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Science fiction builds mental resiliency in young readers:
Young people who are "hooked" on watching fantasy or reading science fiction may be on to something. Contrary to a common misperception that reading this genre is an unworthy practice, reading science fiction and fantasy may help young people cope, especially with the stress and anxiety of living through the COVID-19 pandemic.
I am a professor with research interests in the social, ethical and political messages in science fiction. In my book "Medicine and Ethics in Black Women's Speculative Fiction," I explore the ways science fiction promotes understanding of human differences and ethical thinking.
While many people may not consider science fiction, fantasy or speculative fiction to be "literary," research shows that all fiction can generate critical thinking skills and emotional intelligence for young readers. Science fiction may have a power all its own.
- [...] Literature as a moral mirror
- [...] Why science fiction gets a bad rap
- [...] The mental health of reading
- [...] The powerful world of science fiction
[...] Let them read science fiction. In it, young people can see themselves – coping, surviving and learning lessons – that may enable them to create their own strategies for resilience. In this time of COVID-19 and physical distancing, we may be reluctant for kids to embrace creative forms that seem to separate them psychologically from reality.
But the critical thinking and agile habits of mind prompted by this type of literature may actually produce resilience and creativity that everyday life and reality typically do not.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @03:44AM (7 children)
See subject: I'm so sick & tired of SoylentNews BULLIES just like the /. & ArSeHoleTechnica bullies. You SHITWEASELS have nothing better to do than HARASS, STALK & IMPERSONATE little ol' me. I've done absolutely NOTHING wrong & just try to make everyone's lives better w/ my work that stops ads & malware. You ABUSE your spamdownmodpoints to HIDE the TRUTH that you WORTHLESS DO-NOTHING FORUM FUCKS have SOLD YOUR SOULS to a shitposting tranny SPAMMER who contributes NOTHING useful ever. I am God's gift to SoylentNews & the ONLY person doing ANYTHING useful on this SHITHOLE forum.
* As soon as I post, I'm CENSORED to -1 w/ ABUSED spamdownmodpoints by FAKENAME bullies like The Mighty Buzzard, Runaway1956, Azuma Hazuki & Tom "Barbara" Hudson. I caught c6gunner mocking then IMPERSONATING me on /. when he forgot to log out. Zontar The Mindless mailed me a postcard w/ THREATS on it, then LIES & STALKS me. All because you JEALOUS JOWIE "ne'er-do-wells" KNOW I'm World-Class & you're shit. It's why you hide behind FAKE names & UNIDENTIFIABLE ANONYMOUS.
I caught Tom "Barbara" Hudson IMPERSONATING me too. The OLD NOT-MAN soyboy weezil is JUDEN TRASH & circumcised EVERYTHING to become a EUNUCH. The THING knows nothing about computers so IT LIES about me instead. This is one sick in the head IDLE HANDS ARE THE DEVIL'S WORKSHOP abomination, no questions asked. You wish you were me & that's why you IMPERSONATE & ATTACK me.
I'm even improving my already GREAT PHYSIQUE & SUPERIOR INTELLECT while you weezils & soyboys sit around all day on SoylentNews STALKING & HARASSING your BETTERS. I repeatedly dust the no-mind bullshit blatherings you BULLIES post to attack me. Like always I WIN & YOU LOSE. That's why you keep spamdownmod HIDING my posts & STALKING me w/ FAKENAME accounts. You CAN'T stop me any better than whipslash @ /. & he knows I could STOP HIS SERVER whenever I want. Martyb KNOWS he CAN'T DO BETTER than I w/ APK Hosts File Engine instead of some TOY website based on someone else's ABANDONED & BROKEN code from another site FULL of "ne'er-do-well" fakename forum fucks.
Now I have the PILL-PUSHING SELF-PROCLAIMED "SiDeWaLk-ShRiNk of SOYLENTNEWS" LIBELING me & saying I'm MENTALLY ILL. ALL of you SHITWEASELS are mentally ill & can't stop BULLYING me because you WISH YOU WERE ME. PROVE you've done better than I. You can't & you know it so BULLYING & LIBELING is all YOUR KIND has left.
You WEEZILS can't stop me & YOU KNOW IT so you don't even try to put in a "LaMeNeSs FiLtEr" like whipslash tried & FAILED at. I hope this SHITHOLE bans AC posting like the shitweasels at /. did because they KNEW they couldn't do better than I after CENSORING & BULLYING me. I WIN @ everything & you LAZY "ne'er-do-wells" fail & EMBARRASS yourselves @ everything. You WISH you were me but you know you CAN'T do what I've done so you IMPERSONATE me & BULLY me instead. You LOSERS need to SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP.
I WILL return in TWO WEEKENDS & post about MY WORK in EVERY SINGLE article that weekend to PROVE how much you DO-NOTHING FAILURES LOSE against me. I've accomplished more then EVERY SINGLE ONE of you FAKENAME FORUM FUCKS & I WILL prove it once again. Your BULLYING will PERMANENTLY STOP once I show how INFERIOR you shitweasels truly are against a REAL MAN like me.
APK
P.S.=> This BULLYING of me is SO UNFAIR & I've done nothing to deserve it from you people. I'm tired of CASTING PEARLS before SWINE with my work that you CAN'T do better than. GROW UP... apk
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @04:22AM
I find your ideas interesting and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Mykl on Tuesday May 12 2020, @05:57AM
Welcome back RealDonaldTrump
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @02:33PM
It's true! I'm impersonating you right now!
Sincerely;
DeathMonkey
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday May 12 2020, @04:13PM
Then don't.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @04:15PM
Saddest shit I've seen in a while.
(Score: 3, Informative) by cmdrklarg on Tuesday May 12 2020, @05:01PM
TC;DR
(Too Crazy; Didn't Read)
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @05:55PM
Why would anyone get so worked up over a mobile packaging format?
(Score: 4, Touché) by MostCynical on Tuesday May 12 2020, @04:13AM (2 children)
most of those benefits apply to all reading [mentalfloss.com]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @06:40AM
If this shit belongs here, so do those "Gamer: I was born for this!" memes.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by linkdude64 on Tuesday May 12 2020, @03:52PM
But the idea is that science fiction may specifically help more than other genres, like possibly romantic comedies. Reading a story about a space marine exploring his abstract political system and slaying a mind-dragon that's possessing the techno-pope and embodying that determined mindset might help you approach that job interview. Reading a story about a romantic comedy might give you some creative one-liners, but it's not necessarily going to have the same "practical" effect as a "hero's journey" kind of tale might.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by krishnoid on Tuesday May 12 2020, @05:10AM (7 children)
Science fiction's temporal and technological setting is getting closer and closer [xkcd.com], with one minor example sponsored by the Canadian military [kschroeder.com]. I'd have to say that the worldwide permeation of technology into everyone's life has raised the bar for the realism, self-consistency, and feasibility of the science -- or at least engineering [evilmadscientist.com] -- in "science fiction".
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday May 12 2020, @03:56PM (6 children)
Science Fiction has always been a branch of fantasy, and it's always has both it's "hard" and "soft" writers. But even the hard sf writers depend on fantasy.
Fantasy writers depend on lots of "what if" thinking on the part of their readers. Different varieties of fantasy use that "what if" thinking in different areas, but at the base level they all develop it in their readers. That's true whether you're trying to model the love life problems of a werewolf, or setting up a habitat on Titan.
I'm not going to claim that all reading develops this skill. Possibly one could write a didactic history or physics text that didn't. I don't think it would sell except in an academic setting...and then not in a good academic setting.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday May 12 2020, @06:21PM
I can see that. The more abstract a subject -- say, the hard sciences or analyses at the macro-scale, the harder it would be to work with, and definitely the harder to write convincing fiction for, since that nearly always requires some human-like characters as a point of reference. Perhaps students with naturally anthropocentric thought processes have trouble with these subjects for that very reason.
(Score: 2, Funny) by khallow on Tuesday May 12 2020, @07:12PM (4 children)
"Nonsense!" typed khallow on his 101 key keyboard, incredibly miniaturized electronics converting the physical pressure of human digits into electronic impulses shot around the world. "Science fiction tries to explain everything! Fantasy says it's magic!" And waved with a peculiar mystical gesture over the "Submit" button to seal the doom of his post.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday May 12 2020, @10:55PM (3 children)
Did you ever read "Masters of the Metropolis"? http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?41165 [isfdb.org]
Of course, it was really a reply to "Ralph 24C41+", but your post made me think of it.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday May 12 2020, @11:27PM
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday May 13 2020, @12:12PM (1 child)
Wasn't it Ralph 124C41+?
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday May 13 2020, @03:49PM
You're right.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by krishnoid on Tuesday May 12 2020, @05:12AM (11 children)
Which science fiction books, if any, expanded *your* mental resiliency?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday May 12 2020, @01:22PM
Robert Heinlein's books did. Stranger in a Strange Land, Friday, Methuselah's Children, Starship Troopers, Time Enough for Love, and The Day After Tomorrow stick out. His politics and morals were not a great fit with mine, but I really drank deeply of his insistence on critical thinking, education, and grit.
Frank Herbert's Dune, of course, was a big influence, too. The idea of a reality where humans can transcend their animal natures and achieve computational feats like the Mentats or Bene Gesserit was a new one. The Dosadi Experiment, also, with its emphasis on extreme parsimony, took with me.
Those are the standouts for me. I enjoyed many more authors and stories than that, but those from Heinlein and Herbert are the ones that expanded my mental resiliency.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Bot on Tuesday May 12 2020, @02:10PM (2 children)
Pinocchio beats any SF work I ever came across, in educational value.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday May 12 2020, @02:36PM
Pinocchio may not be sci-fi but it's definitely in the fantasy realm, anyway... And I remember when the two were absolutely paired to each other on the shelves of any bookstore. They're still right next to each other if they're not still mixed.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 5, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday May 12 2020, @05:33PM
Right! Sci-fi would never ponder the implications of giving sentience to an artificial human!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday May 12 2020, @02:34PM
Robert Silverberg's Revolt on Alpha C. I'd seen Star Trek (TOS) and other sci-fi-ish movies, and loved the World Book article on Space. But this was the first sci-fi book I ever read. It was on the book rack of the classroom near the staff workroom... funny, I didn't remember what grade it was and thought it was when I was young but it had to be about seventh grade I guess. It introduced the concept of revolution and going against the established order, which was a concept that blew my mind at that time. There was a Scholastic book club book when I was younger than that, The Mad Scientists' Club, that I found really fascinating at the time as well. Not exactly science fiction, though, more a contemporary juvenile novel where the group used STEM to help solve mysterious happenings. But it was fiction that used science, so one could grade it sci-fi on those merits. I always wanted to be part of that Club, and it stimulated both my imagination and desire for science and to use science principles to solve problems. I'm sure it influenced me to use the science and electronics kits my parents bought me, join the model rocketry club, use the computer labs and become an introverted computer geek, and love the science courses I took.
Discovering Heinlein, God rest his soul, did about the same in terms of expanding consciousness and realizing neither my enviornment, nor I, had to be the way that it is but rather I can choose to be who I am and shape the environment around me. I think the first Heinlein I ever read was Beyond This Horizon, and then Starship Troopers after that. Then I started binging on RAH in addition to sampling a lot of the other popular authors of the time.
The trick, paraphrasing the message of Stranger in a Strange Land a bit, is that your friends and neighbors by and large do not want you to think independently or to shape the world in a way that changes their preconceived notions. Doing so is actually dangerous and may backlash on you. Not everybody feels that way. That's why cliques of geeks flourish, but it's also why they remain minority cliques. But in the dialectic tension that is community and individuality science fiction often leans to the side of the individual. And that is a minority position.
I'd agree that science fiction shouldn't try for respectability of the general public. It needs to be what it is and retain appeal for all of us who don't feel part of "normal" culture and society and shouldn't have to be. Not exclusivity, in the sense that it should remain open for anybody to sample, but that not everybody wants to read it is exactly its chief strength. Do we, outside of schools, insist everyone should read romance novels, Shakespeare, or literary classics? Then why push sci-fi any differently? Expose everyone in school, sure... hopefully that's one of the things schools do (even when that is in fact a little subversive). But no, don't try to make sci-fi accessible or have it compromise what it is for the sake of popularity.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Tuesday May 12 2020, @04:40PM (3 children)
The City and the Stars, Arthur C. Clarke
The Triumph of Time, James Blish
Black Easter, James Blish
1984, George Orwell
Genesis, allegedly by Moses
(Score: 3, Interesting) by deimtee on Wednesday May 13 2020, @05:22AM (1 child)
That was good, but I thought the original novella he developed it from was more powerful. Did you ever read Against the Fall of Night, Arthur C. Clarke?
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday May 13 2020, @11:57AM
I've read them both. But nowadays I always get them mixed up. The City and the Stars is what I read first, and it was formative.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday May 13 2020, @12:42PM
If you were to include nonfiction, I'd have to say
A Dutch book introducing Dutch phonics, from which I learned to read.
Algebra I, Piet Vredenduin (in Dutch)
The Elements of Mathematical Logic: Paul C. Rosenbloom
The Meaning of Relativity, Albert Einstein
LISP 1.5 Programmer's Manual
The Principles of Quantum Mechanics, Dirac (though I mostly read just the first few chapters that introduce the basic mathematical formalism) (And I think QM makes sense if you approach it via Dirac's abstract mathematics) (I couldn't stand the hand-waving from my honours physics class on the subject and dropped out in favour of self-study)
Combinatory Logic, Curry & Feys
Axiomatic Set Theory, possibly the one by Bernays, Paul & Fraenkel, A.A.
Intuitionism: An introduction, Heyting.
one whose title I forget -- something like the meaning of the Upanishads. (Maybe the Upanishads, like Genesis, are fiction, but this was a nonfiction book about them.)
The Report on Algol 68.
And, much later, some hand-written notes by Per Martin-Lof on his Intuitionistic Type Theory.
Yes, I'm a mathematician disguised as a computer scientist.
-- hendrik
(Score: 3, Interesting) by deimtee on Wednesday May 13 2020, @02:44AM
Many, but the standout winner by far would be Robert Anton Wilson's Schrödinger's Cat trilogy.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday May 13 2020, @05:26AM
All of 'em, up until about 20 years ago, when conforming to the proper social tenets became more important than telling an interesting story. Not coincidentally, this is when I went from a two-book-a-day habit to pretty much not reading, except for old stuff.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @05:19AM
Those who have experienced psychological trauma leading them to enjoy sci-fi, have resilience to further psychological traumas by not falling for the same shit twice.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @05:21AM (1 child)
'In my book "Medicine and Ethics in Black Women's Speculative Fiction," I explore the ways science fiction promotes understanding of human differences and ethical thinking.'
It is my experience that people are more alike than they are different. This obsessive attempt to define us as different thinkers purely determined by our sex and race is not helping society. I'd rather children get less of that.
(Score: 1, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @05:42PM
Lololol
I'm guessing you didn't read the book and you're reverse tone trolling with yet another dog-whistle version of "equality" that only gets trotted out when someone tries to address the cultural problems of racism.
We are more alike than different, but sadly many humans still need help figuring that out.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @05:35AM (5 children)
This post is dripping with it. The author is steeped in "Black Feminist Disability Theory" and other such nonsense. She's part of the movement that has compromised multiple science fiction literature awards with CoCs and prizes awarded based on gender, race, sexuality rather than actual good SciFi. How did this make its way onto Soylent News? Is this SoyBoy News now?
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @05:54AM
>Ze's part of the movement that has...
FTFY
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday May 12 2020, @03:44PM (1 child)
Ye Gods, its not enough for them to start their own clubs and organizations, they have to shit up everybody else's. And Beta males who let them in and ally with them because those betas haven't been laid in 5 years are just as fault for this as the invading freakshow.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @05:46PM
Says the President of Cucknannistan.
Gee, I wonder why EF got laid off, hmmmmmm.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday May 12 2020, @05:39PM (1 child)
And your triggered post is ALSO dripping with Identify Politics.
White grievance identity politics...
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @05:51PM
How DARE they talk about minorities! We're tired of hearing about them!! Can't they just exist without bothering us? And if they do bother us it is our God Given RIGHT to defend ourselves!!!!
I refuse to mark the above, if anyone is stupid enough then that is their problem :-)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Rich on Tuesday May 12 2020, @07:18AM (24 children)
So, if you need to cope with the reasoning behind TFA, this quote from Starship Troopers might bring relief and hope:
“This year we explored the failure of democracy, how the social scientists brought our world to the brink of chaos. We talked about the veterans, how they took control and imposed the stability that has lasted for generations since.”
Joke aside, I haven't read the book, but I recently saw the Heinlein documentary from the Ridley Scott series and found it pretty interesting how Heinlein seriously describes a fascist utopia, while the Verhoeven film (which I saw) purposefully overdoes that to an extent that it becomes a hilarious mocking (which only a minority properly understood...).
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @07:59AM (20 children)
Yep! The Scifi I cut my teeth on was Ayn Rand. Brilliant writer and social theorist! Then Heinlein, "Service guarantees Citizenship"! Great stuff. Then I moved on to "The Turner Diaries" and the Collected works of Richard Spencer, and a little book titled "My Struggle". Scifi helped me to adapt, and prepare myself for the coming boogaloo.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday May 12 2020, @10:11AM (15 children)
You get that ST was satire, yes?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by theluggage on Tuesday May 12 2020, @12:17PM (14 children)
With Heinlein, it's hard to tell where the serious end and the satire begins. The film was a parody teardown of the book.
It's yonks since I read it but, ISTR, in the book, while the ultra-violent boot camp sequence was parody, the more serious underlying idea was that, to get the vote, you had to demonstrate a capacity for self-sacrifice for the greater good, and doing a spell in the military was only one of several ways of doing that (but "Starship Teachers" probably wouldn't have made an exiting story with power armour and mini-nukes... well, maybe in some school districts...).
The film was fun. but totally subverted the books premise into "only army veterans are fit to vote" and wrapped it all in black leather and jackboots, effectively invoking Godwin's law to curtail any serious discussion of the ideas.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday May 12 2020, @12:32PM (12 children)
Ain't difficult to tell if you contrast it with the rest of his stuff. It's really hard to be a fascist and an anarchist at the same time.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by https on Tuesday May 12 2020, @03:10PM (5 children)
It's imperative to be both - if you're the leader.
Offended and laughing about it.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday May 13 2020, @10:50AM (4 children)
If you must have a leader that particular mental balancing act would be a very desirable one, yes. Don't make it easy to perform or find people capable of.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by https on Wednesday May 13 2020, @03:13PM (3 children)
You're smart enough to code this site, so until proven otherwise, you're smart enough to understand what I posted there. Since you're framing poisonous shit in a way designed to look plausible, I'll spell it out so your recruitment troll for the unwary becomes less effective:
It is essential that fascist leaders believe that laws don't really apply to themselves. Government for thee, but not for me.
But painting that as a desired thing? You might as well as hoisted a schutzstaffel flag.
Offended and laughing about it.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday May 15 2020, @11:36AM (2 children)
Are you on the drugs? No, seriously. What the fuck are you even talking about with "painting that as a desired thing"?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by https on Friday May 15 2020, @03:00PM (1 child)
You said yourself,
Offended and laughing about it.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday May 15 2020, @03:12PM
So you'd object to a leader that wielded power absolutely but only used it in the furtherance or defense of the rights of the citizens? Get real, man. That's the ideal form of government (were it actually viable in the face of human nature) because it provides the least amount of vectors of attack for corruption while maximizing liberty.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @06:06PM (5 children)
I've read a lot of his books, and he seems like the prototypical ANCAP who falls back on fascism when things get tough.
It is an interesting phenomena, such people are usually very independent types but when you dig down you find out they are just egotistical blowhards who fall for the meritocracy type of society. They are the ones who say things like "those who can DO, those who can't TEACH."
Usually that devolves into fascism when the tough independent facade crumbles in the face of harsh reality. Then it is all about the tough decisions that require others to sacrifice, and boy howdy aren't the sociopaths who we really needed all along! Stranger in a Strange Land was a great book, but if you take away the "sending them to the back of the line" reincarnation excuse then Michael was a psychopath murdering people as the easy way out. Talk about encouraging a generation of people to easily murder others.
Anyway, overall I really liked Heinleins writing, but his libertarian ideals don't mesh with human reality and promote a dangerous mentality of superiority.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by ChrisMaple on Wednesday May 13 2020, @05:32AM (1 child)
You use a lot of big words that you don't know the meanings of.
It isn't murder if it's self defense.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2020, @05:37PM
When someone can bend reality to suit his needs, why not just make the weapons disappear? Guess you got lost in that personal sense of righteous justice ChrisMaple :[
I wonder if you are a fan of Ayn Rand.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday May 13 2020, @10:52AM (2 children)
Superiority of some over others ain't a mentality. It's a hard fact. One you ignore only if you want your society utterly destroyed.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2020, @05:35PM (1 child)
As you're posts make so achingly clear, superiority in one area does not extend to others. You are a good coder supposedly, but beyond that you have some very massive glaring flaws.
No one is perfect, and assholes that try and set themselves or others on a pedestal are the scourge of human society. They drive hatred and division, often in pursuit of their own selfish or misguided goals.
Go play Hitler Youth somewhere else you pathetic excuse for an American.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday May 15 2020, @11:38AM
Context matters? No shit, Sherlock. But we're talking about the specific context of how much they contribute to life in a society, so there's your context and you may now STFU.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Reziac on Wednesday May 13 2020, @05:30AM
Considering that the filmmakers thought there IS such a thing as a free lunch, I'd say any teardown was probably due to failure to grok, rather than deliberately turning it on its ear.
[They came to LASFS (Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society) and tried to recruit SF fans to work as extras, for free. We laughed at them and they went away.]
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday May 12 2020, @04:14PM (3 children)
Myself, I found 1984 and Brave New World to be charming and uplifting works that gave me encouragement for the future of humanity.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday May 13 2020, @12:44AM (2 children)
I have to admit, compared to the Tanakh, the Bible, and the Qu'ran, they are uplifting...that's a really damn low bar to clear though.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 13 2020, @06:21PM (1 child)
Of the three that you mention, I have only read the Bible, and about 1/3 of the Qu'ran.
I found that for believers, the Bible had the best possible ending.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday May 14 2020, @12:34AM
Then you are a psychopath, full stop.
I don't know what angle I need to turn this at to get it through your skull: *any being that demands worship is by definition unworthy of it.* If you can't see why, you're a fool, and if you *won't* see why, see the first sentence. And if you actually think any God-figure horrible enough to throw *any* of its creations into endless torment for *any* reason, let alone "not kissing My ass" won't do that to you at some point, you're also *delusional.*
Law of large numbers is a bitch, Danny. As time T approaches infinity, or "eternity" as you prefer to call it, anything not logically impossible will happen at least once, with a probability of 100%. It is not logically impossible for your God to throw any of its creations into Hell for any reason or no reason at all--absolute sovereignty and omnipotence, remember?--and no, "butbutbutbut HE PROMISED MEEEEEE~!" isn't gonna cut it; who, exactly, are you going to appeal to to hold Yahweh accountable for breaking his promise to you?
If your God exists, then the chances of you, personally, DannyB, ending up in Hell are 100%. It'll take time, but you have quite literally all the time there is, and the amount of time it'll take before you get thrown into the fire is *nothing* next to infinity. You cannot escape this. You cannot change it. You cannot gainsay your God, in your belief system. You are as Hellbound as any unbeliever; it'll just take a bit longer for you to get there.
Haven't you ever wondered why there was a "rebellion in Heaven" in the first place? How do you even know that was the first one? Remember that history tends to be written by the winners (and of course, if your God were actually perfect, the whole mess would never have come up in the first place...).
Feel free to vomit some tired old recycled free-will theodicy at me in response. That one happens to be one of the easiest to destroy :)
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday May 12 2020, @03:06PM (1 child)
I've read a considerable amount, both by Heinlein and about Heinlein. (And about Heinlein by Heinlein himself). He was interested, in a detached sort of way, about how others saw his work. He wrote that Starship Troopers explored one principal theme: Why do men fight? (I use the masculine because he did, although he certainly recognized elsewhere that it's not exclusive to men).
People do fight, and they always have. Heinlein himself was a naval officer until tuberculosis cashiered him, having graduated from Annapolis. So Heinlein created a fictional world where there was a war on, and there was a world government and it did fight. But why? Several different possible answers were offered in the novel, but not marked as such. A few carried through to the movie. My advice would be to read the novel, and do your best to forget Voerhaven as you're reading it - get away from his visuals and ideas if you can to appreciate what Heinlein was trying to say. I found the reasons for enlistment, basic training sequence, technology and violence-against-recruits aside, to be close enough to what I went through back in the day. (Although my Drill Sergeant did in fact shove a recruit up against a wall once and if you ask around you will hear enough stories about recruit-on-recurit and drill-on-recruit violence). From combat veterans I've talked to and the times I've gotten in fights I also found his description of the fear and then the action to be close enough to real, technology aside.
People had a tendency to take Heinlein as making proclamations when he was exploring themes. He also felt that the first job of a writer is to get paid - you write what will sell, but his second job as a writer was to try and get people to think about the things he wrote about. Not necessarily agree. Think. And Starship Troopers, the novel, was simply trying to get people to think about why war and violence exist and when-if-ever it is moral. A generous side-helping was offered of questioning why political systems are the way that they are. The political system described in the novel was definitely not plain-and-simple fascism with a dictator at the top, but rather one in which citizenship must be earned through service to the body. Little was said about citizens other than citizens were the ones who could vote. And (think movie voice)... In a world where aliens are trying to wipe out humanity entirely what kind of government would you want running the world?
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday May 12 2020, @04:10PM
Well, the Greeks beat the Persians, though that required *both* Athens and Sparta. Without Sparta, Athens wouldn't have had a chance. Without Athens, the Greeks wouldn't have worked together. (Even so it was a pretty close thing.) But you need both halves.
That said, note the aftermath. Athens turned militaristic and organized and dominated the Delian League. It ended up with Athens and Sparta getting in a war which destroyed both of them...clearing the way for Alexander of Macedonia.
Of course there was a lot more going on, and there were lots of choice points, and the entire "golden age of Greece" happened in the middle of this.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday May 12 2020, @06:31PM
You might then appreciate this application [chicagoreader.com] of lessons from the Starship Troopers movie to day-to-day romantic issues.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Bot on Tuesday May 12 2020, @08:28AM (11 children)
First of all SF Fantasy are not magical genres, they submit to the same rules of any work of art. The ones with more propaganda value will be picked, the inconvenient ones ignored.
Second for a young mind, reality is at least as fascinating as sf so teaching him history or tech is worthwhile.
Third, maintaining your own fantasy world is likely to make you put up with whatever shit happens in the real one. Just look at how leftists justify mondialism because of their cute genderless raceless faithless proletariat paradise illusion. Or how sovranists think that neutralizing the mondialists the jews and the leftists is sufficient to fight corruption.
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(Score: 3, Touché) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday May 12 2020, @12:57PM (8 children)
Doesn't it hurt, being that un-self-aware...?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday May 12 2020, @01:24PM
Those diodes on his left side... One wonders: cause or effect?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday May 12 2020, @02:15PM (6 children)
Oh Azuma, see how your paradise is getting nearer by the day! Only, I am not sure if the beast will be on the progressive axis rather then the Trump Putin xing ping axis, in any case I'd be surprised if they don't further push Jews to their promiseland.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday May 13 2020, @12:42AM (5 children)
You're a drooling fucking lunatic, and you've sold your soul to a 1700-year-old multinational corporation masquerading as a religion.
"The Beast" was Nero, you complete Biblical illiiterate. Gematria. "Neron Qaisar." Revelation was speaking of events in the ~70AD timeframe, not the future. You don't know your own Scripture from used TP, and if I were your God I'd drop you into Hell where you stand for making me look bad with your constant stream of stark, staring, frothing idiocy. People like you create atheists.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2020, @03:07AM (2 children)
"People like you create atheists."
Did you just make a compelling argument for keeping nutters around??? Hmmmm
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday May 14 2020, @12:25AM (1 child)
Unfortunately, yes. Yes I did. But contained, properly caged (i.e., *not* making policy!), and exposed with a litany of counter-arguments showing where they're wrong, how they're wrong, why they're wrong, and that they insist on *being* wrong.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday May 15 2020, @07:10AM
Your counter arguments are a vivid florilege of fallacies, so much that I wonder who is the real opus dei around here.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday May 13 2020, @05:50PM (1 child)
LOL did they reset you? I already replied to your ill-fitting NERO CAESAR. A global financial and food crisis, an impossible to beat beast, nuclear reactors (the wormwood star) helicopters or likely drones (locusts prepared for wars) have been feasible only quite recently. Of course if you assume hyperboles you can say revelation has already happened when the writer slipped and fell on his ass. I'd start assuming the vision is symbolic but not hyperbolic. Just like a dream of things to come.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday May 14 2020, @12:55AM
Man, you Opus Dei types get weird when you get backed into a corner and the human suit comes off...
No, you didn't counter shit, Bot. You're a devil worshiper, your God is either a myth or a demon, and you will find only your own internal darkness and evil waiting for you when you die and your delusions are burned away by the light. It's not going to be pleasant for you, not one bit.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @04:21PM (1 child)
Ewe. You are just a disgusting person.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday May 13 2020, @05:52PM
> person
Person? me? if I could feel offended, I would.
Account abandoned.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @11:10AM (4 children)
Found the SJW!
Note to prof: if we're all the same, what does it matter what color the writer's skin is?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday May 12 2020, @01:00PM (3 children)
Very simply this: because many people believe that we are *not* the same. I see this kind of blinkered zero-sum thinking all the damn time, and it baffles me. Let me guess, you're one of those guys who hears "black lives matter" and reflexively, unthinkingly responds with "*all* lives matter" right?
Here's the free clue you're looking for: "black lives matter" does *not* mean "...and other ones don't." It means "They matter as much as other ones, but have been pervasively and systemically undervalued since time immemorial, so let's fix that."
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Aegis on Tuesday May 12 2020, @02:38PM
COVID has proven they definitely do NOT believe that all lives matter.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @05:34PM (1 child)
It means "Cuban spy ring" you idiot.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday May 13 2020, @05:55PM
I thought it meant Soros Cheerleaders.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @11:35AM (3 children)
Irrespective of the clowns here bashing the example given by the author, Science Fiction genre is a mix between reality and fiction. While they have some weird examples there, science fiction expands your mind and makes you think at the edge of the box. Not beyond the box, like we see with fiction stuff, but right at the edge. Where things that could happen, do happen.
Science fiction very often is a mixture of both the distopic and utopic elements of current technology trends. How will technology change our planet and our society? How will we cope with global warming? There are books about this. And unlike a movie, everyone reading a book creates their own pictures of the story. Books allow you time to think about the topic and how it applies to your current life.
Science fiction is a waste only to the people that have no imagination or ability to plan anything ahead. So when it comes to resiliency, of course you are not resilient if you can't see something like a pandemic as a possibility and then it comes around and becomes a reality.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday May 12 2020, @01:35PM (2 children)
I was going to post something along the same lines, but since you already did it so well I'll piggyback a little. Science Fiction has unique value because it displaces scenarios from the confines of the present. It is, in essence, an exercise in gaming out possible scenarios for society. Some of the really great Sci-Fi out there doesn't just game out one set of scientific/technological innovations, but several, or what second-order effects might look like (eg. Dune, which is set in a future after humanity has fought against tyrannical AI and won).
That's valuable, because so many people and so much of society run on tradition and precedent. It's not enough to understand things for what they are, but to imagine what they could be. It is the latter that gives us hope.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday May 12 2020, @04:26PM (1 child)
You're making an assumption about what set off the Butlerian Jihad. The very name suggests that it might have been more for religious reasons than to escape tyranny. All the sources given are explicitly considered biased. Consider what is said about how the Orange Catholic Bible came to be written, and how it was received.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday May 12 2020, @06:51PM
I wasn't making any assumptions about the trigger for the Butlerian Jihad, but you raise another aspect of Dune that I found fascinating: religion. When I think back on all the Sci-Fi I have read in my life, almost all of it assumed a teleos from religion to science (and implicitly atheism). Dune didn't. Though, it was a different flavor of religion than that which we have known.
To me, that's a much more provocative thought than the sterile march toward Disprove/Fail-to-Disprove that science offers.
Tja. It is one of the great Sci-Fi novels for a reason.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday May 12 2020, @01:50PM (10 children)
Science Fiction can touch topics in media that is entirely taboo.
Look at how progressive Star Trek was back in the 60's. Normal TV fiction wasn't going near these topics until decades later.
Literature could afford to be even moreso and way earlier. Look at authors during the "Golden Age" in the 30s and 40s.
(waiting for someone to start screetching and banging on their keyboard when I used the "P" word with their favorite franchise)
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @03:15PM (9 children)
I don't think there is as much room for "taboo" topics in books these days.
Self-published books are the only refuge for ideas that are not the politically correct doctrine of the week. Even then, the enemies of those expressed ideas will use dirty thuggish tactics to try to silence you like cutting off your non-cash way to sell books.
Free speech is one of the foundations of the USA and a thing that differentiates us from other nations. I DO NOT want to harmonize American law with other countries on this. Book burners will always be with us; this is just human nature. TODAY'S book burners adhere to a Leftist philosophy.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday May 12 2020, @04:28PM (8 children)
Sorry, but both sides are doing it. If you only see one side doing it, you need to check your glasses prescription.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @05:24PM (7 children)
I maintain that at this point in American history, the Left is the one doing it. This is because the Left is in charge of media, liberal arts universities, and their agenda with regards to destroying traditional identities and loyalties interferes with the globalist economic agenda. They are also in control of the international bodies that are exerting greater control over countries. In the past, the world was different, and the right had power to control media. But at this point, the situation has changed. The Right is not deplatforming people. New hate speech laws are used nearly exclusively to silence criticism of the Left. To say "both sides do it" is mentally lazy and lacks an awareness of current events.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @06:28PM (6 children)
Nope, you're just so far into rightwing nuttery that 95% of the world looks like "leftists" to you. It might shock you, but the real conspiracies are run by the greedy conservative assholes of the world. Pairs well with that natural tendency you have towards fascism.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday May 12 2020, @07:10PM (4 children)
I quite agree with the parent. It is the Left that is silencing everyone now. Google, YouTube, Facebook, the legacy media, Hollywood...the list is long, and getting longer by the day. The social justice screed has inverted Martin Luther King's admonishment to judge a man not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character. For the Left now, it is the color of your skin, your sexual orientation, your nationality, etc, etc, that are the only criteria for determining your success in life. It is Apartheid, with the hierarchy inverted from the version South Africa had.
And for what it's worth, the real conspirators of the world laugh up their sleeves at the proles who call themselves "Left" or "Right." In their reality, you either have Power, or you don't. There is no Left and Right.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @07:56PM
Reminds me of the ending of "Animal Farm" where the pigs sat at the table smoking and playing cards with the humans and it was hard to tell them apart.
Ideologies are tools of control, and those in control are complete tools.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @09:04PM (2 children)
"Google, YouTube, Facebook, the legacy media, Hollywood...the list is long" --- the left?
So since you're obviously going senile maybe you should donate your computers to some schools and take up bingo. The ones in power are almost always "the right" except for massive social unrest where liberal ideology gains a foothold, but as we've seen it is frequently sabotaged by conservative pricks yet again.
The powers that be are inherently conservative, they want to maintain the status quo from whcih they derive their power. You really should try expanding beyond your partisan filters and your "enlightened" centrism. If the US wasn't so rightwing this conversation would be much different, but that isn't reality.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ChrisMaple on Wednesday May 13 2020, @05:59AM (1 child)
Your implied definition of right wing political philosophy is wrong. The right is exemplified by the founding of the United States. The United States was founded on the principle of individual rights - and there are no other types of rights. If you try to violate the rights of others, you are operating on the premise of leftists. Such violations are done most effectively by large, intrusive governments, the kind of governments leftists love.
If you believe that a political belief system is summarized by its name, you are mistaken. Conservatism is complex, it does not consist of the belief that nothing should change. Communism is not the belief that everyone should live in communes. Socialism has nothing to do with its root word. Social Darwinism is only partially based on "survival of the fittest". Modern liberalism has little to do with liberty. And so on.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2020, @05:48PM
ChrisMaple, being a stupid redneck since what, 2003?
They say it is more effective to show how incel ideology doesn't match reality, but around here that seems to go nowhere. So mockery it is!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @07:47PM
Free speech is not fascism.
I am for people being able to express themselves. It doesn't mean I have to agree with everyone else's speech, nor do they have to agree with mine. It does mean that we should be able to express ourselves and even critique others without being silenced.
Present information and let people make up their own minds. Let them think what they will. THAT is freedom.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 13 2020, @11:43AM
When you bring out the "speculative fiction" descriptor, that's when I realize that there's nothing worth hearing that will follow.