Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronin4hire
I havent been on in a while and this thread has moved on but I just want to clear up a few things.
I am not talking about ALL SF that is made in America when I say "American Science Fiction". Im talking about a particular TYPE of SF that (to my knowledge) ONLY comes out of the United States (though someone brought up Yamato). The tag "American" (or Japanese or whatever) becomes redundant otherwise as SF is SF.
Though I suppose it is a misleading tag and I shouldnt have drawn all of sci-fi into it. I was trying to highlight what I thought to be a cultural phenomenon. Perhaps I should've narrowed it down to the "American space opera" or come to think of it just "Space Opera?" How does that sound?
I guess its my fault that I was confusing because I was trying to criticise what I see is wrong with it while trying to highlight what I thought to be a cultural phenomenon. Im more interested in what I see to be a cultural phenomenon so I will start again by examining "American Space Opera" on its own and not in context with other types of science fiction.
-The portrayal of Alien societies seems to be essentialised in much the same way that other cultures often are (from any standpoint).
-Humanity seems to be a projection of American society and parallels can be drawn between the way Human society relates to Alien society(ies) and the various ways American society imagines itself in comparison to other.
Examples of the above- Babylon 5, Star Trek, Mass Effect, Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars (though it wasnt a main theme), Wing Commander
-Military encounters and military technology in space are similar to WW2 technologies (Space battles featuring carrier fleets supported by a various array of capital ships and fighters, Space Marines) . My theory for this is because WW2 is still romanticised throughout the Western world but in particular, the United States where the narrative of that conflict is still very much along the lines of "good versus evil".
(With the exception of Star Trek the above examples can also be used to show this.)
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You make it sound like separating oneself from one's culture is like taking off a shirt. Yes, American sci-fi comes from an American perspective designed for an American audience.
District 9 is made by a South African director, and there are certainly South African themes in the movie. Does that make it a better or worse movie?
The reality is that we have never had contact with non-Earthlings (that we know of on a public nature) so to judge a movie or a genre about not being realistic about an experience that no one has ever had before is frankly nit-picky.