4 ms·
i was thinking about writing a novel now that im retired. i became uninterested in fiction completely about ten years ago. i just cant bring myself to care abou
by skee_0x4459 5y ago
i was thinking about writing a novel now that im retired. i became uninterested in fiction completely about ten years ago. i just cant bring myself to care about something that didnt happen. it inevitably ends up being about people having sex or some kind of love triangle. no matter what novel, no matter how austere or dignified, if it was published in the past ten years then it uses some kind of visceral limbic-system mind bait. its some semi-interesting sci-fi with a whole lot of click bait slathered on top. even red mars, one of the only fictional books i like, has this problem.
but fiction can be worth it when its laying out ideas that are so new and so fresh that it is intrinsically valuable. but these grand visions dont involve people or relationships at their core, so making a book out of it can be difficult.
i think the next great sci-fi novel will be about mars. i feel like there are a lot of aspects of mars colonization that have not been picked up by the hive-mind yet. practical aspects of living there and moving things there. and generally applying the rules of today to that world. the arbitrage is in the fact that people usually paint the future with a utopian, optimistic brush but the same rules of economics and politics will apply on mars just as much as they do here. maybe that sounds like red mars but it would be different.
- siquick 5y agoHave you read The Expanse? No love triangles and excellent sci-fi/political ideas of the near future of space exploration.
- Terretta 5y agoAnother one to read before the series… but if you don’t, the series does quite well.
- skee_0x4459 5y agoill have to check that out
- BLKNSLVR 5y agoDid you get to Green and Blue Mars? I didn't find the people or relationship issues to detract from the Mars trilogy because the personalities interweaves with the politics, and the inescapability of personalities and relationships being factors in the close proximities necessary in almost all stages of colonising a planet. Greg Egan, recommended on HN in any sci-fi related thread, seems idea-heavy from the little I've read so far. (edit: reading down further I see I've been beaten to this recommendation) The novel I want to write is a thoroughly depressing the-future-is-the-just-present-for-those-born-during-it exposition about the inescapability of human nature and how this means that any and all revolution is doomed to just change the people and not the structure and that whilst your fellow revolutionaries are your closest friends and allies now, in the unlikely chance that the revolution is successful, when it comes time to actually make decisions affecting reality, you'll find yourself in the company of strangers with familiar faces. Highlighting that in any future-state technological context this remains true.
- zuppy 5y agoI would add Red Rising to the list, it is an awesome series of books. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15839976-red-rising https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15839976-red-rising
- skee_0x4459 5y agoi couldnt finish blue mars. maybe i should give it another go. im sure you could write a damn good novel.