[Anthony Ha at TechCrunch]

China Miéville, who is one of the great contemporary science fiction and fantasy authors, is right on the money about Silicon Valley's tendency to create the Torment Nexus.

This is exactly why I think science fiction is so important, and why it has a lot to contribute:

"To Miéville, it’s a mistake to read science fiction as if it’s really about the future: “It’s always about now. It’s always a reflection. It’s a kind of fever dream, and it’s always about its own sociological context.”

He added that there’s a “societal and personal derangement” at work when the rich and powerful “are more interested in settling Mars than sorting out the world” — but ultimately, it’s not science fiction that’s responsible."

To me, the point and excitement of science fiction is to talk about today through the lens of analogy and extrapolation: not necessarily to warn or celebrate, but to explore. Of course, there's a broad spectrum of stories under that umbrella, and not all of them fit that mold as well as others, but that's what drives me as a reader and a writer. It's up to the reader to decide what to take from that.

I think a lot about Starship Troopers. (Really! I do. Some people think about the Roman Empire. I think about Heinlein.) The original book was, at the very least, fascist-adjacent. The movie adaptation was, at least for me, and in intent by its director, a very funny satire at the expense of those ideas. But, of course, some people took away the top-line plot and either decried the fascism or, more worryingly, freaking loved it. See also: Fight Club, which a certain kind of incel adjacent maladjusted man-child has taken on as something to model, rather than a satirical novel that pokes at them and the country they inhabit.

The reader makes their own interpretation. And if that happens to be a sociopathic world-view bent on world domination, that's on them.

#Culture

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