What happens with Science Fiction?

Hi Lucio:

>
> Well, I disagree completely, and I think that perhaps you
> unfortunately had no contact with recent good authors of hard
science
> fiction. Have you ever read Vernor Vinge or K.S. Robinson? Indeed
> their SF tends to be *harder* than old classics of the genre from
> authors like Asimov and Clarke.

I have not read Vinge or Egan, what a shame!! Is a mistake I am
correcting now.In the case of K.S. Robinson, for same reason I liked
more "Mars" of Ben Bova.

Yes, hard S.F. exists, thanks God!

My point was that general S.F. is so crowded of "softies" (crap
Science Fiction) that is hard to find the right stuff. More of which
is published right now is soft, like Matrix and Ninja futuristic
cartoons.

>
> As for the bad stuff, there is that saying telling that "90% of
> anything is crap", or something like that, and that also applies to
> science fiction. In the old times classics of science fiction were
> produced, but also lots of pulp science fiction with ludicrous
> content. Of course, "natural selection" by readers preserves only
the
> good stuff, and that may give the that false impression of "good
old
> times".

You are optimistic. That's good. I believe the public, though, went
away from science.

>
> Finally, a science fiction can be "soft", having no connection with
> the known reality of science, and nevertheless be good. See a
>classic
> like H.G. Wells "The Time Machine", for instance. Wells did not
>bother
> to invent technobabble or find physical justifications for the
> artifact, but nevertheless he constructed a timeless story about a
> machine able to travel through time.
>

Wells also produced excelent hard science fiction. In "the world set
free", for instance, predicted the atomic bomb, a novel that also
inspired to Szilard himself.

> Indeed, I think that a good author can take any absurd premise,
>build
> suspension of disbelief and write a good story. That's why good
> fantasy - not science fiction - literature works. And the same
>happen
> with the genre known as fantastic realism.
>

That's the point, Lucio. In Latin America, for example, we got tons
of "fantastic realism", legengs and fantasy. We got Borges, Garcia
Marquez, Isabel Allende, Vargas Llosa, and hundred of imaginative
writers. We also have good "science fiction", but I promise I have
never ever read a good "hard S.F." history by a Latino writer.

I believe we are doomed to be "softies" :)

Regards,

Omar Vega