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.
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.