Joshua Done's Blog: Joshua Done - Culture and Entertainment - Posts Tagged "scifi"
All Bad Guys Have the Same Guns
Recently I have visited a few gun shows and what I have noticed is that there are as many types of weapons as there are weapon owners. That, when combined with the fact that as many as two out of three three people in the world own a firearm (and this is probably a low estimate) creates a real world situation in which there are thousands upon thousands of types of firearms and exponential variants on each type.
How does this pertain to science fiction you say? What we find is that in science fiction the ratio of armed characters is much higher, say somewhere in the neighborhood of ninety-five to one hundred percent. What we also find is that the ratio of diversity in firearms is twisted in the opposite direction. In a split that almost seems a sci-fi version of white hat – black hat, science fiction tends to put the same weapon in every soldier’s hands on whatever side they may be on.
While there may be slight variations for hero characters in these stories or heroes may have their own weapon, there is a very simple explanation that belies even greater than writer apathy or laziness. This is that people will be playacted if the hero has a cool weapon and ‘forget’ to look at the rest of the cast. I say ‘forget’ with emphasis because this is simply a fallacy. Readers will not forget; they will, however, be happy to place the lapse in the subconscious “yeah-right” section of their brain and continue on with the movie.
This does not mean that the readers have forgiven the movie or your fictional warring factions for their unrealistic lack of diversity, only that the penalty is a stigmatism to the art and deadened enthusiasm. It is not hard to slap a few more foam canisters together to make a different ray gun, or hire a few no name writers to work on the background of military diversity of the factions.
The lack of diversity in firearms is an easily fixed problem. It is not hard to write in a few extra lines discussing a strange or unique weapon. Equally easy is the addition of background realism to the militaries of the silver screen. What is really lacking is someone, somewhere, who actually cares, to say ‘wow, time out, what do you think you are doing? Your army looks like a bunch of computer generated copy characters. Of course, in many cases this is exactly the case. All we need to do is look at the background and sci-fi can trump popular war and Hollywood movies by seeming more real, and drawing the reader into an already engaging universe.
How does this pertain to science fiction you say? What we find is that in science fiction the ratio of armed characters is much higher, say somewhere in the neighborhood of ninety-five to one hundred percent. What we also find is that the ratio of diversity in firearms is twisted in the opposite direction. In a split that almost seems a sci-fi version of white hat – black hat, science fiction tends to put the same weapon in every soldier’s hands on whatever side they may be on.
While there may be slight variations for hero characters in these stories or heroes may have their own weapon, there is a very simple explanation that belies even greater than writer apathy or laziness. This is that people will be playacted if the hero has a cool weapon and ‘forget’ to look at the rest of the cast. I say ‘forget’ with emphasis because this is simply a fallacy. Readers will not forget; they will, however, be happy to place the lapse in the subconscious “yeah-right” section of their brain and continue on with the movie.
This does not mean that the readers have forgiven the movie or your fictional warring factions for their unrealistic lack of diversity, only that the penalty is a stigmatism to the art and deadened enthusiasm. It is not hard to slap a few more foam canisters together to make a different ray gun, or hire a few no name writers to work on the background of military diversity of the factions.
The lack of diversity in firearms is an easily fixed problem. It is not hard to write in a few extra lines discussing a strange or unique weapon. Equally easy is the addition of background realism to the militaries of the silver screen. What is really lacking is someone, somewhere, who actually cares, to say ‘wow, time out, what do you think you are doing? Your army looks like a bunch of computer generated copy characters. Of course, in many cases this is exactly the case. All we need to do is look at the background and sci-fi can trump popular war and Hollywood movies by seeming more real, and drawing the reader into an already engaging universe.
An Excerpt for Some Insight
This is a part of a lecture set in the Hyperion Universe, the same universe as The Exile Empire and the soon to be released novel Empire Ascensions. It discusses how cultures adapt to alien cohabitation.
Dr. Archibald Rolland – Excerpt from a lecture on xeno-anthropology at the Imperial Science Academy.
Disgust, while the opposite of attraction is driven by different factors than one would expect. Take for example the way in which obesity is viewed in preindustrial civilizations as opposed to postindustrial civilizations. In the survival-based society excess weight and even obesity can and most likely is seen as an indication of one of the following.
1. Superior survival skills (in very primitive societies.)
2. Superior intelligence or ability to provide.
3. Superior power or social rank.
All of these indicate the individual in question is more likely to succeed than the average slightly malnourished person. Freudian considerations of mate potential aside this raises a series of very interesting questions as the civilization in question progresses to the more prosperous and food rich industrial and postindustrial civilization levels.
As discussed in previous lessons disgust also has a strong cultural basis, in that if one person views something disgusting it is more likely that others who witness their response will see the same stimuli as disgusting. Also since attraction also has a cultural component as seen in the evolving concept of style, grooming, body hair, etc. what does that tell us about the ongoing view of excess fat as a positive trait rather than a negative?
That is right, there is a sociological bias for a positive trait to continue to be seen as positive. Why then do most societies view obesity different in postindustrial civilization? For the same reason that excess unshaved body hair can be seen as dirty in a society in one generation and not in another. As soon as one person notices negative traits from common and prolonged obesity and the sociological positive implications of that same trait are no longer seen or obvious to other members of that society. Once those traits can no longer be actively supported by the cause of their previous positive view their status will slowly erode.
Now this can seem very simple on the surface but we have to remember we are talking about changes that take place over hundreds if not thousands of years. Many of these positive and negative biases take generations to change. Even at the generational level we see forces of both preservation and destruction taking place as some children will view what their parents view in a positive light positively themselves and other children will reject that same thing simply because their parents embrace it.
These principals of anthropological development can be applied to acquiesce of alien species living in and among each other. While the aliens may initially be viewed with disgust due to their foreign nature they will eventually be viewed by whatever positive or negative effects they have on the society as a whole and their neighbors more specifically. All of which is simply a very complicated way of saying that extensive exposure to positive alien species tends to weed out xenophobia by it’s very nature.
Dr. Archibald Rolland – Excerpt from a lecture on xeno-anthropology at the Imperial Science Academy.
Disgust, while the opposite of attraction is driven by different factors than one would expect. Take for example the way in which obesity is viewed in preindustrial civilizations as opposed to postindustrial civilizations. In the survival-based society excess weight and even obesity can and most likely is seen as an indication of one of the following.
1. Superior survival skills (in very primitive societies.)
2. Superior intelligence or ability to provide.
3. Superior power or social rank.
All of these indicate the individual in question is more likely to succeed than the average slightly malnourished person. Freudian considerations of mate potential aside this raises a series of very interesting questions as the civilization in question progresses to the more prosperous and food rich industrial and postindustrial civilization levels.
As discussed in previous lessons disgust also has a strong cultural basis, in that if one person views something disgusting it is more likely that others who witness their response will see the same stimuli as disgusting. Also since attraction also has a cultural component as seen in the evolving concept of style, grooming, body hair, etc. what does that tell us about the ongoing view of excess fat as a positive trait rather than a negative?
That is right, there is a sociological bias for a positive trait to continue to be seen as positive. Why then do most societies view obesity different in postindustrial civilization? For the same reason that excess unshaved body hair can be seen as dirty in a society in one generation and not in another. As soon as one person notices negative traits from common and prolonged obesity and the sociological positive implications of that same trait are no longer seen or obvious to other members of that society. Once those traits can no longer be actively supported by the cause of their previous positive view their status will slowly erode.
Now this can seem very simple on the surface but we have to remember we are talking about changes that take place over hundreds if not thousands of years. Many of these positive and negative biases take generations to change. Even at the generational level we see forces of both preservation and destruction taking place as some children will view what their parents view in a positive light positively themselves and other children will reject that same thing simply because their parents embrace it.
These principals of anthropological development can be applied to acquiesce of alien species living in and among each other. While the aliens may initially be viewed with disgust due to their foreign nature they will eventually be viewed by whatever positive or negative effects they have on the society as a whole and their neighbors more specifically. All of which is simply a very complicated way of saying that extensive exposure to positive alien species tends to weed out xenophobia by it’s very nature.
15 Minute Blitz!!!
We are doing a push to get Empire Ascensions on the amazon best seller list since they rank books by the hour. If you liked The Exile Empire please check out Empire Ascensions. http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Ascensio...
Halloween Short Story
My publisher just released a short story that I wrote for Halloween.
https://zharmaeblog.wordpress.com/201...
https://zharmaeblog.wordpress.com/201...
Joshua Done - Culture and Entertainment
Joshua Done is a science fiction author who lives in the Pacific Northwest. He is classically trained in political economy with experience in all manner of studies from music to ancient history and la
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