Thursday, October 21, 2010
The Free Market and Science Fiction
Science fiction has a love affair with the free market, particularly libertarian sci-fi. One needs only read the numerous speeches (I'm tempted to say diatribes) of Johnny Rico's military instructors, to realize this (see Starship Troopers). The love of free markets can also be seen in Pournelle, Larry Niven, and other libertarian authors from the 70's and 80's, as well as the borderline sci-fi of Ayn Rand (Anthem and Atlas Shrugged). It is interesting therefore to note how the genre itself has become an increasingly monopolistic enterprise, with a small number of authors and publishers dominating the field. New blood is often hard to find, unlike in the fifties and sixties, thus slowing innovation, as older authors are preferred, even when their works have begun to lose relevance. Don't get me wrong, I like Asimov and Clarke as much as the other guy does, but I would like to see some more risk-taking being done in the science fiction genre. I'd also like to see more novels that avoid the socialist\libertarian binary for other scenario's, such as Ian Banks post-scarcity economic scenarios. But tell me what you think.
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I think Gibson usually paints an anti capitalism picture in his works.
ReplyDeleteI guess the trend is for the usually socialist space opera or the usually libertarian or facist military scifi.
I agree that there isn't a lot of new blood in the scifi world as of late. This may be due to the death of the pulp or magazines in general. The Escape Pod podcast usually has some pretty good short stories in it and may be showcasing the next big author.
One of the main reasons I am a fan of sci fi is in the predictions regarding society. How humanity will or can react to shifting realities. I'm not a techie I'm a social sci fi guy.
ReplyDeleteSci fi is an opportunity to explore different economic/social models. In the present and in the West we tend to have a hodgepodge system of mitigated capitalism. So imaginations running through currently theoretical systems is natural and interesting to me.
As a lefty I'd like to see more sci fi with prospective anarchist/socialist models. Although I definitely have a predilection to near future rather than far future.
I'm looking to sci-fi in some ways to understand the present and perhaps find imaginative solutions to present day problems. This makes post-scarcity models truly alien and unrelatable to me although worthwhile and potentially entertaining.