Hacker News Reader

Comment by fao_ | Hacker News Reader

Science Fiction is about political/social/ethical problems in a future setting. This is one of the most consistent things that runs through the works of Clarke, Asimov, Banks, PKD, Le Guin, etc. they take political and social problems, reframe them and drop them in the future, and solve them there, mostly relying on human puzzle solving than technology itself. Even in hard science fiction, the technology is simply the spice for the political/social/ethical problems that are presented.

In Dune, the politics are the centerpiece. The scientific background of this, [the ethics of] genetic breeding, the butlerian jihad, [the ecology of] Arrakis, [the sociology of] the Fremen and their customs, all make it true science fiction.

View on HN

It can be about politics - See Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series and Foundation by Asimov for two classic works with that as the center theme. But you're painting with too broad of a brush when you label all sci-fi as primarily about politics. There still plenty of other aspects of humanity and society to explore.

> But you're painting with too broad of a brush when you label all sci-fi as primarily about politics.

You'll note that I said "political/social/ethical". I'd be willing to look at any hard science fiction books that don't have a social/ethical/political problem at their core. Hell, even Asimov's relatively simple short stories about robots had stunning sociological observations at their core (I'll go with "Victory Unintentional" and "Robbie" as my examples).

I'm noticing you are applying this motte-and-bailey tactic, first claiming "it is all about politics" (bailey), but when people confront you, you retreat to "it is all about sociology" (motte) that is a lot easier to defend than the previous claim.

Huh? Ok, I'll edit my first use of "politics" then.

Funny you should mention the Mars series, as in Red Mars one of my favorite characters actually says “Everything is political!”.

Hah. But that's my point: what's political about some author recreating a famous naval battle in an updated backdrop using space ships? What's political about the chemistry needed for Kirk to make gunpowder and shoot diamonds out of a bamboo cannon at the Gorn?

Maybe what got him into that situation could be classed as politics and for those most interested in and by politics I'm sure that's what the story is about for them. But for me that's just a lever and the interesting bit is the science. It is after all called science fiction not political fiction.

I just object to the poster's portrayal of all sci-fi as equivalent to something like House of Cards.

The difference tends to be a bit semantic; by political I (and the character) mean something much broader than the mere party politics of House of Cards.

The chemistry used by Kirk may not be political, but the show - and that episode in particular - is intensely political! It deals with how we interact with each other and with other societies, and those are always primarily political questions. And had Kirk thrown a rock at the Gorn instead, would the plot be any different?

That said, I don't think all sci-fi is political - only most of it :)

Sounds like either Frank or Maya?

Arkady, actually :)

Frank has another quote which I relished: “It was a mistake to speak one's mind at any time, unless it perfectly matched your political purpose; and it never did.”

I didn't like the second book as much as the others because I felt it had more politics than them. Sure the story about a revolution is politics, but it isn't just politics.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com