Friday, March 05, 2004

Are SciFi and Fantasy Genres Stagnating Society?

Sandy Starr, writing for Spiked, seems to think the two above genres, while not the cause of stagnation, play a distinct role.

"As long as science fiction and fantasy fandom remained a fairly marginal subculture, then while certain fans may have pursued their passion to an unhealthy degree, the existence of the subculture was harmless. But when society as a whole starts to become obsessed with the otherworldly, then society as a whole threatens to go hikikomori - to become more interested in whiling away its time dreaming, than in addressing the real problems that confront it."

That’s from Starr’s article in Spike titled “The geek shall inherit the Earth."

Perry de Havilland, at Samizdata, read Starr’s piece and has a few words to say in response.

"Spiked-online is generally an interesting site, with challenging articles which often hit the nail (more or less) on the head. And sometimes not. In The geek shall inherit the Earth, I think that it would be best to say ‘your meta-context is showing’. I have met Sandy Star, and so can attest the author is a bright agreeable person, but I find myself questioning the thrust of this article even though agreeing with many of the specific points."

Posted by John Venlet on 03/05 at 06:51 AM
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