tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3773759989225356372.post8025305383116557298..comments2024-03-27T19:24:05.285-05:00Comments on Stupefying Stories Magazine: A View from the Geek: Do SFF Authors Have a Moral Obligation? • By Eric Dontigney~brbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10845253722980029012noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3773759989225356372.post-30149785446520603102021-07-06T15:03:50.050-05:002021-07-06T15:03:50.050-05:00Great topic. Until very recently I wrote for mysel...Great topic. Until very recently I wrote for myself. To entertain myself. By extension, if some of what I have to say is entertaining for others, then that pleases me. When a small studio producer approached me recently and offered to mentor me through putting together a pilot script, series outline, and lookbook to show to bigger studios, I floundered for a few minutes. What he saw in my "written to entertain" short script, had potential streaming market possibilities. (If done right). It didn't take me too long to agree, that, yes, the he had a point. It COULD go wide. AND address some hot button topics we see on the news daily. Do I feel obligated to do it? definitely, nope. Do I WANT to take it on as an interesting challenge? Definitely, yes.Mark Keigleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11057982108264843405noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3773759989225356372.post-12445128002547478192021-07-06T12:02:11.150-05:002021-07-06T12:02:11.150-05:00FWIW, this sort of argument has been going since a...FWIW, this sort of argument has been going since at least the 1930s, when Donald Wollheim (at the time a fanboy, but later a writer and editor of great influence and ultimately the founder of DAW Books, remember them?) declared that science fiction writers and fans <b>"should actively work for the realization of the scientific world-state as the only genuine justification for their activities and existence".</b><br /><br />Talk about your colossal arrogance...<br /><br />Of course, Don wrote that in the 1930s, before anyone realized just what a hideous dystopian nightmare any "scientific world-state" would be.<br /><br />Considering the history of the past century, then, it's probably for the best that SFF writers be kept as far away as possible from the actual levers of power, as SFF writers tend to be just <i>full</i> of ideas that seem clever in the imagination but catastrophic if actually applied. ~brbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10845253722980029012noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3773759989225356372.post-66966643931565744392021-07-06T08:26:33.009-05:002021-07-06T08:26:33.009-05:00The term preaching to the choir comes to me. Serio...The term preaching to the choir comes to me. Seriously, is there anyone out there who isn't aware of climate change? They might disagree with the science, but nobody is unaware of it. Science ficiton has certainly been aware of it for decades. J G. Ballard's The Drowned World delved into it over fifty years ago.<br />There is this condescending attitude from both sides of the political aisle that they just have to teach the other side and then we'll all be on the same page. This is the essence of facebook. Posting the same memes and interchangeable articles every day for yearss because some people aren't getting the message. We're all getting the @#$#@ message from both sides. Maybe some of us are tired of being talked at and want to have somebody listen for a change.<br />I don't read or write science ficiton to "educate" or be "educated." Science fiction is an escape. As soon as it becomes another tool to push a political agenda, that is the day I stop reading it.<br />That's not to say that there isn't good science fiction that educates or has a poltiical agenda. But that science fiction from "The Handmaid's Tale" to "Windup Girl" also tells a good story.<br />So, my advice to science fiction writers is to write what you want to write. Create your own genre if necessary. But don't be guilted into writing something that is not your passion.Pete Woodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14512590488080103661noreply@blogger.com