love them. The greatest joy you can give a child is to tell him a good story. Why do stories make such an impact on us and why can't we get enough of them? I think it's because stories deal with the things that matter - that make sense of life. We aren't pure animals. We can't just chew the cud like a cow and be content with that. We need reasons for what we do and ultimate we need to know what matters in life beyond just eating and existing. Stories supply that need. Every good story instinctively homes in on the things that really matter: what is good and evil, why it is important that good should win out over evil, why hardships and setbacks aren't necessarily bad in themselves, and so on. This is important. If we turn into thoroughgoing existentialists and see no reason or purpose in our lives at all then we're one step from blowing our brains out. After reading La Nausée that's exactly what I felt like doing.

All this has little to do with finding scientific solutions to contemporary problems, except perhaps to emphasise the truth that helping out one's fellow men is a good thing.

 

[Robert Zwilling]

I don't go in much for characterization but the use of in depth characterizations in science fiction stories can also explore responses to unique social as well as technical situations.

 

[JJewel]

Surely with writing it depends on what you wish to produce, I have a friend who always swore by Greg Bear.

I tried to read one book and it was really a science manual with a few characters thrown in, reminded me of Tolkien tbh, that same need to drone on in great detail while the entire audience has died on you!

But I prefer poetry / Lovecraft etc where facts are not nec, it is instead ... Just is?

Bottom line, in any form of writing their be room for all forms of words and readers.

 

[Robert Zwilling]

But I prefer poetry / Lovecraft etc where facts are not nec, it is instead ... Just is?

I was very young when I first read Lovecraft and it seemed to clearly explain in factual matter what was lurking around in the ether that surrounds everything.

 

[Wayne Mack]

a science fiction writer has to understand the subject they are writing about before they can make viable suggestions.

I would take care not to believe that even a well read outsider will be able to propose viable solutions to major issues. It is reasonable to speculate how society might react to various alternative solutions (or lack of solutions). I am not suggesting we ignore science, but realize that we cannot be experts and will need to accept adequate scientific speculation.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Oddly I would say that a sci fi writer doesn't have to understand the subject they are writing about. They have to understand the rules of the world build they are writing about. They are quite different things.

Take space opera. If relativity is right, no space opera beyond our solar system can exist. And yet a great many sci fi writers write great space opera. So what's the problem?

As for the corona virus, I would say that the main thing it changes for us writers and readers, is that it gets rid of that horrible, completely unrealistic meme that every damned show on tele seems to have. Find the monkey / patient zero / some great pie in the sky answer, take a vial of blood and hey presto twenty four hours later you have a vaccine. That one drives me nuts. I don't think anyone's going to be able to use it again for a long time to come. That may be the only good thing to come out of this nightmare.

Cheers, Greg.