Science Fiction

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Is Science Fiction Inherently Hopeful? (sopuli.xyz)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/sciencefiction

27 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I read a lot of Harlan Ellison (worked on The Outer Limits, 80's Twilight Zone, Babylon 5), and I was wondering what people thought of this quote from him:

[S]cience fiction is the only 100% hopeful fiction. That is to say, inherent in the form is, "There will be a tomorrow". If you read a science fiction story, it says, "This will happen tomorrow". Now that’s very positive, that’s very pragmatic, "We’ll be here tomorrow. We may be unhappy, we may be all living like maggots, but we’ll be here." So that means it’s 100% positive.

Ellison has even said that his short story I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is optimistic, because in the climax, there is still room for self-sacrifice and defiance to authority.

I guess it comes down to whether you think a bleak future is better than no future at all.

Shameless plug for my work if you like Ellison or want to learn more: https://ndhfilms.com/ellison

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Fuck hopeless stories. All my homies believe in the indomitable human spirit

[–] Hackworth 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I had no idea emo ducks admired humanity like that. Imma try and be better for y'all, bring that good bread. Wait, is bread bad for you now? I think I saw that in my feed while doom scrolling.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

Get seeds and sprouts. Emoducks love that stuff.

[–] TheSambassador 3 points 6 months ago

For real! This is why a lot of modern TV is hard for me to watch. So many stories about mostly terrible people being awful without any humanity. Most people are good.