SF conventions--of another sort

[vilakins]

Someone on an SF mailing list directed me to an interesting post on james_nicoll's LJ.

If you could make one convention of modern SF go away, which one would you choose?

If you could add one, what would you add?

I commented there but I decided I'd like to know what you think. My picks are:

Get rid of the hackneyed civilisation where--gasp, how original!--women are oppressed. Even Farscape and Firefly have done it. Use some imagination already.

I want more alien aliens. How about furry aliens, or insectoid ones instead of the usual humanoids, and let's play with gender with a little more imagination. How about societies with several sexes, where you need more than two to procreate, or a hive society? Anything but clichéd old recycled human ones.

But you knew that. :-)

Comments

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Humans being culturally superior to aliens.

Oh, yes. But then there's the opposite cliché, aliens being superior to primitive humans, more popular recently than the reverse. I think it goes in waves and people are much more pessimistic about the future now.

And yes, the monocultural aliens is a very good choice. I suppose it's easy to write them that way, but I'm hard put to think of a counter-example. I barely remember Alien Nation, which was treated more badly than most SF here. I think we got one season. I do wish I'd seen more what with all the praise it's getting here.

Who's the character in your icon?

[kerravonsen]

It's from one of the versions of the cover of "Komarr" by Lois McMaster Bujold, therefore I deduce that it's Ekatarin, who was the other main character in that book (besides Miles).

[kernezelda]

That's an interesting shot, emphasizing the alien aspect of Komarr rather than the romance. The U.S. cover has a drawing of a domed city in the background, with Miles and Ekaterin faces in the extreme foreground, facing each other.

I am fond of the skellytum.

[kerravonsen]

Yes, when I was going trawling the net for Bujold covers, two of the "Komarr" covers were Miles and Ekatarin in the foreground. But I decided to use this one because it was so pretty and also kind of evokes SF in general, without having to use stars and spaceships to do so. Not that I dislike stars and spaceships, but people are more interesting.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Ahah! I just started reading the Vorkosigan books this week! :-D I have Cordelia's Honor which is Shards of Honor and Barrayar in one book. So far I'm loving it--two excellent characters and gorgeous, vivid imagery--but I've noticed a touch of said-phobia. I wonder if that's because Bujold started in fanfic and it seemed to be a convention in the old stuff.

[kerravonsen]

So far I'm loving it--two excellent characters and gorgeous, vivid imagery

Oh yes, I love Cordelia and Aral!

I wonder if that's because Bujold started in fanfic and it seemed to be a convention in the old stuff.

She started in fanfic? Really?

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

[shrug] That's what people say. I don't know any more than that.

[daiseechain.livejournal.com]

Warrior's Apprentice will always be one of my favourite books. I carry it with me when I travel.

And I noticed the thing she has with hand gestures. All her characters seem to convey emotion and body language through hand gestures. Turning the palms outwards, flattening them on tables, that sort of thing.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I only noticed one instance of that--where Aral turns his hands up--and that was because I couldn't quite figure out what it was supposed to show. The others must have worked. :-)

Finished the first one now and the said-phobia either got better or I started ignoring it. :-) I really like Aral and Cordelia except that I don't believe he'd fall for her at first sight. I can see it would happen early on though as he realised she was tough, brave, and honourable, none of which are at all obvious in a vomiting woman. :-P