What Happened To Science Fiction?
Recently, while perusing the web (and deleting hundreds of Spam emails, uncluding one asking me to part with a few thousand pounds, titled Enigin Scam ), I came across an interesting video featuring Never Let Me Go creator Kazuo Ishiguro and Alex Garland (author of The Beach). In the video they discussed a few things pertaining to science fiction films, culture and literature. Seeing as Never Let Me Go is based in a world which has something in common with science fiction ideas of the past, I gave it a watch and found myself intrigued.
One of the points they brought up was how science fiction has always done well in film, but has never quite reached the same hallowed status in literature. Somewhat of a strange thing when you think about it, as books are so powerful and do have the power to build worlds inside the read that books can not touch. It seemed to me that their point had hit a very big nail right on the head: while there are countless films which feature science fiction as a theme – need I say Avatar, anyone? – there are much fewer books which have made a similarly impressive impact. Among books which have done well is 1984 – one of the great classics of literature, if you may. Yet somehow, despite 1984, literature has never really given the same worth to science fiction as a genre that it has to other things, including thrillers.
Part of this may be to do with the fact that science fiction is such a cliché. Whereas in films, new ideas are thrust upon us in a visually exciting way, in books it is much harder. And so many authors in the past have instead ended up creating fantasy stories which rely on humour, rather than hardcore science fiction stories that tackle serious issues in ways which many other genres of books possibly do in a more captivating and easy to associate with way.
Similar Posts:
The Future? : I’m in business, am well up with the latest…
Politics : We’ve all been there…It’s our first…
Health Reasons for Loss Libido in Men : Among the things in a…
Comments are closed!