One science fiction question

[Thor__Subscriber]

Matthew Sanborn Smith said:
1. “What’s your favorite thing inside your pants right now?”
2. “What’s your least favorite thing?”
3. “Would you elaborate on that?”
4. “Do you like me?”
5. “If I were in your pants right now, 10 being favorite, 1 being least favorite, where would I rank?”
6 through 10. “If you were to turn your pants inside-out, how would this affect your previous answers?”

Hey! Who told you all of my pick up lines?!

Don’t you mean “As a science fiction writer, what’s your favorite thing inside your pants right now?”

You have to be the best, the best in terms of pants.

I am surprised no one asked if carrots are really divine, can you get a dozen for a dime and are they really magic?

I am off to invent my Sci-Fi pants with time travel pockets so you can scratch that itch you had in polite company yesterday, or maybe some kind of stealth pants?

Thor(in pants)

[SimonHSubscriber]

Darren said:
Where do you get your ideas from (snigger).

Thanks Darren, saved me the effort.

I guess I’d want to know why sci-fi, instead of other types of writing.

(Although I suspect it’d be like asking “why are you vegetarian” – a question that yields a different, similarly personal answer every time I ask it.)

[the english assassinSubscriber]

Why not try the question from Marathon Man: ‘Is it safe?’

[fifteenjugglersSubscriber]

I think something like “Which book by another author do you wish you had written?” could get some interesting responses.

Or maybe ask them if they were ever too late with a story/novel, in terms of not getting it published before someone else got there first with similar ideas, or if their SF ideas became superseded by actual events or scientific advancement.

Another thing – one of the guests on a recent episode of Comic Book Outsiders was saying something like how some of the books that have long been considered SF classics should really be reevaluated. E. E. Doc Smith’s Lensman series was mentioned. Maybe a question about SF classics that really aren’t?

I’ll try and come up with actual questions for those last two ideas – can’t quite get the words together at the moment. Maybe someone else out there knows what I’m getting at and can express it far better than I can.

[expatpaulSubscriber]

SimonH said:
I guess I’d want to know why sci-fi, instead of other types of writing.

(Although I suspect it’d be like asking “why are you vegetarian” – a question that yields a different, similarly personal answer every time I ask it.)

I would have thought that that would be exactly the sort of question that would work well here. It would certainly be interesting to see how different writers answered.

---

http://www.expatpaul.eu/

[sotekSubscriber]

“What will the world be like exactly 100 years from now?” (supposedly the most difficult question to ask a SF writer)

[ForgottenPromiseSubscriber]

How does the present compare to the sci-fi future you dreamed of growing up? or Which device/element from sci-fi would you most like to become reality?

[alllieSubscriber]

ForgottenPromise said:
How does the present compare to the sci-fi future you dreamed of growing up? or Which device/element from sci-fi would you most like to become reality?

What I miss most from science fiction is the utopian future with everyone having their needs met, educated, and with earth a garden instead of the biosphere being destroyed by capitalist exploitation and by our numbers. What I miss is the equality, the promise of a classless society instead of a more and more class ridden society. What I miss is freedom instead of less and less freedom with the upper classes perverting our inventions into ways of repressing us.

While we were dreaming of our Utopian future the wealthy and their minions were working on their own version of utopia, a future where they have all the power and we have none of it.

In the words of that Rockefeller, Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations minion Zbigniew Brzezinski as he described how they meant to shape the future: “… society dominated by an elite whose claim to political power would rest on allegedly superior scientific know-how. Unhindered by the restraints of traditional liberal values (founding liberal values like freedom), this elite would not hesitate to achieve its political ends by using the latest modern techniques for influencing public behavior and keeping society under close surveillance and control.”

[expatpaulSubscriber]

alllie said:
What I miss most from science fiction is the utopian future with everyone having their needs met, educated, and with earth a garden instead of the biosphere being destroyed by capitalist exploitation and by our numbers. What I miss is the equality, the promise of a classless society instead of a more and more class ridden society. What I miss is freedom instead of less and less freedom with the upper classes perverting our inventions into ways of repressing us.

I believe that this is exactly what the Shine Anthology is seeking to address. It’s not published yet, but definately something worth watching out for.

---

http://www.expatpaul.eu/

[the english assassinSubscriber]

alllie said:
What I miss most from science fiction is the utopian future with everyone having their needs met, educated, and with earth a garden instead of the biosphere being destroyed by capitalist exploitation and by our numbers. What I miss is the equality, the promise of a classless society instead of a more and more class ridden society. What I miss is freedom instead of less and less freedom with the upper classes perverting our inventions into ways of repressing us.

A similar point was made by some neuro-scientist lady on The Forum, a late night discussion show on BBC World Service, last weekend. It might be still up on iPlayer or whatever somewhere. Personally I couldn’t disagree more – but each to their own. I don’t mind looking at some of the utopias of yesteryear as a matter of social-history through the prism of SF, but if anyone today tried to construct some utopian vision I think I’d find it cringe-worthy and naive, at least, and probably slightly sinister… but as for true utopian visions themselves (rather than ambiguous utopias)… they’re not for me and seem to fly in the face of what almost all really great narratives are about: the human condition. I can’t think of a single utopia in human history and I can’t think of a single thing they can tell about ourselves – apart from the folly of our dreams I suppose…

[Judy__Subscriber]

60 SECOND IDEA TO CHANGE THE WORLD

In our 60 Second Idea To Change The World, REBECCA SAXE believes all makers of science fiction films should be required to produce an alternative, more positive, version in which artificial catastrophes don’t happen and where the scientific ideas underpinning the plot are properly explored.

The show and/or the 60-second idea at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00551mg

The Forum is one of the better podcasts.

[alllieSubscriber]

the english assassin said:

I don’t mind looking at some of the utopias of yesteryear as a matter of social-history through the prism of SF, but if anyone today tried to construct some utopian vision I think I’d find it cringe-worthy and naive, at least, and probably slightly sinister… but as for true utopian visions themselves (rather than ambiguous utopias)… they’re not for me and seem to fly in the face of what almost all really great narratives are about: the human condition.

I was more answering the question: Which device/element from sci-fi would you most like to become reality?

I’d like the positive Utopian futures in some science fiction to become a reality. That’s not to say that such stories are always the most interesting to read, though they can be. I’m on a quest to read the Utopian fiction of yesteryear and some of it was written by great writers who made utopia inspiring instead of boring. Then you have something like the socialist utopia of Star Trek where almost everyone is able to…hmmm… self actualize. In it danger comes from outside and the people who go into space have self-selected because they have a need to be heroes, to explore the unknown, to protect their own society and sometimes to protect sentient life no matter where they find it. That can be interesting. And frequently was on Star Trek.

While dystopias can be interesting to read about I can’t think of one I’d like to live in or make real.

[Judy__Subscriber]

Dystopias tend to be about the present, somewhat veiled for the author’s safety. Utopias tend to be about possible solutions to present woes…maybe naive, maybe not… that depends upon the author. Solutions are much more difficult than noticing present problems.

Both are about the human condition…

[Judy__Subscriber]

The Fifth Element was the object of discussion at the 404 holiday podcast of C/net.

http://www.cnet.com/the-404-podcast/

[Author]

Posts