As I have continued my wandering through my used book store, I have found more and more that my non-reality readings tend more towards fantasy and less and less towards science fiction (also known as "speculative fiction" for reasons that I have no knowledge of and, frankly, am now too old to care).
Why is this? As I pondered the fact more and more, I came to a two sided conclusion.
On the one hand, I have read and followed enough science fiction through the first 50 odd years of my life to determine that what people think the future will be like and what the future will actually be like are two entirely different things. Read Andre Norton, one of my favorite fantasy and science fiction writers: paper is still used are rockets still have three fins in the 24th Century and beyond. What we thought the future would be like 60 years ago and what it is like now are very very different things. On the other side, more recent writers make the future more like today, just with fancier weapons and slightly upgraded technology - which is just a slightly modified version of the modern world, which hardly makes it science fiction.
On the other hand, the older I get, the less and less I find myself interested in "the future". The future - certainly the far future and even the future 50 years from now - is an undiscovered country that I will never reach. It may be occasionally interesting to ponder or to reach a book or watch a two hour movie on, but that is about it. That future now belongs to others.
Of course, the future I find myself most concerned about at this point in the program is my future beyond life. Because that has a reality that eclipses all others. And that is the reality which remains most in my control, at least in the part where I can know where that future is and Who it is with (I have written about it before here of course; check your local Bible for more details).
As to science fiction for entertainment? At best I look to my old reliable stable of authors for what the far future looked like 60 years ago. At worst, I look for the apocalyptic fiction. Those two extremes, a world that will never be or a world in which we will destroy ourselves, truly seem like the most likely options at this point.
I wonder if it isn’t a function of age, TB?
ReplyDeleteGlen, you could be right. I find myself lost a bit more in nostalgia now for things in my past - things that if I had the opportunity to do now I would not because they are pretty much eating up valuable time but in my memory, have a soft hazy glow of familiarity.
ReplyDeleteI read 75% scifi myself and I still do not find the content as engaging as I once did. Part of it due to lack of original content ( I have read too much scifi!) but there is still some good stuff being done. The Three Body Problem being one of the better I have read in a while ( the series ). The funny thing about the series is that much of the sentiments you mention..aspects of people not being interested in the future due to storyline. Original and different..and quite a bit of differences between the books. I will also add..if you have not read 'the culture' series by Iain M. Banks it is worth a try. One of the only series I have ever read where I liked it better with every book..and any of the books can be read in any order. Great example of society building on a series scale. I was not really impressed with book 1 but as I went on there were so many layers to the society and its citizens and the depths of the storylines. Keep up the good work..I don't make it around as often as I used to but I love your thought provoking posts!
ReplyDeleteEGB - Thanks so much, both for the suggestions and your kind comments!
ReplyDeleteI will give those series you mention a look. Interestingly (at least to me), I still devour the sci fi books I have so in some case it is not as simple as just saying "I do not like the genre any more" - I have a book by H. Beam Piper which I can never find in stores on my wishlist and will undoubtedly devour it as soon as I buy it.
Or is it, I wonder, that we have essentially "explored" the future of new ideas and are now merely recirculating old ones, if for no other reason that the known sells books?
...I love the genre but am old enough that I know when I don't want to finish something or find it has been done before. Gone are the days where I will power through a book/series simply for the reason of finishing..my time is valuable and best not wasted..but reading is one of the only ways I am able to get out of my own head so I still do it regularly. While there is a whole lot of crap out there ( still ) there are many great scifi books out there worth taking in...and if scifi is not original don't even get me started on the rest of the fiction genre!
ReplyDeleteEGB - Oddly enough, reaching the point where I could just put a book down because it was awful was one of the hardest ones of my life - but after I did it once, I found it to be easier the next time.
ReplyDeleteI finding myself leaning towards the classics at this point: something that has withstood the test of time is a pretty safe investment.