Wednesday, August 18, 2010
My Experience with Science Fiction
I believe a reasonable definition for "science fiction" would be a genre (literary, cinematic, etc.) based on advanced technology and societies that we have yet to achieve. Whether it be the destruction of one society by another, more advanced one or simply the story of an especially advanced society, almost all science fiction works somehow include how people function as a society with advanced, almost magical technology. My experience with science fiction has been mostly through movies including, but not limited to, Star Wars, Star Trek, Avatar, and Inception. I look forward to this semester giving me the opportunity to read recent science fiction novels and short fictions since I have mostly limited my literary interests to broader fantasy and action books. A few examples of science fiction texts I can come up with are The Time Machine, The Host (by Stephanie Meyer, author of the Twilight series), and George Orwell's 1984.
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4 comments:
Thanks, Katy. I'm surprised no one in class mentioned Avatar.
Wells' The Time Machine is a classic early example of the literalized metaphor that Ursula K. Le Guin has argued is an sf fundamental.
I really liked the movie Avatar. I think it was interesting to see the interaction between the humanoid characters who were experiencing their world through technology interacted with a different species who interacted with the world around them through their senses and beliefs. (Albeit super cool senses)
I haven't seen Avatar but i have heard that the ship design in it is on par with the Discovery from 2001: A Space Odyssey as far as realism goes. One of the things that I've heard that kinda bothered me was the idea behind the Avatar. It's basically a clone of one of the abos of Pandora and basically has radio equipment where it's brain should be. That edges too close to the "What is human life?" argument for me.
"That edges too close to the 'What is human life?' argument for me." Not sure what you mean, Adam.
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