I had a shocking thought today, that some people think this way about ALL science fiction , worse, they expect this with ALL science fiction, so I have to make this absolutely clear – and excuse me while I get shouty for a bit – I CANNOT read and WILL NOT write “Aren’t-we-an-awful-species” anti-human propaganda – Sorry, guys, I simply am not into “Let-me-show-you-how-bad-the-world-is-in-a-political-sense” sci-fi – It’s the very sci-fi I hated as a child and the very sci-fi that sent me into the world determined to write better (happier) sci-fi!
I am sure I’m not the only one to think the future will be a better place.
For years our fears have been that “things are getting worse”. Every generation since the 1800s has been taught that our future is going to be bad and it’s down hill from here on in. It doesn’t help if writers encourage it. It doesn’t have to pass from generation to generation, yet we as a species we seem to insist on doing it! Some people in our world today are doing their best to perpetuate that fear and to make such a negative prophesy come true, and they have brought much destruction and human misery – all of it pointless – but that still doesn’t mean we have to believe we have reached our height as human beings or that we have to accept that wonderful times are no longer ahead.
Yes, yes, I know, my own sci-fi has issues and challenges, of course it does – I even have a massive war going on between the Khekarians and the Chiddran – but I am not in the human-caused-this-or-that-doom-and-gloom of it, nor the hatred of it, and will never settle into the “Aren’t-we-awful!” type of story.
Frankly, that’s not fun. Not only is it not fun, I don’t want to go there. I especially don’t want to take you there. So, don’t come to me looking for doom-and-gloom. I don’t write dystopian science fiction!
I write about individuals and their strengths, from high places and low. Not necessarily heroes, any of them, but they have a sense of humor, they have loves and hates and worries and fears. They have goals and ambitions. I write escapism and adventure, yes, with sad bits and painful bits and bloody rough bits, yes, there has to be challenges, but you won’t find any trace of the “Let’s-hate-ourselves-some-more” sort.
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We don’t need self-hatred, folks. We don’t need guilt. We don’t need anyone preaching that we are in any way “bad” or “wrong” or “lacking”. Guilt is a manipulative tool, pure and simple. If someone can make you feel guilty about something, you are more likely to self-sacrifice and hand over something they want (money or power over you). In other words, it’s a con. If you are feeling guilty for being alive, for being who you are or for having what you have – someone, somewhere is pulling your strings and is advancing themselves on your pain and your sacrifice. Don’t buy into it.
Wouldn’t things be a whole lot better all round, here and now, if we were not brought up on guilt? We have to stop hating humanity!
We CAN believe in a positive future and make it our own. Trusting things good for once instead of constantly looking for the bad would be a much healthier way to view life. Personally I rather like the future.
Oh, and trust nature while you’re at it. She’s been around a whole lot longer than humans and she knows the ropes. She has always looked after herself and we have always been too puny to interfere. So I don’t do “we’re-destroying-the-planet” type science fiction, either!
Okay, okay, I’ll stop shouting. I’ve bumped into one too many of the woe-is-me-sort, I guess (I confess, some of the blogs I follow are seriously political, although very much the “Let’s-turn-this-nonsense-around” types, looking to stop the negative hype we get drip-fed on a daily basis). Anyhow, I’ll calm down now and get back to having fun blogging.
I simply realized that, as I don’t write that sort of science fiction, everyone should be made aware of the fact.
Meanwhile – Enjoy life. Laugh in the face of a negative anything. Smile and all that. Here:
😀 😀 😀
Cheers, everyone.
Allyson.
Bloodstone Sci Fi 
I’m with you on this one — I much prefer science fiction that believes that we humans are generally good but just sometimes make character-building mistakes.
Hi Christi – me, too. There’s got to be that challenge, and I do love a good bad guy – I don’t even mind the odd evil intent, and death has a place, too. I just like civilization to be grand – I love stories I want to enter into and stay awhile.
Cheers to you! 😀
I grew up reading my dad’s science fiction written in the 70s and 80s, I couldn’t stand the recurring theme of the US Will save us, but even those had the underlying theme of humanity sucks.
Hi Nina – Yeah, for me it was the “We’re all doomed” or “We’re all evil”. A whole heap of those science fiction writers back then didn’t know a thing about women, either. That meant if you got an aliens-take-over-the-Earth type of story, all women were good for were screaming and falling over. Which is probably why I have not one but two good strong women who have a brain and can kick ass.
As a kid in the 70s, I was getting all the old science fiction, like 1984 – which I have never considered a sci-fi, but that’s what was rammed down my throat at the age of about 12. It almost put me off for life. I just wanted a decent adventure – spaceships and colonizing planets – interesting stuff and mostly people having fun. I really do hate alarmism and political messages, like we’re constantly being rapped over the knuckles all the time.
I’m glad I’m not alone on this. Cheers. 😀
1984?
George Orwell’s “1984” – Political and depressing and in a lot of the schools in the 70s (probably teaching all the little communists how to bring down capitalism). At that point in time, 1984 was in the future, so a lot of dimwits called it science fiction. You’re young, aren’t you.
“Young?” Oh god no. I did try being young (up until about 1977) but it really didn’t work for me. Since then I’ve tried madness, “mid-life crisis” & “bitter old man” & they were more the essential “me” I thought.
The point I was (badly) trying to make was that Orwell’s book made things seem pretty cheerful compared to how it all turned-out. Yesterday’s dystopia turns into today’s today’s headlines – & nobody cares. But as SF goes, it was good.
I grew up with the SF of the 40’s & 50’s, leavened with a little Verne & Wells & I saw the change from optimism to pessimism come with Harlan Ellison’s “Dangerous Visions” & the rise of dystopian, politicized SF. Personal preferences apart, politicized, dystopian SF, has some good examples out there (T J Bass’ “Half past human” & “The Godwhale” are good).
Funny, I thought I was the only “me” around. Guess not. 😛 Perhaps we should start a “Me Club”.
Yes, I agree, communism has come to town, but is in the process of being booted out again, so I haven’t given up on democracy and freedom just yet (which is why I’m watching the political sites – much fun happening over there, if you’ve that sort of mind and don’t mind the Collapse of the Zombies being painfully slow and long-winded – it’s been years now since they were fatally shot through the head).
For me, though, a sci-fi is not any old story projected a decade or two into the future (whether it comes true or not), but something far grander and generally off the planet, whether it involves aliens or just the potential for them.
I realized a lot of the early sci-fi writers were living in a world of fear amidst the wars and the depression, and a lot of their writings were warnings, but a lot of them also managed to portray humanity as something soulless and humourless – which we have never been. So my first real dissatisfaction came at that. “Last person left alive” type stories were thrilling in their way, but then it seemed that sci-fi became nothing but doom and gloom – which might be why it’s unpopular to regular readers.
Star Trek (the tv series) turned it around a bit, and Star Wars certainly gave it a huge boost in the right direction. Think Star Wars for adults (sex and violence – not necessarily on the same page – and people who swear), and you know where I’m at. 😀