Sunday, January 5, 2014

Too Many Sci-Fi books...

Hello My Friends;

  I was reading another of my favorite Science Fiction books recently.  Sci-Fi gets a bad rep. from the main-stream writers, and typically quite unfairly.  Science Fiction requires an author to define characters well, their looks, their mannerisms, their nature... and bring often different types of critters together that don't exist elsewhere.  For instance, if you said "The blond woman and the tiger"... a mental image of that very thing is easily understood by most people, requiring very little development.  But, if you said "The Sapine and the Warraq", well, you suddenly find yourself having to create those characters in such a way that the reader can get a mental image and not only understand what is going on but form an attachment with some of the characters.  So, having said all of that, I admire good Sci-Fi and appreciate the efforts necessary.  But, maybe I've gone too far...
  See, as I read the news now I find Sci-Fi plots running through my mind, and they are frightening ones.  For instance, what would be the natural outcome for a Sci-Fi junkie like me when reading about mass unemployment, sinking wages, skyrocketing health care costs, property taxes, food costs, etc.... and a strong portion of the government that fights for the continuation of wholesale arms availability and increasing defense spending/war mongering on other shores, denial of unemployment benefits, lesser wages, greater difficulty in education, and demands that their fundamentalist views of Christianity be followed - even by those who don't believe?  I mean, is it just me?  Am I the only one that thinks the Republicans are actively seeking to bring about the end of the world so they can experience the Rapture spoken of in Revelations?
  Maybe I am.  Way too many books, I guess.

4 comments:

Sammy B said...

Hello Randy
Revelations is a sci-fi work in itself, surely? More seriously, though, religious belief as a source or 'inspiration' for public policy has, in my opinion, proved to be an unmitigated disaster. If anyone can show me a human invention that has caused more harm to its inventors than organised religion, I'll be amazed.

Love & best wishes
Sammy B

Anonymous said...

I must agree with Sammy, though there is only one Revelation.

The Republicans are about to far-right-wing-fundamentalist-Christian themselves out of a job if they don't get their act together, and that doesn't seem to be happening. In the meantime, millions of Americans are left to suffer through crap caused by Republicans, namely, the never ending recession.

Therefore, second to religion, politics has caused plenty of harm to its creators.

Peace <3
Jay

randy said...

Hi Jay and Sammy;
Yeah... I have to agree with you both. Both are composed of great ideas easily twisted from helping people to dominating and destroying people in the name of "greater good".

hugs
randy.

Scottie said...

Hello to Randy, Sammy, and Jay. May I suggest a book called " The Lady Slings the Booze" by Spider Robinson.

He wrote a whole series of very funny but thought provoking sci-fi books about a time traveling Big Irish bar owner / tender. He also did a few on the the bar keeps wife, who runs the grandest brothel house in New York. Hugs and loves, Scottie