My criticism of "American science fiction"

[Ronin4hire]

By "American science fiction" I am refferring to a particular genre of science fiction that, if I am not mistaken, only comes out of the United States. Prime examples of this that I have in mind are Mass Effect and Babylon 5. But I suppose Battlestar Galactica and Star Wars and on occassion, the various Star Trek franchises fall tick some of the boxes below (some more than others) as well as games like Halo, Wing Commander etc etc...

I hate writing essays and have a bunch to write that actually matter so I'll put my main gripes into bullet points and perhaps we can go from there if anyone wants to add anything or criticise anything.

*Humans are all typically "American". Similarly, Alien races are all typified by cultural stereotypes that sometimes almost seem if they are derived from stereotypes that are applied to cultures WITHIN humanity.

*The themes of such American science fiction tend to be political and/or militaristic with the Science fiction being the vehicle. Dont get me wrong though... I realise that there are other themes often present also but there always seems to be a similar political undertone. A sense that "freedom loving" Humanity is under threat from an outside political force. I dont think it takes a genius to connect the dots.

*Everyone speaks English! I know this is a common gripe that many have with such science fiction... but I wonder if it ever occured to the producers that in the future, ANY human language let alone English may not be the common dialect in the known universe. ESPECIALLY when humanity is a newcomer as it usually seems to be portrayed as.

*Whats with Starfighters and battles fought in visual range? Even today we can launch missiles from miles away without even having to see the target. Why do space battles seem like a step backward in time? I suppose it could be easy to explain away using some sort of sci-fi device but I think a more accurate depiction of space battle would be more akin to submarine, cat and mouse type warfare rather than WW2 carrier fleet battles.

Anyway... in saying all that, I liked Babylon 5 and Mass Effect and Im a huge fan of Star Trek Voyager (though this series is probably the furthest away from the above that I can think of). Just wanted to express my opinions on this sort of thing becoming cliche.

EDIT- Nothing to do with Japan I admit but since most of us are interested in Japan via an interest of other societies, cultures etc. And because I think this is a sharing of my experience of what I see to be a cultural phenomenon then I think this post is OK

[Tsuwabuki]

Read Honor Harrington, where English is only the language of the Solarian League, the Star Kingdom of Manticore, and Grayson. The Anderman Empire speaks German and Mandarin. The People's (later Restored) Republic of Haven speaks French. There is at least one Japanese speaking star nation. It is also much more like sub warfare, and missile ranges are extreme and done, sometimes, without foes being anywhere near visual range.

As far aliens? There are no aliens, except for some fairly neolithic multi-armed "protectorates" of the Star Kingdom. Humans are pretty much alone in the universe.

Honestly, the answers are simple. Science fiction always takes what we know to be true, but do not want to admit it, and disguises it just enough so that we can deal with it. Science fiction, especially of the kind you mention, is intentionally set up to speak about humanity, and not to attempt to create a well founded, extrapolated picture of xenobiology. If you're looking for some kind of survey course to how life might develop elsewhere than Earth, you would be better served by visiting the closest major public university.


Also, about it being just the US: You're wrong. See Uchuu Senkan Yamato, for Japan. I am sure there are others for other countries.

[Ronin4hire]

Actually all Im looking for is interesting science fiction that have interesting themes that dont make me roll my eyes... and to be honest it is out there. Stuff like Children of Men ( A British movie about a world where humankind is rendered infertile and society is waiting for extinction ). Im just expressing my thoughts about a certain type of sci-fi that, to me has become cliche.

And Im not solely looking to complain about sci-fi of this type. Im also suggesting that perhaps there is a cultural connection between this sort of sci-fi and the United States where it is made.

Just throwing it out there.

[MMM]

An interesting argument. Since you seem to be focused on movies and games, some of your arguments are a little hard to take.

Sci-fi is entertainment. So there are some things that are just going to happen. People are going to speak English. I think the Star Wars Universe dealt with this pretty well, as there are lots of other languages spoken within the films, but English (or Basic) is the language of the general SW Universe.

Remember, this isn't Science-Fact, but Science-Fiction.

I think Star Trek does a pretty good job of introducing different races, cultures and issues. And remember the Prime Directive. I don't think that is so uniquely American. Actually the Prime Directive would be the opposite of the American complaint.

Space fights are entertaining. Watching missiles fly across thousands of miles with no dog fight aspect isn't fun to watch.

[hadron]

exactly as mmm says

movies are made for consumers, and that ultimately is truth for american mainstream movie producers.

producers don't want their consumers to become confused or disappointed, they don't need you even think about movie, they just need you watch it and pay for it. so they are not going to put too much things like german speaking cause a consumer could start argue about that, like it was not worth watching or something, cause they don't understand german. and it is same with other bits. like how the battles are performed. in a real war you would shit bricks should you go fight in a first line. but in movie it is not possible to make it real-alike so they just put few bangs in there, ppl operating some consoles, ppl taking radio calls, and then again some bangs, some shooting and so it looks heavy, it just cannot look boring.

and don't worry about the ppl in a movie, if you watch a movie of foreign production you certainly won't see americans in there

the missiles how much do you think a single shot costs? about a million?
just in case you wanted to think about it as a real world scenario.

[Columbine]

Eh, see now, some of those points were exactly what niggled me about Avatar. Great film except, the only humans in the whole thing were uniformly white English-speaking american and the Na'avi were very blatantly supposed to be just about every minority ever, supposedly echoing 'native americans' but... mostly played by black actors. Yeaaaaahhhh~

Minorities who had all this kick-ass stuff, but of course, were too busy making spears and playing with their toes to save themselves. Thank god for that all-american savior!

It leaves a bad taste, you know, once the 'ooh, pretty jungle' blinkers fade. Kind of awkward. But yeah, marty-stew protagonist on a sparkle-dino and predictable villains aside (Mr. Director man, did you not consider character development at all? "I R EVOL! I DESTROY TREEEEE~for moneh") I did enjoy the film. You know. Oooh.... pretty jungle.

Actually no, i take that back. Not pretty jungle. Irritatingly scientifically inaccurate jungle. If you're going to hire people to create a whole new damn language, at least hire a genetic biologist to verify that your animal creations make sense. Because they don't! Evolutionary rule of thumb: if higher order species have 4 limbs, so should the majority of everything else in the middle order. You can't have 4 limbed 'humans' (Blast. I've forgotten the special word for 'human-like') and then 6 limbed mammal substitutes. It just doesn't work like that. And creating an alien species should be more than just a formula of "take an earth species, slap on some extra legs and head fins. Colour blue".

I think I'm digressing from the topic though, so i'll stop rambling now.

[TalnSG]

I hate to be reminded of how many years it has been since I truly enjoyed a Sci-Fi movie for its plot or theme..... the last one was probably in black and white and filmed at Shepperton Studios (obviously not American). No, on second thought there was something commendable in Sleeper, Blade Runner and Soylent Green. There is a place for the truly uncomfortable solutions to world problems in sci-fi, it just isn't visited very often anymore.

But with the big bucks being forked over to have the world's children babysat in movie theatres instead of living life, of course the American movie industry has been dumbed-down to fit is paying clients. As for Avatar, it fits the description too. An immature treatment with lots of visual so the viewer doesn't have to do any thinking on their own.... and to some extent the experience is probably much better if they don't think about it too much.

[edelweiss]

I'm not sure exactly when the change took place but at some point in the movie industry Sci-Fi became the equivalent of hey-let's-watch-things-blow-up-in-space. Lots of special effects, minimal story, little character development. It pulls in average movie goers (LCD) and makes money for the studios.

With very few exceptions, quiet & thoughtful Sci-Fi movies have not made bank, so producers are less likely to nibble.

Speaking of good recent movies, I'd recommend Moon.

[Decen]

Japanese Anime does the same thing.
Cowboy Bee bop everybody speaks Japanese. Even in Mexico

The themes that come across in a television series or a movie are going to be the themes that come up in the creative teams culture, so if you are looking at an American writing staff they are going to come up with ideologies of striving for freedom. Where a Japanese writing staff may have a theme of hard work and striving for perfection.

Since a lot of your examples are of the space faring war type movies it makes since that they all have a military or political theme to them. That is what is interesting though. Since the beginning of time stories have had aspects of both, I would hardly say its an American thing.

Then your last point could be covered by How M said it, though i would like to point out that we are not to the point where we have taken the human element from war. and fighting would be incredibly boring without the human component.

[Tsuwabuki]

Children of Men is not even remotely in the same category. It's less about science fiction, and more about dystopian crumbling of society. It didn't have to be placed in the near future. It could have been placed in an alternate universe past.

If you want something very similar, I suggest you read Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (famous for writing The Remains of the Day), which also takes place in England. By far one of the most powerful "science fiction" books I have ever read.

Again, the problem is, I think you're limiting your view to very popular movies and TV shows, and not looking at the whole of science fiction, American or otherwise. The fact that you've chosen to ignore so many books by Feintuch, Weber, Moon, Drake, Ringo... Shows me that your real complaint is directed specifically at big budget studios and how they attempt to cater to the lowest common denominator for profit.

Again, I think trying to attribute this to America as if somehow America's whole science fiction scene is just what Hollywood puts out is unfair. And also ignores the same thing done by other countries.

I suggested Yamato, but it wasn't addressed. Aside from skin color, all the races in Yamato are basically human. Everyone speaks Japanese automatically. And aside from Gamilas's weird upside down buildings and seas of acid, the planets are pretty Earthlike. The military headquarters are apparently in Tokyo...

Another example might be Nightwatch and Daywatch, although not exactly science fiction, all the important characters (both the Daywatch and the Nightwatch, and those told of in the prophecies) exist in Russia, and everyone speaks Russian.

Harry Potter fits the literary definition of science fiction, and not fantasy, because the literary reference is any world that is somehow directly connected to ours but where the science or technology is actually different than we "know" it is. In Harry Potter, it's our world, but the "rules" are not what we think they are. Not all science fiction has to exist in the future. I bring up HP because you have the same issues, for the most part. Aside from Fleur speaking French, everyone pretty much speaks English. The greatest wizards and witches (Voldemort, Dumbledore, Harry, Hermione) of the past century are English. I think Grendiwald wasn't, and Victor Krum is Bulgarian. But Voldemort is the greatest villian, Dumbledore the greatest wizard, Harry the most famous young wizard, and Hermione is generally considered (according to the text) to be the smartest witch of her generation (including all the other witches of her age, at all the schools of witchcraft and wizardry, worldwide).

I don't think it is fair to attribute this to the United States. It just isn't unique. Every country wants to create media which is interesting to its citizens. That is the main demographic. Hollywood still makes the majority of its money from Americans, so we shouldn't be surprised when the culture it tends to draw heavily from and appeal to is American culture.

I just don't understand the criticism of what is a mirror on issues within the culture that produced the media. To quote Clerks, "some of us rational thinkers weren't looking to [insert SF title here] to give us a viable glimpse of the future." You'd be better served by studying academic journals in various subject areas if you want serious theories on what the future might hold, and I believe that. There are some excellent papers on xenobiology, planet formation, and sociological predictions of the way social media will lead to changes in national structure.

tl;dr

I am not sure why it surprises you, and I don't agree that it is an America only phenomenon.