It bothers me how the currency in sci fi is always “credits”; if I wrote a sci fi story, the universal currency would be Australian dollars, even if it’s set in space, with no Australian people, or any indication that this universe ever had a place called Australia in it.
I always love in space/sci-fi media because in my opinion it’s one of the funniest ways to explore loneliness, but not just not being able to relate to anyone, or having a hard time even forming relationships, it’s just 100% pure social solitary confident. Also dealing with the themes of space is that no matter what kind of character you have, you are taking them out of their comfort zone. Like ya know we as a species in some way can relate because we all are from earth, but go a couple miles out into orbit and you’re in entering an infinite zone of unfamiliarity and danger.
“A futuristic tale of urban life in Beijing has won a Chinese novelist a top international prize for science fiction, beating out heavyweight Stephen King for the honour.
Hao Jingfang, 32, won the Hugo Award for best novelette with Folding Beijing, a year after another Chinese writer, Liu Cixin, won the best novel prize for The Three-Body Problem, Xinhua reported on the weekend.
Receiving her award in Kansas City, Missouri, Hao said she was not surprised she had won but had also been prepared to lose.
“In Folding Beijing, I have raised a possibility for the future and how we face the challenges of automated production, technological advances, unemployment and economic stagnation,” she said.
Hao said her book offered a solution to those challenges, but she hoped the situations she described would not become reality.
Hao is from Tianjin, and graduated with a physics degree from Tsinghua University in 2006.
The Hugo Awards, established in 1953, are regarded as the highest honour in science fiction and fantasy. They are named after Hugo Gernsback who was the founder of the American science fiction magazineAmazing Stories.”
god just like. the sheer irony of the fact that mary shelley wrote frankenstein when she was still a teenager. a teenage girl. founder of modern sci fi story telling. and yet now teenage girls are sneered at when they show an interest in ~nerd culture~ and sci fi. i just. man.
i had a moment today while watching a whiny shitlord complain about the injustice of new sci-fi media having more female leads, i suddenly felt the strangest sense of déjà vu. i couldn’t pintpoint it at first but then out of nowhere, it fucking dawned on me
socialjusticesummonersocialjusticesummoner
This is the single greatest meme in the history of the Internet everyone can stop making memes now we don’t need any more ever again
Author: Frank Herbert Genre: sci-fi, epic Year: 1965 Notes: first book of the Dune saga. There’s a movie and a tv series based on it, and several other medias. Read it in Italian here.
You
probably know the plot already, but here it is. It’s set in a distant
future where the known universe is ruled by an emperor and noble
families rule the planets, where there are no computers nor AIs but
Mentats, human beings with mental capabilities close to computers and
where the Bene Gesserit, a female sisterhood with special plans and
abilities, tries to further their special breeding program. The Spice is
an essential tool: they use it as drug, as currency, as a way to
amplify perceptions or to gain more power… but the Spice can only be
found on a desert planet, Arrakis. House Atreides is sent by the Emperor
to Arrakis to rule it, replacing their long time enemies: House
Harkonnen. While House Atreides suspects a trap, they also hope to use
it to their own advantage. So they leave their home planet, Caladan, and
move their court to Arrakis. Duke Leto Atreides brings his concubine,
the Bene Gesserit witch Lady Jessica, and their son, the fifteen y.o.
Paul Atreides, destined to become Duke after Leto. They face many trials
on Arrakis, as the Harkonnen trap finally springs and the traitor they
have in the Atreides court acts. But they will get their revenge, and
more than that, with the help of the Fremen, those who inhabit Arrakis’
desert. And of course Paul is more than what he seems…
Look, this
is Dune we’re talking about. The sandworms, the Spice, the desert… this
stuff is iconic. And, I found out, for a good reason. While the book is
long (more than 650 pages) there’s very little I would have taken out:
what doesn’t advance the plot still contributes to the setting and the
characterizations. The water culture the Fremen have, the political
bickering at the Atreides’ (or Harkonnen’s) dinner table, the plans of
the Bene Gesserit… truly this universe was well crafted. I loved the
secondary characters: they’re so well built you’ll feel genuinely sad
when some of them die. We often get into their heads and read their
thoughts, which is useful in this kind of novel.
So, is Dune
perfect? Well, no. Only Roadside Picnic is. On a more serious note, I
still have some issues with the novel. The number of female characters
is still too low, and most of them have their roles defined through
their relationships towards men. I loved Lady Jessica, but she’s often
confined to the role of mother, and it’s a bit disappointing to see the
super powerful Bene Gesserit act only to benefit men instead of, you
know, themselves. Surely, they manipulate men, but only to achieve their
goal: giving birth to their male messiah, the Kwisatz Haderach, who
will do things they can only dream of. And the only canonically gay
character is also one of the main villains, and a very stereotypical one
too. I’ll cut it some slack because it’s an old novel, but damn, I’m
still a bit baffled because Herbert could invent giant sandworms and a
spice that gives superpowers but a society where men and women are equal
is too much to ask. If someone wrote such a novel today I wouldn’t be
so merciful. This is one of the reasons why Dune can be considered
almost a fantasy novel, the setting is very medieval in certain aspects.
It may seem like a paradox, but the fantasy-esque elements and the lack
of computers made it age way better than other novels written in the
same decades. Another problem that Dune has - but it’s not its fault -
is the John Carter syndrome: everyone and their mothers stole from it.
Indeed, Dune was a literal Spice for a lot of sci-fi creators. The most
important case is Star Wars: it owes so much to Dune that it’s almost
embarrassing. Usually when a work suffers from John Carter’s
syndrome it means it’s worth reading it, and Dune does not disappoint on
this. I have to agree with Clarke, this is sci-fi’s LOTR (but easier to read).
