Monday, October 22, 2012

SCIENCE FICTION WRITING


The best Sci-Fi writing envelopes its readers in some unquestioning acceptance of Illusion and story-telling......and this is done by presenting theoretical but plausible concepts of future science, but without violating or conflicting with known science........Jules Verne's stories still work after all these years and seem so future-forward...although they were written almost 150 years ago.....and so much Science and Technology has been discovered and evolved since then....It amazes me to think of the possibilities for writing sci-fi now.......however, space-time continuum and faster than light travel for the human body are both tricky arenas, even for the most gifted writers.....I remember when, in ALIENS, Ridley Scott returned his "heroine" to LV-426...  that is now the site of a terraforming project.......He lost me from the start......as the place looked like a planet to get away from and quit  after ALIEN.....yet, Scott continued with another 2 sequels and a prequel! Of course this series of films was developed as moneymakers that would probably succeed, based on viewers infatuation with the initial premise and the fabulous visionary work of H.E. Giger........so...get the first impression nailed down, for that is the jumping off platform for whatever follows......or detritus of abandoned process thinking that moved within and through determinants without accepting fixed concepts. Great writing must "trick" its readers into accepting what is, on close analysis, beyond the logic of theoretical mathematics, chemistry or physics, while seeming that it is not.......