Finally! I understand 'science fiction',
how as a genre, its themes neatly divide.
At one extreme it is about clean utopias
run by distant rulers through machines
in which the populous know their place,
because 1) society is one big machine.
2) The machinery that fixes human roles
also defines an inflexible and complex utilitarianism,
the warping of which provides any plot in these books.
Books in this mode adapt well to film franchises,
with pick 'n' mix pseudo-religious/mythical foundations
which perpetuate a lot of the conservative orthodoxies
of their day. Co-incidentally this makes the films
easy to explain, lends them a false air of 'being prophetic',
and finally with the the profit from product placement
and toy licensing comes the financial reaffirmation.
Given how cohesively the political, philosophical
and monetary are bound together, I can see how easily
this type of fiction can replace religions,
where the faith utterly fails to make reality just or fair.
At the other end there is the human and ethical dystopical-
where there is just as much technology, but human alienation
provides the plot material. This has made for some great
difficult books where the portrayal of discomfort is leavened
only by deepest shafts of black humour.
Very few films are made from these books-the subject
of the terror of a mind trapped inside a system adapts uneasily.
It fails all branches of politics, though it can illuminate insanity.
So, no franchise there then, though the odd radio play has worked.
These are the authors who's work has marked me most deeply,
George Orwell, William Burroughs, Will Self, Kurt Vonnegut III,
Margaret Atwood and J. G. Ballard-there are many others.
They have taught me more about myself vs life
than I could have prepared to learn before I read them.
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