Science Fiction

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This magazine is aimed at fans and creators of sci-fi and related media of all kinds. It includes all content related to the sci-fi genre and only content related to the sci-fi genre. The goal is to build a community for everyone who enjoys science fiction and related topics. This includes the obvious books, movies, and TV shows, but also original writing, the discussion of writing SF, futuristic art and designs, and the science and technologies that inspire the sci-fi genre. **Team Top 20**

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This article calls 'Arrival' as 'One of the Best Sci-Fi Films of the Century' but was it? I tried it and I was like ... 'meh' (www.msn.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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spoilers ahead I felt like the character conflict arcs were contrived and ultimately the idea of learning a language makes you a pre-cog fell flat for me. In science fiction, the big idea goes 'woo!' or the characters go 'woo!' but in the case of Arrival, nothing really went 'woo!'

But maybe I'm wrong - what was I missing about Arrival?

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Arrival presents some good philosophical questions, and does so in an interesting setting. The top questions are:

How does language affect our perception?
If you knew your fate, would you still do things the same way?

As such it's qualitatively a good Sci-Fi film. Should it be ranked as one of the best? I don't know, and honestly I don't care, because such rankings are always subjective.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

How does language affect our perception?

Philip K. Dick is famous for saying 'reality is that in which, when you stop believing in it, does not go away.' Languages, perceptions, are still materially beliefs and changing beliefs doesn't change reality. I wanted to see HOW the language allowed you to perceive time and it never got there.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

It's not about perception changing reality it's the other way around. The movie is a meditation on the Sapir Worf hypothesis, that the structure of language literary changes how you perceive the world.

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