5 things to do on National Science Fiction Day
All things science fiction are celebrated on Jan. 2, honoring the late Isaac Asimov and his contributions to evolving the genre.
Category Archives: Sociology & Culture
Musings on Science Fiction TV
Each Fall I eagerly await the new slate of Science Fiction TV shows. Which ones will I enjoy and keep up with? Which ones will I enjoy and they’ll get cut anyway? Which ones will I pass on in disgust, only to discover they are a big hit? With each passing year, I’ve noticed an increasing number of science fiction and other genre-themed TV shows. But I’ve also noticed another trend — the “mundaning” of science fiction.
Is the Fight for Recognition Over?
“Because, to most people, it seemed lurid, fantastic and nonsensical trash, science fiction’s fans have tended to be a bit defensive in their attitude.” — John W. Campbell, Jr., “Concerning Science Fiction” I know that within my lifetime, the popular view of science fiction has changed for a lot of people. These days, TV Guide […]
Politics and Science Fiction
It seems to me that quite a lot of science fiction — in fact speculative fiction as a whole — is used to comment on the current political climate when it was written. On television, Star Trek, Babylon 5 and the re-imagined Battlestar Gallactica are good cases in point. In literature, I could probably list […]
SonomaCon Keynote Address
I once had a dream — a science fiction fan community run convention for Sonoma County, where I grew up and was once living. Then I moved. But, while I still had that dream I wrote this “Keynote Address” for the first SonomaCon as one of my Toastmaster Speeches. Enjoy! Introduction Carma Spence will be […]
A Mirror for Our Fear
This essay was an assignment for my “Science Fiction and American Culture” class. Science and technology are mirrors in which humankind can see who they are, what they want to be and what they are afraid of. In novels, movies and on television, popular culture explores these possibilities through works of fiction and horror. Sherry […]
Shattered, Disassociated and Confused
This essay was written for a class I took called “Science Fiction and American Culture.” It was in response to reading several stories in Mirrorshades, edited by Bruce Sterling, as well as assigned readings from Storming the Reality Studio, edited by Larry McCaffery. If you would like to read Mirrorshades, still considered an excellent introduction […]
Themes & Trends in Science Fiction
A Brief Overview of Common Subjects Machines Humankind and its relationship with machines (robots, computers, gadgets) is probably one of the most dominant themes in science fiction. From Don Quixote’s duel with a windmill to Sarah Connor’s flight from the Terminator, science fiction has often concerned itself with the gadgets we make and whether it […]
Camille Bacon-Smith Looks at Star Trek Fandom
In the book Enterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular Myth, Camille Bacon-Smith looks at, describes and tries to explain a segment of Star Trek fans. This segment is predominantly female and writes about characters from the series in ways that some think are not “in character” for those characters. Writing (and creating […]
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