Calm Before The Storm

[chris_gerrib]

My parents came up last night for a visit, and so we went out to dinner where I had a couple of drinks. Then I had a nightcap, while reading Brad Torgersen's latest post entitled the unraveling of an unreliable field. His theory is that SF has kept the "packaging" (covers) but subverted the contents thereof. Money quote:

Yet SF/F literature seems almost permanently stuck on the subversive switcheroo. If we’re going to do a Tolkien-type fantasy, this time we’ll make the Orcs the heroes, and Gondor will be the bad guys. Space opera? Our plucky underdogs will be transgender socialists trying to fight the evil galactic corporations. War? The troops are fighting for evil, not good, and only realize it at the end. Planetary colonization? The humans are the invaders and the native aliens are the righteous victims. Yadda yadda yadda.

My immediate response was WTF, over? So I asked for specific examples of this switcheroo. So far, crickets.

Comments

[jimhines.livejournal.com]

Goblin Quest would probably fit into that box. But the idea that the genre as a whole is somehow permanently stuck there? Yeah, citations needed.

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and there are so many "straight" epic fantasies for sale that you can't shake a stick at them.

Sometimes I think it's the case where they read one book they didn't like and it put them off books forever.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

May I link to this?

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

Please. (in general, feel free to link to anything here - I have a "Free-range link policy.")

BTW, finally towards the bottom of the Torgersen thread I'm getting specific names of books.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

The humans are the invaders and the native aliens are the righteous victims.

Fwiw, I'm not sure there could be a more extreme version of this, than _Out of the Silent Planet_ (pub 1938).

_Babel-17_ might be a fair cop, as what I remember now is mostly the diverse genders.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

There was a book I read recently where the rag-tag crew of the spaceship was mostly women and some of them were gay. Mind you, it didn't make a speck of difference to the excellence of the story, but it might be the sort of thing the Sad Puppies are whimpering about. I can't remember the name of the book at the moment, but if I find it I will let you know.

As far as I can follow Torgersen's analogy, he seems to be upset that science fiction isn't the same story over and over. It's not like there's a shortage of his kind of story, but he's angry that other kinds of stories even *exist* in science fiction, because he might read one by accident.

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

Not perhaps "Ascension" by Jacqueline Koyangi?

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Yes! That was totally it. Good call.