Friday, August 21, 2009

Science Fiction Friday: Series Re-boot


Now that I am hoping to blog more often I would like to resurrect or re-boot an older blog series: Science Fiction Fridays. I don't promise to write something every Friday, but I will try (and some will be updated re-posts).

Science Fiction vs. Sci-Fi: So, what is the difference between Science Fiction and Sci-Fi? (I'm basically using a distinction my cousin, Kevin Reed, proposed to me.)

Science Fiction: A form of social critique or investigation set in the future (distant or near), or set in the present amid highly anomalous circumstances. Science Fiction is what you see in Cyber-Punk books, the Dune series, and Philip K. Dick (and the movies based on his stories).

Basically, science fiction offers a utopian/distopian vision of the future as a critique of the present, and therefore is not supportive of the status quo (I also also Fantasy but that was going to make my series name too long, and I don't read/view as much of it).

Sci-Fi: Roughly state, Sci-Fi is strictly entertainment of the futuristic type (somewhere in space) or concerning dangerous scientific research (think Mutant X or X-Men), and it is not different than the status quo. Just about everything is Sci-Fi now on film and the tv; there are few view science fiction movies or tv show which actually critique rather than support the current system of thought.

So, basically, I want to commit to a regular reading of the difference between Science Fiction and Sci-Fi, in literature and film. Through this series I'll engage in ideological and theological critiques of the consumer american lifestyle in which I live and minister.

I have recently just finished The Sparrow, A Canticle for Liebowitz, and a border book, Foucault's Pendulum, all of which will receive some reflection, as well as some recent films.

But to get started, and to add to my reading/viewing list, what are your favorite science fiction books or movies? And why?

5 comments:

  1. These films/television series come to mind:
    Children of Men
    Blade Runner
    Minority Report
    Battlestar Galactica (the modern series)

    I thought that District9 had some great Science Fiction elements.

    These books come to mind:
    Any Science Fiction by Ursula LeGuin
    The Foundation Series
    Ender's Game (and subsequent books)
    the Dune Trilogy
    Brave New World

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  2. I'm a big fan of Canticle for Leitbowitz and The Sparrow.

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  3. hey Jen, nice to hear from you.

    and Mark, yeah, those are some of my top books. The foundation series was foundational (couldn't help it...:-)) to my science fiction development. I'll have to check out Ursula LeGuin.

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  4. Does Wrinkle in Time or Wind in the Door count, by Medeleine L'Engle? Or Peralandra by C.S. Lewis?

    Another of my favorites is Flatland by Edwin A Abbott.

    I wasn't too fond of Foundation. But I liked a bunch of the robot stories of Asimov. And I think it would be wrong to ignore H.G. Wells, Jules Verne or Edgar Rice Burroughs.

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  5. Thanks Maria,

    I'm never heard of Abbot or Buroughs. I'll have to look them up.

    and yes, Wells and Verne are in there too (but I haven't read them recently).

    And can't forget George Orwell and Huxley.

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