Post by account_disabled on Jan 2, 2024 4:19:11 GMT
In writing my science fiction novel I realized the real difficulties that hide behind this literary genre. We are used to thinking about science fiction through a series of clichés that have been imposed on us by cinema and television: Space 1999 , Star Trek , Star Wars , etc. For the masses, science fiction is confined to space ships, aliens, and the conquest of planets. However, it is enough to read some of Philip K. Dick's novels to realize that this genre has much more to offer the reader, especially from the point of view of reflection on some social themes. The writer who approaches science fiction must be an excellent thinker, first of all, because he must know how to create a future and futuristic world by skipping centuries , if not millennia, of history.
Starting today he must make a time leap to 3000 or even much further. I went further. For my story I needed it. By writing it, and above all planning it, I was able to discover that imagination is not Mdpapu$%4 enough , that being creative is not the only possible and necessary way to write a science fiction novel. A certain logic is also needed, so that everything fits into an understandable but also coherent framework. We must invent, of course, but with the awareness of a reasoned invention . It doesn't matter that in 3000 none of us will be there to refute our novel: that 3000 must be credible, plausible. Building a science fiction world I started by deciding on a future date: when to set my story . It doesn't matter now how far into the future it is, but it's far away.
This was fascinating and dangerous at the same time: fascinating because I found myself thinking about what such an advanced society could be like, reconstructing political hierarchies, imagining the evolution of cities, the structure of character names, the level of technology. In short the famous world building . Dangerous because I was missing data. Data is always missing , this is obvious, unless we write a story about an alien invasion that will take place in 2016 and will be fought with current weapons and other slightly more advanced secret weapons. George Lucas also lacked data, yet he managed to create Star Wars , mixing classic elements of science fiction (of space opera: space conquests, aliens and spaceships) and elements of the Middle Ages (knights, swords, princesses). I'd say it worked. Even if we are not George Lucas, his saga teaches us a lot if we want to write science fiction: starting from the past to write the future .
Starting today he must make a time leap to 3000 or even much further. I went further. For my story I needed it. By writing it, and above all planning it, I was able to discover that imagination is not Mdpapu$%4 enough , that being creative is not the only possible and necessary way to write a science fiction novel. A certain logic is also needed, so that everything fits into an understandable but also coherent framework. We must invent, of course, but with the awareness of a reasoned invention . It doesn't matter that in 3000 none of us will be there to refute our novel: that 3000 must be credible, plausible. Building a science fiction world I started by deciding on a future date: when to set my story . It doesn't matter now how far into the future it is, but it's far away.
This was fascinating and dangerous at the same time: fascinating because I found myself thinking about what such an advanced society could be like, reconstructing political hierarchies, imagining the evolution of cities, the structure of character names, the level of technology. In short the famous world building . Dangerous because I was missing data. Data is always missing , this is obvious, unless we write a story about an alien invasion that will take place in 2016 and will be fought with current weapons and other slightly more advanced secret weapons. George Lucas also lacked data, yet he managed to create Star Wars , mixing classic elements of science fiction (of space opera: space conquests, aliens and spaceships) and elements of the Middle Ages (knights, swords, princesses). I'd say it worked. Even if we are not George Lucas, his saga teaches us a lot if we want to write science fiction: starting from the past to write the future .