Seriously... A Serious Science Fiction Post

I've been thinking a lot about Jason Silverman's article at Wired called "Hollywood Eats Sci-Fi's Brains" for the past several days. It got me angry, sad, annoyed, left me amused, but in the end just ruffled my shorts. So I thought about posting my impressions. Really...I did, but I found myself typing angry -- and typing angry is just bitching in prose. Therefore decent judgment took hold and I stopped and laid off the blog before a stream of profanity decorated the page.

I have a lot of problems with anybody who coins the phrase "Serious" when talking about fiction. We should all remember that fiction is MADE UP! That's right. It's not fact, although basing a story on fact will make it stronger and more accessible. Understood. Yet if we look at science fiction, a lot of those who hold their pinkies out as they sip white zinfandel while labeling some SF as serious and others as less than that need to understand one thing: SF based upon theories is as much fantasy as a Tolkien novel. Theories, even the best and most learned, are at best guesses. We have no idea about space travel, time travel, cloning, or any of it until we actually do it. THEN it becomes fact...and only then. Up until then theory remains a fantasy and might as well just be a two headed dragon driving down the 405 during rush hour.

Does that mean that Einstein's theory of relativity is fantasy? Does that mean there wasn't a big bang? No, all it means is that these "theories" are just that -- unproven fact, and until they are proven they are fantasies.

Listen, every invention, breakthrough, and new technology started out as someone's fantasy -- a brilliant vision of what could come. It takes a lover of fantasy and a visionary of the future to take the risks needed to put forth these theories, prove them, and then slap them in a textbook as scientific fact.

Some sci-fi that has the least "scientific content," like STAR WARS and STAR TREK, inspired multitudes of today's scientists who saw what was up on the screen and desired to work to make some of what was fantasy into reality. These same people who cut their teeth on Lucas and Roddenberry have moved into all aspects of society hoping to advance us all to a time when we can travel among the stars.

So is there "serious" science fiction? I would say ALL SF is serious. No matter what type or in what form it inspires the hopes and dreams of all mankind unlike any other entertainment genre on Earth. SF has permeated every level of society and has left its indelible mark on pop culture. SF is everywhere and in everything, whether scifi-phobes realize it or not.

Am I contradicting myself? Not really. I don't believe any fiction, including science fiction, is serious by itself. I do although believe that if a form of fiction can impact humanity, entertainment, pop culture, and even real science in some way, then it rises to a level that requires our respect. Science Fiction has done this, and that, my friends, is why SF is Serious.