Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo Subject: Re: ADMIN: Dystopian visions/SF futures Summary: Expires: References: <1994May6.093728.5163@bradford.ac.uk> <1994May6.105014.1@clstac> Sender: Followup-To: Distribution: Organization: Data I/O Corporation Keywords: This one sounded like fun to join in on... though I know a bunch of people are getting tired of non-story lines on this group, including me. Grin. But I like thinking things through... and I realized that there are quite a number of fundimental reasons I really like writing cyberpunk, dystopian cyberpunk, over utopian fantasy. I think I've just dicotomized myself. "Who said life had to be fair? Where is that written?" -- the grandfather in _The Princess Bride_ Maybe it's my generation, maybe it's where I've grown up and what I have been exposed to; but real life ain't fair. Real people run into real problem and get crushed and that's *life*. No benevolent, High Powered Being is going to reach down, scoop that little kid from the urban battleground and save her from that gun fire she's heard every night of her living life. The people who can save her are the people staring at this screen, and only if they work with all those people who *aren't* looking. God ain't got any hands other than the ones folks have truly given to him. I think that part of the reason I write such things is that I'm dealing with that. Dealing with the very simple fact that of the eight Hispanic and Black friends I had in SE San Diego, only three are still alive and two of them are in prisons. I don't deal with shit like that by writing about a world where everything goes honkeydory. I deal with that by writing about a world where everything is going to hell; but the protagonist manages to find a nailhold, some way to hang on, and then a pull themselves up out of that hell hole. With the help of some friends, perhaps, with the sacrifices by others, perhaps, and, maybe, reaching the rim is sometimes the same as dying; but the rim gets reached... If all you can see in Bladerunner is depression, then you may have missed the beauty, the perfections that are touched for just the moment. That touch of True Love or heaven that they get by being able to be together at all before Rachel dies, or the sheer incandesence of Roy's death as an affirmation of his comet-glorious life. I'm tired of promises of an eternal Heaven that no one can keep. I'd rather a realistic promise of just a slice of Heaven served in unexpected places and at all the wrong times. I'd rather the realistic and momentary perfection of a living cherry blossem than the supposed perfection of ever-aging and crumbling edifices of stone and stained glass that housed whispered promises of the destruction of all that is evil and only served that evil all the more because people believed it. You see, all those promises of a utopia have been broken. Shattered beyond recognition by all the powers that everyone who has the eyes and mind to see can see. Though the constant stream of information from various media helps in the shattering of all faith in *any* organization or group of people that has more people than can be remembered by a single person. No one and nothing is completely holy or whole. Everyone has flaws. Everyone has faults which will crack and break when pressure of the correct sort is applied. And we *know* that. There is no going back. No idealization that can be completely unmarked by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or modern PC'ness. There is an angel with a sword of flame at the gate, refusing us any way of turning back to innocence. burp... sorry... Metaphoric Hell. A place where everything works is a place where nothing needs to be fixed. Someone else pointed that out and I thought it a good point. Disaster is more interesting than every-day, functional life. Folks don't usually remember what they had for lunch a week ago, even if it was fairly O.K.; but they do remember if they haven't *had* lunch for a week. The latter makes for a more interesting story than the former. Personally, innocence = ignorance and that is the truly original sin, with no grace other than the ability to learn. And speaking of sins. I also, quite personally, believe that the word 'sci-fi' is EVIL. Hmmm... I think I've gotten WELL off the subject, now. :) Isn't that a requirement of these discussion thingys? And, finally, looking at the *actual* original post... Hmmm... possibility of a brighter future? Hyup. That's also why I write. No matter how bad it gets people make a difference in making it better. Healing through effecitve use of capabilities. Okay... life might not be fair, but everyone can *make* it fairer, at a price. If you want an example of present day writers that do Utopian Futures, just look on TV. Star Trek: The Next Generation is pretty much entirely an Utopia, and one that sells pretty darned well.