Following up on your words early on in this essay, "If we were to put genre fiction’s attitude towards these ideas [which are, Progress and Techno-Optimism] on a spectrum, we’d find that at one end of it we’d have science fiction, which is usually excited by progress, rationalism, and (naturally) science."
To be clear: I wasn't claiming that ALL science fiction believes in progress, only that, taking genres as a whole, that SF is the most consistently pro-progress, while fantasy is most consistently opposed. I think dystopian science fiction is indeed common, going as far back as Wells' _The Time Machine_.
But even this approach is, in a sense, pro-progress: taking advances in science and technology as given, it imagines how they could go badly, implying a programme to prevent this. Conversely, fantasy prefers to engage with imagined pasts or wholly other worlds. Before the twentieth century, these were called "romances", and they are indeed of a piece with the Romantic movement; they turn away from industry, automation, and the future.
As I mentioned to you offline, for me this is a successful experiment - to use the framework of progress as a lens for exploring art. I appreciate this approach and I hope to see it again in the future.
I finally finished these! Thanks for the recommendation, they were pretty good
Following up on your words early on in this essay, "If we were to put genre fiction’s attitude towards these ideas [which are, Progress and Techno-Optimism] on a spectrum, we’d find that at one end of it we’d have science fiction, which is usually excited by progress, rationalism, and (naturally) science."
Comment: Isn't there a dystopian streak found in some science fiction? A world or universe that has turned out very badly because of technology gone awry? I just scanned the web and found https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-dystopian-fiction-learn-about-the-5-characteristics-of-dystopian-fiction-with-examples In our shared field of vehicle automation I think there is a novel available where the cars autonomously turn against us humans.
But you are writing about a different, perhaps dominant branch of the genre... is dystopian science fiction a small sliver?
To be clear: I wasn't claiming that ALL science fiction believes in progress, only that, taking genres as a whole, that SF is the most consistently pro-progress, while fantasy is most consistently opposed. I think dystopian science fiction is indeed common, going as far back as Wells' _The Time Machine_.
But even this approach is, in a sense, pro-progress: taking advances in science and technology as given, it imagines how they could go badly, implying a programme to prevent this. Conversely, fantasy prefers to engage with imagined pasts or wholly other worlds. Before the twentieth century, these were called "romances", and they are indeed of a piece with the Romantic movement; they turn away from industry, automation, and the future.
Nice! I aborted the review and downloaded the Kindle book :)
As I mentioned to you offline, for me this is a successful experiment - to use the framework of progress as a lens for exploring art. I appreciate this approach and I hope to see it again in the future.