What happened to Ideas based Science Fiction?

[sknox]

>it also means they are taking the publishing bandwidth from new ideas
I don't agree that there's such a thing as bandwidth. That word implies a limit; that there's a certain number of ideas, and if writing in this decade takes N ideas, then there are Total-N ideas left for other authors. That just doesn't make any sense. No one is taking anything away from my ability to imagine.

I do, however, agree that SF literature of today is different from, say, 1950 or 1930. The key difference, imo, is space. Not so much *outer* space as that SF stories back-in-the-day could be set elsewhere and be SF. On another planet, in a space ship, under the sea (thinking of Clarke here), and all those settings were marvelous and strange. Today they're much more familiar. Yes, SF stories can still be on another planet, but there's much less of a sense of newness about them. Roll back to, say, 1880 and see what Wells or Verne had to work with. The very landscape inhabited by SF has changed over time.

There's still plenty of room, but the landscape has shifted. Now it's more about biotech or virtual space. I'm thinking now of people like Daniel Suarez. Still lots of new ideas, but the setting is very different.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I think I tend to agree with sknox - the landscape of sci fi (and fantasy) has changed. When you talk about ideas based, what I think you really mean is, new, fresh, and original ideas which can be the basis of a story. The problem is that there's so much more out there these days. Readers have seen a lot more these days than people of past generations had. It becomes tougher to find something new and fresh in the ideas department. I mean I write sci fi and fantasy (and now one detective book!) and the same questions come back to bite me. How many different magic systems can there be? How many different ways of transversing space?

In my latest fantasy I'm working on a system of magic I call binding where people take the blood of magical creatures and inject it into themselves to gain magic. I think it sounds reasonably fresh. But I guarantee that somewhere out there someone will have done the same thing and come up with the same range of issues with this sort of binding - loss of self control etc. And some readers will recognize it and consider it a rehash of someone else's work.

It's just the way it is when there's an ever growing library / compendium of well established sci fi / fantasy books out there.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[msstice]

But I guarantee that somewhere out there someone will have done the same thing

I think this is generally true of all artistic endeavors. It is the detail, style and composition that varies from writer to writer because each person has a different way of looking at things.

 

[msstice]

unless you were a "name," or had a television ministry

Because as Jesus sayeth unto us "I save everyone but first the celebs."

 

[Serendipity]

OK I'm going to take another angle on the ideas issue...

We're all aware that research scientists are able to make new discoveries and gizmos that take our breath away. Such new stuff is rare, but we all know it still happens. Why can't the creative science fiction writers similarly have a percentage of stories that explore genuinely new ideas? After all if they're basing their stories on the new science and gizmos, surely this can happen?

 

[Swank]

OK I'm going to take another angle on the ideas issue...

We're all aware that research scientists are able to make new discoveries and gizmos that take our breath away. Such new stuff is rare, but we all know it still happens. Why can't the creative science fiction writers similarly have a percentage of stories that explore genuinely new ideas? After all if they're basing their stories on the new science and gizmos, surely this can happen?

They do. All the time.

 

[psikeyhackr]

Who needs ideas? You will Believe!

Or I will teleport you beyond the event horizon of the galactic black hole.