How's this for an idea...as in, use science fiction to make commentaries *about* science fiction...ya know, deliberately break the 'as you know, Bob' rule just once, do it seamlessly, then somehow slyly call attention to the fact that you were doing that (have the other character go something like, 'Listen, you dont need to rehash this for me, you must just love to hear yourself talk or something')...in other words, using metafictional devices in SF in order to make *statements about* SF.
Doable? I mean...imagine Pynchon, or David Foster Wallace, doing SF. Doing weird things with tense, POVs, stuff like that...yet still managing to create a seriously seamless piece of literary work...not sure if this is a doable thing or not, perhaps peeps would see it as being too weird or experimental mayhaps....it was just a thought.
An idea along these lines...you have an SF story dealing with an actual SF writer...and he spends some time discussing his metafictional devices he employs in his works...and these devices are also employed in the main work as a whole, in which the SF author appears....would this be playing with fire? Since metafiction technically is 'fiction *about* fiction itself', then SF that includes an SF author *may* be one science-metafictional approach....or would the reader simply think such an author trying to pull a trick like this off as somehow pulling her leg?
Posted by pooka (Member # 1738) on :
Maybe it's a parallel universe where people read "..." as a heroic grasping for a difficult to express thought.
Sorry, I couldn't resist. I'm not really this mean in real life.
I'm much worse.
Posted by pantros (Member # 3237) on :
I think I've read the Hitchikers Guide series already.
I do hope someone can accomplish a publishable book in the same genre of a similar style with even half the skill. But, I fear, it's unlikely.
Writers writing about writers is more common than water on this planet. Check out half the b-movies and sixty five percent of the self-published ebooks. The Sci-Fi Genre is not exempt from those numbers.
[This message has been edited by pantros (edited June 09, 2006).]
Posted by trousercuit (Member # 3235) on :
It's like movies about actors or theater about a play. I suppose it's abundant because it's so familiar to the person making it all up.
Posted by EricJamesStone (Member # 1681) on :
I think Galaxy Quest fits in this category.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
In other words, concept is nothing, execution is everything.
Posted by tchernabyelo (Member # 2651) on :
Or (perhaps more obliquely), "The Blind Assassin".
Posted by wbriggs (Member # 2267) on :
I did this in a now-defunct ezine called Palace of Reason, so I understand the urge. When I hear Jerry Pournelle warn against thinking that a planet is a tiny place, like a single town -- "It was raining on Mongo that morning" -- I think, yes, I want to write something that starts.
quote:It was raining on Mongo that morning. All of it. That's right, there wasn't a single location on the whole planet that wasn't getting wet. The day before, the whole damned planet had been sunny and warm, with winds variable up to 10 miles per hour.
...but of course I'll need a lot more than that.
How about:
quote:Sven was an asteroid miner who could no longer make ends meet, paying for repairs on a 50-year-old rebuilt fusion engine by selling raw materials that were free for the taking anyway. So he did what anybody in his situation would have done. He set his ship down in a Rio suburb, and threatened to blow the thing unless Earth gave him 50 billion credits and immunity from prosecution. The wonder was that no one had thought of it before.
That is, I don't hate cliches. I love them. I just want to *know* they're cliches, and make use of that. And of course Galaxy Quest did that very well.
Posted by AstroStewart (Member # 2597) on :
Side comment: I thought Galaxy Quest was absolutely hilarous, so yes if you can write fiction of that type, with that skill, it could work. (I especially enjoyed the "unknown ensign" character who kept fearing he would be the first to die.)