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Saturday, April 13, 2013

Science Fiction vs. Fantasy

I love science fiction, so this post spoke to me.  The great thing about great science fiction is it explores how our lives might change going forward (and it does have a grounding in fact and the possible).

Game of Thrones is not science fiction.  As a created universe, the lack of science and technology is one of the weaker elements of that fictional world (and Tolklein's Middle Earth for some reason even with all its mythology and fantasy elements does not seem to fall into the same trap).  Or is it merely perception?  Science fiction expands our world; fantasy transcends it.  But despite the magic and dragons, fantasy is not the right term for Game of Thrones.  Game of Thrones is an exploration of politics and power (it is based on the War of the Roses).  Game of Thrones reminds me more of the Sopranos (not really surprising since a several directors of GOT are former Sopranos directors) than any science fiction series (or for that matter the mythological exploration of Tolklein).  While we have gained technological breakthroughs over the years, has human nature really changed that much?  There have been societal changes, for the most part for the better, but individual human beings are still capable the same spectrum of behaviors our ancient ancestors showed.

Then you have works that attempt to combine both technological change and exploration of politics/power/sociological issue.  Dune is an example--with the premise that humans intentionally abandoned certain technologies due to battles with artificial intelligence and how that would influence human development and evolution.  The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Ender's Game are other examples, albeit both closer to the present.

1 comment:

  1. The HBO series Game of Thrones is better (IMHO) than the book series was - past book two. The books took on a very depressing character to me, but the series is a lot more up-beat and they aren't killing EVERYONE off just when they get interesting the way that George RR Martin does in his books.

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