# Some Q's for you!



## Mrs E Wood (Nov 1, 2004)

Hey everyone! I just joined this forum (as you can probably tell). Anyway, I'm a big sci fi fan, well more acurately, a big LOTR fan! But I needed to join here with a more specific purpose.   I'm in yr 10 at my school in Brisbane, Australia and in the subject History we have to study a revolution that occured in the 1950's-70's. And I, naturally, choose to do the 'Science fiction Revolution'! lol. *Any excuse will do!* It makes my project significantly different to the other girls' fashion & appliance revolutions! lol. Anyway - that aside. We are supposed to interview someone as part of the presentation, and I don't know anyone older than me who is into sci fi, so I decided that a forum would be a better way about to go about it. So here is the point... Could you please be so kind as to answer these questions for me? (In an intelligent manner, this is for school!   )

1. How do you think Science Fiction developed during the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s?
2. What had the most influence upon sci fi?
3. What do you think was the most important event/development?
4. What do you like about sci fi?
5. What’s your favourite sci fi?
6. Do you think that the sci fi culture has had an impact on western society?
7. Is sci fi culture a notable part of western society? 

THANKYOU VERY MUCH!  
P.S. I do want to stick around here, it looks like a great forum!


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## littlemissattitude (Nov 1, 2004)

Um, Mrs. E...Are you talking about films or literature? The answers would be vastly different, I think, depending on which you mean. Or, do you mean both?

Oh, and welcome to the forum.


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## Lacedaemonian (Nov 1, 2004)

Hi and welcome to the forums mate!


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## Foxbat (Nov 1, 2004)

Hello Mrs E   

Rather than answer all of your questions one after the other - here's my general opinion on SciFi: it is without a doubt the runt of the literary litter. It is an undervalued and underestimated medium that has both the power to fascinate and produce interesting debate. Quite frankly, I love it but acknowledge the fact that it is 'unhip' to like SciFi (I don't care). It is a wonderful universe of intelligent minds and their visions - a fantastic rainbow of ideas just waiting to be plucked from a tree full of fruit.

I think that it will always suffer the fate inflicted upon it by intellectual snobs that are too lazy to give it a try. Quite frankly, it's their loss.

On a timescale, the fifties and sixties were probably the height of the genre but there are still very good reasons (and very good authors) that make it worthwhile even today. 

End of sermon


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## mac1 (Nov 2, 2004)

Hi there, welcome to the forum, thats a fairly substantial questionairre but I will try to answer your questions the best I can. You were looking for someone older than you, well I am only 22, but if thats old enough then here goes. By the way, my main interests in science-fiction are of the on-screen variety, hope that suits your project ok.

_*1. How do you think Science Fiction developed during the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s?*_
In terms of movie sci-fi, the 50's were a somewhat paranoid time. Science Fiction focused somewhat on the notion of Alien invasion, it was I believe, the result of a post WWII Hollywood, still getting over the meglomania of Hitlers Blitzkrieg. Many so called B-Movies had America saving the world from ET, usually led by either the airforce or the US Army. At the start of the 1950's, the atomic bomb (despite the horrific atrocities at Hiroshima and Nagasaki) was still viewed as a great technological advance, and many believed that real life aliens had visited us now that we possessed nuclear capability, a myth that became popular post-Roswell. I think it was such "real-life" experiences that initially spawned the influx of sci-fi through the 50's, particularly in weekly and fornightly comic books. Many classic invasion books also got put on the big screen during these years, such as HG Well's War of The Worlds. Into the 60's, and things got a bit more interesting. 1960 saw the release of one of the greatest science fiction movies of the century, HG Well's "The Time Machine". Unlike many films before it, the film was optimistic not paranoid. It was the birth of a much more interesting breed of sci-fi on the big-screen, a film which explored the human condition in the guise of a sci-fi flick, much the same way the twilight zone had made the same transistion on the small screen. 1961 saw Yuri Gagarin enter space, a huge achievement for mankind. Despite the fact that the American/Russian cold war was now in full flight, the event was celebrated worldwide. Space gave mankind a unified goal, the likes of which it had never seem before, such unification was reflected in the science fiction of the time. Star Trek is possibly the most notable example of this. The original USS Enterprise contained a mixed race crew and even had an alien (Mr Spock) as Kirk's first officer. Chekov, a Russian was a bridge member, working alongside American collegues, and a black woman (Uhura) was the ships communications officer. This truly was an optimistic response to a somewhat pesimistic 50's look at our planet and people. In 1968, 2001: A Space Odyssey was released, and was a film like none before it. It was the first film to successfully bring arthouse-movie sensibilities to the science-fiction universe. One year before it happened for real, the film depicted man landing on the moon. It was an amazingly deep and ambitious film that made people look at science-fiction from a new light. Before Kubrick's 2001, science fiction on screen was seen very much as eye candy, 2001 brought it to a new depth, a film about not only the exploration of space, but of the human mind as well. It portrayed space as a lonely and barran place, cold and silent, yet awe-inspiring despite its omnipresent emptyness. Heading into the 70's it looked as though the success of 2001 would draw the genre in its direction, but ultimately no film that tryed to copy it, could live upto its majesty, it still remains today one of the pinnacles in artistic science-fiction scren depiction. Into the 70's and the '69 summer of love was over. The hippys were dying out, and society was beginning to darken. The 60's pop blues bands were being swept under the rug by darker rock groups such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, and the cold war was starting to make everyone a little edgy once again, many though armageddon was upon them, and the end was nigh, this is a side of science-fiction that began to develop properly during the 70's. Many early 70's sci-fi movies, were distopian, like those of the 50's, but the fear was centered around much more domestic issues than those of alien inavasion. There was a fear that mankind was going to destroy itself and this was often reflected. Take for example, the 1973 classic Soylent Green, a film which showed a future in which mankind kills off its elderly citizens and recycles them as food, turning the general population into cannibals without their knowledge. Its a far-cry from the optimism of an Arthur C Clarke novel about self exploration and space travel. Another good example of the darker path science fiction took can be seen in the 1971 George Lucas film THX-1138. A blend of the minimal and the distopian, it depicts a world in which love is the ultimate crime. A notion tackled in books such as 1984 and Brave New World before it, THX-1138 was one of the first to bring it to the big screen. On screen science fiction in the 70's was starting not only to look to the future in hope, but to tell us "this might happen if we dont change", putting a morale to the story helped to develop the genre to something far beyond the paranoid and escapist. 1977 spawn Star Wars, a totally new kind of movie, the sci-fi action flick. While not as deep as Lucas' THX-1138, Star Wars was one of the earliest science-fiction movies that seemed to appeal to everyone. Initially recieving terrible appraisals from film critiques who for some reason felt it neccessary to draw parrallels with 2001, the film went on to be the most successful sci-fi movie of all time. Science-fiction had become "cool".


*2. What had the most influence upon sci fi?

*As you can probably gather from my answer to the previous question, I think that the devolpment of science-fiction on screen was influenced hugely by current affairs. Initially it would almost have been fair to sum up sci-fi as that horrible generalization, "invasions of little green men". Modern science fiction however, is often used as a way for directors and script-writers to explore the possibilities of alternative futures without restriction. It is often reflective of the problems of society, whether it decides to look optimistically at a society which has overcome them, or negatively at a future society engulfed or defeated by them, is a matter for the storyteller.


*3. What do you think was the most important event/development?

*I would say that man landing on the moon was the most significant event in science-fiction history. It was almost the turning point, where people could no longer say things like "bah space travel, thats all make-believe". People were forced to look at the genre and say "well actually, some of this could happen". The Apollo 11 moon landing of 1969 gave science-fiction a new credibility it had previously missed, that is why I believe it was the most significant event.


*4. What do you like about sci fi?

*The fact that it is not governed by the rules set out by reality. Science-fiction gives the author/reader/movie-goer a outlet to explore that which our world cannot. It allows for an awe which is lost by most at an early age, but at the same time, it often warns of the dangerous path our people are walking. 

_*5. What’s your favourite sci fi?*_

Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.


*6. Do you think that the sci fi culture has had an impact on western society?

*This is a hard question to answer, mostly as it is very difficult to define what does and does not influence society and to what end. I dont believe it has ever caused anything drastic like war or, but then again what fiction other than a religious text has? To be honest, as much as I would like to say yes, I dont believe science-fiction has had a significant impact on western culture, but this is not so much a fault of the genre, as of fictional works in general.


*7. Is sci fi culture a notable part of western society?* 

Certainly! You only needed to go into any large shop whilst Star Wars: Episode I was in the cinema to see that. Memerobilia absolutley everywhere and people buying Star Wars everthing, it was complete bedlum (at least in my part of England). Some of the largest grossing movies of all time are western sci-fi movies, it most certainly is a notable part of our society.


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## Mrs E Wood (Nov 2, 2004)

Thanks for those replies! (For the record, i meant both actually - but it doesn't matter now!)


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## mac1 (Nov 2, 2004)

Glad to help out, be sure and let us know how the project goes. I wish I could have doen stuff like that in history, I had to study 17th century Britain for my A-Level, damn that was dull!


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## The Master™ (Nov 7, 2004)

HAHAH... For my O-Level English Literature exam (this was in 1985) we had to write a short story... I decided on the fantasy adventure... To end it, the main characters got caught in a landslide...


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## Mrs E Wood (Nov 14, 2004)

Well, I did my oral, and it all went fine (despite the late preparation!  ). Anyway, long story short - I pretty much converted my all-girl class into trekkies. Volkan hand signs and "Live long and prosper" sort of became our class theme. Everyone liked it, much to my surprise! So thankyou very much for those replies!


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## mac1 (Nov 14, 2004)

No probs, glad to be of help, and I'm glad it went well. How about directing a few of your classmates here.


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## Maryjane (Nov 15, 2004)

_Hi Mrs Ewood welcome to the cronicles __I agree with you, not many girls into science and science fiction. It gets lonely at the top uh. Glad you converted your class mates, just get them to chant we are alein abductees when walking down the coridors at school. _


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## The Master™ (Nov 17, 2004)

I wish we'd done Vulcan stuff when I were a lad... 

Okay, I'd still have been the freak I am today, but at least it would have been fun at school!!! 

Why aren't many women/girls into Science and Science Fiction??? MJ, it is your job now, to go around the world press-ganging girls into SF!!!


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## Maryjane (Nov 17, 2004)

_Ya got that right, out of all the gals I know in the comunity I only know one other co conspirator of the trade of the scince of anything which is on an even level with me. Astrophysics pejama party time  _


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## Rane Longfox (Nov 17, 2004)

Howdy. Welcome to the forums


Interestingly, I've noticed a lot of people here say that they don't read much fantasy, mostly sci-fi. Why so?


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## tonic (Nov 17, 2004)

Im the opposite, I hate Sci Fi but I like Fantasy. Dunno why really, but I can't stand futuristic stuff, I'd rather wait for the future and experience the past. Well a past with magic but a medieveal times nonetheless. Or another world. Well you get my point.


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## Maryjane (Nov 17, 2004)

_I already saw your fangs Master now can I see your pointy ears? I like both fantasy and sci fi, ancient history or futuristic. Some day if we are still around we will have a technology that to other life forms on other planets will conseve as great magic, the gods have arived. Instruments and technology that can affect or manipulate the physical world around us and transform it as though majickly. So there can be majic and sci fi put together. Sci fi is just a journy or flight into imagination and fantasy with the possibileties and potentialeties drawn from what we already known about the exsistance of scientific fact and presant day knowledge of the astrophysical nature of the univers. _

_Todays sciencfiction tomorows science _


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## Mrs E Wood (Nov 27, 2004)

Yeah, it's true. I have alot of friends (incredibly intelligent freaks) who absolutely love fantasy!  That seems to appeal to girls. The science smartones though, they like sf too. It's hard to tell why, but I think girls these days regard sci fi as a geeky male thing. But they do go and see the movies, mostly only for the eye candy though!


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