“In a lot of Western science fiction, you need some form of conflict, whether it's aliens or robots. I think in Western culture, being more suspicious of science, and hubris, you'll see a lot of fear of creating something that goes out of control.” ThinkingNeedsFormCultureFictionConflictCreatingScience FictionWesternAliensRobotsSuspiciousHubrisWestern CultureCreating Something Author:Cynthia Breazeal
“Historically, I guess that's how science fiction works: you start by using aliens to think the unthinkable and then, eventually, another writer, having grown a little more comfortable with the earlier notion, brings it into the human.” ThinkingHumansLittlesFictionComfortableScience FictionNotionAliensUnthinkable Author:Samuel R. Delany
“I think readers nowadays are happy to have genres blurred. We're seeing that on screen too: The Pirates of the Caribbean mashes up history and fantasy, Cowboys and Aliens mixes the Western and the Science Fiction genres.” ThinkingFictionFantasySeeingReaderScience FictionWesternScreensAliensGenreCowboyPirateCaribbeanMash Up Author:Colette Freedman
“In a way, being a Mormon prepares you to deal with science fiction, because we live simultaneously in two very different cultures. The result is that we all know what it's like to be strangers in a strange land. It's not just a coincidence that there are so many effective Mormon science fiction writers. We don't regard being an alien as an alien experience. But it also means that we're not surprised when people don't understand what we're saying or what we think.” PeopleThinkingKnowsWayMeanTwoDifferentScienceReligionCultureSpaceResultsDealsFictionTechnologyLandStrangeRegardScience FictionStrangerIdeologyAliensCoincidenceFiction WritersDifferent CulturesStranger In A Strange Land Author:Orson Scott Card
“To only call Wizards, Aliens, and Starships engaging would be a real understatement--it is a delightful, funny, and immensely interesting romp through science and fiction. From candlepower to teleportation, all the way to the fate of the cosmos in the span of a googol years, this is a cornucopia of teachable material. It is also a reminder of the simple thrill of applying science to the world around us, real or imagined. A new classic.” WorldWayYearsRealWould BeSimpleInterestingFictionFateMaterialsAliensClassicCosmosThrillDelightfulEngagingRemindersWizardsUnderstatementTeachable Author:Caleb Scharf
“A fiction which is designed to inculcate an object wholly alien to the imagination sins against the first law of art; and if a writer of fiction narrow his scope to particulars so positive as polemical controversy in matters ecclesiastical, political or moral, his work may or may not be an able treatise, but it must be a very poor novel.” IfsFirstsMayArtMatterAbleLawPoliticalImaginationSinPoorFictionMoralNovelObjectsAliensControversyScope Author:Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
“The best conversation is rare. Society seems to have agreed to treat fictions as realities, and realities as fictions; and the simple lover of truth, especially if on very high grounds, as a religious or intellectual seeker, finds himself a stranger and alien.” IfsRealitySeemsReligiousSimpleFictionLoversConversationIntellectualTreatsStrangerAliensSeekersHigh Ground Book:The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Society and solitude Source: The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Society and solitude
“I love science fiction but I don't like fantastic [cinema]. For example, if you have a magical ring and you can explode the world with it. What are we talking about? You know, it's not interesting. I don't like Lord of the Rings. Even Star Wars, for me, I don't understand this kind of story. But Alien, because the rules of the game are very precise, it could happen. I love science fiction. I have an idea about robots in the future.” IfsKnowsWorldKindIdeasWarStoriesHappensGamesStarsInterestingFictionTalkingLordExampleScience FictionRingsAliensFantasticCinemaPreciseRobotsRules Of The GameScience Love Author:Jean-Pierre Jeunet
“Sci-fi uses the images that sf - starting with H.G. Wells - made familiar: space travel, aliens, galactic wars and federations, time machines, et cetera, taking them literally, not caring if they are possible or even plausible. It has no interest in or relation to real science or technology. It's fantasy in space suits. Spectacle. Wizards with lasers. Kids with ray guns. I've written both, but I have to say I respect science fiction enough that I wince when people call it sci-fi.” PeopleIfsWellsMadeWarRealEnoughUseKidsInterestSpaceFictionTechnologyFantasyWrittenGunMachinesRelationScience FictionStartingCaringFamiliarSuitsAliensRaysSci FiWizardsSpace TravelPlausibleNot CaringLasersTime MachineFederationWince Author:Ursula K. Le Guin
“Science fiction - and the correct shortcut is 'sf' - uses actual scientific facts or theories for the source ideas or framework of the story. It has some scientific content, however speculative. If it breaks a law of physics, it knows it's doing so and follows up the consequences. If it invents a society of aliens, it does so with some respect for and knowledge of the social sciences and what you might call social probabilities. And some of it is literarily self-aware enough to treat its metaphors as metaphors.” IfsKnowsDoeIdeasSelfEnoughFactsStoriesUseMightLawSocialFictionBreakTheorySourceConsequenceTreatsScience FictionMetaphorPhysicsAliensProbabilityFrameworkShortcutsSocial ScienceLaws Of PhysicsScientific FactsFollow Up Author:Ursula K. Le Guin
“The films that I loved growing up were the science fiction films from the late seventies and early eighties [films], which were more about the people and how they are affected by the environments that they are in. Whether they are sort of futuristic or alien of whatever they are; that was the science fiction that I loved. So that is what we tried to make, the sort of film that felt like those old films.” PeopleFilmFeltFictionGrowing UpEnvironmentGrowingLateScience FictionAliensAffectedSeventiesEightyFuturistic Author:Duncan Jones
“You know, every year 'Torchwood' has become something a little different than it was before. It's still sci-fi, but it doesn't just deal with spaceships and aliens all the time, because we've done that. Our science fiction is more psychological.” KnowsYearsLittlesStillsDifferentDoneDealsFictionScience FictionPsychologicalAliensSci FiSpaceshipsTorchwood Author:John Barrowman
“Something like 'Alien,' that was not so easy. If there's any genre I wouldn't mind not having to do anymore, it would be science fiction. It's just all to do with the toys, and there's so much hanging around.” IfsMindWould BeEasyFictionScience FictionAliensGenreToysHanging Around Author:John Hurt