SF: Mind Meld- Changing SF
Filed Under: My Writing, SF Business, Speculative Fiction
I was asked, along with the rest of the authors in Seeds of Change to make suggestions for change in the field of science fiction. Regular readers can probably guess exactly what I said, but check it out and see what you think. Not as revolutionary as I might have been in my youth, but still calling for big changes.
There are a lot of things I wouldn’t mind seeing changed in science fiction, but they mostly revolve around growing the audience. I am most interested in creating ways for people who would like science fiction short fiction to learn that it even exists. At one time, the defunct magazine SF Age had nearly 175,000 in sales of a single issue. The largest circulation of any magazine is barely over 20,000 today and has been falling for nearly a decade.
That’s probably the last thing I’ll say on the issue of the magazines for a while. I’m going to focus my energy on getting my work inside of them, instead of worrying about saving them. It’s wasted energy at this point and has become just another way for me to focus on the wrong things.
Jesus Christ, Superhero?
Filed Under: SF Comics, Speculative Fiction
I’ve been thinking about religion in the superhero genre, particularly as it pertains to Christianity.
One of my personal reasons for rejecting the religion is that I do not believe in the supernatural. I do not believe that a man rose from the dead, walked on water, turned water to wine, and so forth. I believe that modern evidence indicates such things to be utterly impossible. But my reason for disbelief here is not the subject–imagine if you lived in a world where such things happened on a daily basis?
How would Jesus be viewed in a world where superheroes soar through the skies, communicate with thought, and are indestructible? I have two trains of thought on this matter.
The first is that a lot more people would believe the basics of the story. You’d have no reason to disbelieve that a man once lived who did all those things. The supernatural is apparent in your day-to-day life. Mutants have powers, so it’s no stretch to believe that Jesus did as well.
But would people still make the leap of faith from these powers and acts to believing he was the son of god? Would they more likely to believe that anyone making such claims were a delusional superhero? Let me put it this way–in your favorite comic book universe, if someone showed up with similar powers to the stories of Christ in the New Testament, would you believe that they were Jesus reborn, or would you suspect that they were some nefarious villain posing as Jesus for his own sinister purpose?
A world full of super powers would have profound theological implications, and I don’t think I’ve read anything that deals with that exactly. Most comic books I have read seem to have the same basic religions we have. BUt would they remain unchanged by 100 years of history of supermen on the world stage? How would the Catholic Church respond to the existence of such things?
Feel free to point me out stories that have dealt with this idea before. This morning in the shower, I started thinking about writing a take-off on Superman, much like Cory Doctorow did, but instead of depicting his parents as a jewish couple in Toronto, I want to take him back to Kansas, but my Kansas, not the idea of Kansas of a New York comics writer. Superman as raised by deeply religious, fundamentalist, anti-choice Baptists.
How do you think he would have turned out in that kind of family?
New Roundbottom Live
Filed Under: My Writing, Photography, Speculative Fiction
The concluding chapter of the Case of the Steam Wraith is now live on the Dr. Rounbottom website.
This four-part story has had some bumps, and if I wasn’t writing without a net, I can see some edits that I would make. I’m going to try to write these things farther in advance of posting in the future so that I can smooth out some of the inconsistencies that develop. It’s far easier to write one-shot observational posts than the storyline based posts. I made some strides towards that goal of getting ahead this weekend, designing a new capture and we’ll hopefully get a podcast made this week as well.
One problem with writing the posts in advance is that I like having Roundbottom being responsive to the comments. one of the things that sets this project aside from the usual fiction serial is this aspect of involving the input of the audience. If you weren’t aware of that–Roundbottom does interact with his readers, so if you want to jump into the story, you’re perfectly able to do so. Just start posting comments. Make up a character for yourself if you like. I’m not sure who my commenters are because of the aliases, and it’s a blast to read what they have to say on things.
I hope you enjoy!
A Philosophical Question
Filed Under: Speculative Fiction
Something I’ve been thinking about lately. In the name of tolerance, should we excuse the intolerance of others because that intolerance is rooted in a religious belief? Essentially, if we hold tolerance of others as noble thing, should be we tolerant of others even when they are intolerant of others themselves?
In other words, is it okay for me to hate Orson Scott Card?
