Do We Need More Positive Sci Fi

[Henry88]

http://ezinearticles.com/?Short-Science ... id=6954404

food for thought.

[metal_bryan]

There's no dramatic tension without some sort of pessimistic/antagonistic story element. This is a great idea for a movement, but I wish he was a bit more clear about what exactly he wants people to write.

[jellydonut25]

That's a really, REALLY horribly written piece for someone being critical of creativity and writing.

[Silver Kamen]

I'm with Jelly; the way it was written kills the idea for me.

[XvGojira]

I've heard the criticism before, how sci-fi is anti-science since all the horrible monsters and things are from the abuses of science.

[klen7]

I agree that the author is correct about the overall trend in main stream scifi, although i think there are better ways to explore the theme.

If you look at Star Trek (the original series) we had a bold, optimistic look at the future, humanity had put its petty differences behind it and had begun exploring the stars, science was the solution to many of the problems they faced, not the cause. The Federation worked for the good of not only humanity, but the Federation of planets... Fast forward to ST:Into Darkness... Science created a monster, the Federation is corrupt and only looking out for the human agenda, the solution is brute force and violence, the action is based around a mass disaster with many faceless victims and seemingly zero consequence... Somewhere along the way, scifi got hijacked by the spectacle of disaster and special effects, and the intellectual and the fantastic took a back seat to the action sequence

[XvGojira]

[jellydonut25]

So, we're just going to ignore Inception, Marvel's Film Universe, Source Code, Pacific Rim, '09 Trek, where the sci-fi elements are at worst neutral ('09 Trek...it's more in the spirit of adventure that is alluded to in klen's post) and at best absolutely essential to the existence of the hero and his ability to save the day (Captain America).

There are still positive sci-fi films being made now, just like there were cautionary tales made ever since the dawn of sci-fi films (the Frankenstein story is like one of the very first things ever committed to film).


This is like the other day, I read an article about how spoof films suck now and no good spoofs get made anymore and woe is us because Mel Brooks doesn't make movies anymore and I was just like..."Black Dynamite, Shawn of the Dead, Kung Fu Hustle?? Do these movies no longer actually exist?" Just because the "[Insert Descriptive] Movie" franchise exists and churns out crap all the time doesn't mean there aren't still intelligent spoofs being made. There weren't even THAT many 'back in the day' either.

We just look wistfully back upon 50-ish years of film history, pick and choose the best stuff, and try to compare it to the past five, which is unfair.

[Hybrid Gojira]

Honestly, that is a pretty lame article. Citing "The Walking Dead" as an example of "negative" sci-fi is ridiculous. You can easily argue the show is actually about hope; characters dealing with loss, struggling to survive, yet continuing to fight on in order to live rather than give up.

[klen7]