Margaret, that hat looks great on you, and ditto you under it! I’m from the generation after you, and I came to speculative fiction both early and late. As a child, I read some What if? books, whose titles I don’t remember, and of course I read 1984 and Brave New World in high school. But the What if? bug hit me hard when I was 25ish - I picked up a paperback science fiction anthology and for some reason the Clifford Simak story, “The Big Front Yard,” caught my eye. I fell hard for it, and for the entire What if? Sci-fi sub-genre. That Simak story resonated hard with me, so about six years later I wrote to Mr. Simak and described why I loved TBFY so much. Three months later I received a letter from him, in the course of which he told me that “of all the comments that have been made of it, all the words that have been written of it by critics and science fiction historians, you are the first and only one who has put an unerring finger on what I tried so hard to say.” I knew I was on the right track. Speculative science fiction, especially that written during the Golden Age - 1930s-1960s - is one of my greatest passions. I prefer the positive kind, exemplified by Mr. Simak, and the humorous, like the stories of Eric Frank Russell, and those that really intrigue, from such authors as James Blish, Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore, Alfred Bester, L. Sprague de Camp, John Wyndham, and so many more. Although I read The Handmaid’s Tale, I didn’t feel the full import of that hopelessness, against which you can only rebel through suicide, until I heard it performed in audiobook form by Claire Danes. She really understood what you were depicting. I watched the first season of the television serialization, starring Elisabeth Moss, but it doesn’t understand the book the way that Claire Danes does, the way I think you intended. The fact that there could be anything past a Season One puts an American fictionalization to it: I can triumph if only I put my mind to it, I can realize that American Dream, I’m the little engine that could! It should rightfully take the form of a limited series, at most. Maybe I’m wrong in what you were saying; if so, please set me aright.
In my opinion, speculative fiction is the best way to go with sending the message, since the author can create a "possible future". Also it's easier to make metaphors and symbolisms when you can create the metaphor and symbolism in an image you want it to be (If that makes sense). It's just that authors and writers push that message too hard that it destroys the image they have created and also damage the entertainment value of the book/video game/movie.
Fascinating points. I love speculative fiction, but I always have found it falls too much in the trap of becoming preachy, or too cautionary. Authors need to remember that while, yes, their fiction can be a way to make people be cognizant of issues, it is also an entertainment medium,. If a story entertains, its audience will be much more open to its message.
My intelligence isn't as high as yours...so be gentle with my opinion lol. I agree with your opinion and I'm not really much of a reader. I'm more of a gamer and a movie-goer; But I usually game and watch movies for the story behind them. I love the metaphors and symbols that writers for movies and video games put into these things and I have come to notice something. In video games or movies where it's based on a "what-if" universe...there's always tons of metaphors and "warning signs"
or message. Like for an example as a message "If we want to save the earth, we have to come to love ourselves, others, and of course the earth" or something like that (I'm wired on coffee and tired as all hell...so mind my terrible example). And, being a lit major, I do also agree that if you want your message to hit your viewers/readers it haves to be entertaining.
...Idk if I got my opinion out or anything but to give a gist on what I'm trying to say is: I do agree with your opinion and speculative fiction is the best way to send a message; but I believe writers push the message too hard, destroying the entertainment value of the tale.
