Culture

Welcome To The Cycle, You’ll See The Bottom Of The Wheel Eventually

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Destrative Crestruction Dept.

Those who worship power and strength inevitably cast evolution and natural forces (like, say, market forces!) as being on their side. They’re never willing to entertain the possibility that one day it might be someone else’s boot on their neck — because if they did, then that would mean they weren’t worthy of calling themselves the baddest mothers in the room anymore.

Serdar was talking about people’s reactions to Detroit’s bankrupcy, and that some realized that the love of “creative destruction” meant the creative destroyers never realized they’d get their turn on the block.

I myself have watched the various pundits jump onto the detroit issues, and most of those brushing it off or laughing about it have that peculiar self-confidence of people who figure that nothing bad ever happens to them or theirs.  In fact, among the various pundits enjoying a laugh, there were no solutions, but plenty of dragging-out-the-same explanations.  They were preaching to the choir, not solving problems, with the confidence nothing would happen to them.

And there were doubtlessly people laughing along at what happened to “those people” in Detroit.  It’s always “those people” – until you become one of them.  Then you wonder why people aren’t there to help you . . .

This is why I think sustainability is an appropriate and unappreciated value.  Sustainability means that you have some surety.  Sustainability means some predictability.

However it’s not popular.  Sustainability means hard work.  Sustainability means that if you “win” you have to make sure the whole game doesn’t fall apart.  Sustainability means not always getting your way.  Sustainability isn’t a chance to do your victory dance about how you’ve won forever and are awesome.

That’s not exactly popular – especially among entitled politicians and pundits.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Right On Script, Everything’s Going To Be Terrible

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For awhile, we here at MuseHack have been discussing the checklist issue of films, how films all seem alike and follow the same beats. We’re concerned what that means for Hollywood, writers, and media. We’re also feeling just a wee bit justified now that such concerns are mainstream and in fact may be traced back to one book and writing concept, Save the Cat.

(Serdar has more to say on “Save the Cat” in his own erudite way.)

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Sameness, Science Fiction, Fantasy, And Building Nothing

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I’ve often remarked that I don’t read much SF anymore, or really watch it for that matter. Sure I watch some stuff here and there, or some anime, but there’s not much out there that makes me want to dedicate time to a series or a book. Bad SF and the fact real life is often more SF-like have been a deterrent to me. “Psycho-Pass” was an exception as it was intriguing and really hit that sweet spot of psychology, sociology, and technology.

But I will often watch “very light” SF and fantasy, usually for pure entertainment. It’s brain-on-hold stuff in most cases. Even then, fantasy seems to be . . . samey.

I’ve been thinking as of late what is missing in all of this? What is going on? Hollywood is making the same film over and over, and apparently conspiring to destroy Ryan Reynonld’s career.

Actually, the very sameness gets to me. Sameness is stagnant. Sameness is stuff not happening.

SF often has this problem when it’s a pile of tropes or when technology really is just magic with a few buttons glued on. It’s all the same.

Fantasy is bad about this as well, and I think fantasy is more vulnerable to it. Fantasy is often ancient magic and old gods and prophecies and such. I get tired of chosen ones and destinies and the like because it’s all the same. It’s all repetitious.

There’s no sense of agency, of building, of making.

This is probably why a lot of the modern fantasy and urban fantasy leaves me cold. Warmed over chosen-one plots, half-baked conspiracies, parades of demons and vampires and the usual stuff. A core that is often about cycles and with no sense of agency, and repetitious. Throw that mess into the Hollywood blender and . . . yech. No wonder people are bored.

What I miss from SF is a sense of building a future, of wonder, of construction, of creation, of agency.

This is one thing I enjoyed about Pacific Rim (which is SF light, frankly). It’s about people doing stuff. Monsters show up so we build war machines to punch them in the face. We want to know more about the monsters so research is done. PR is about people making things happen, often inside gigantic robots – but also face-to-face.

This is why I enjoyed editing Serdar’s “Flight of the Vajra” – and I say this sincerely and not as a plug. His hero is an engineer, who things, hacks, and engineers his way out of problems. Other characters take control of their lives. Agency is a core part of the book.

I’d like to see more good SF. More stuff about knowledge and applying it and agency.

I live in Silicon Valley. I live science fiction. I am science fiction. I do science fiction.

I want to see stuff about doing. Not following a script. Not things being happened to.

Agency.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.