Why does speculative fiction - which could be about anything, anything, anything - revolve exclusively around battles, stereotypes, and reactionary politics?
because fiction is designed to help us digest and to comment on the universe at hand. the universe at hand is hierarchical and filled with reactionary thinking (case in point...) and sexism and theism and so forth. it doesn't really do us any good to speculate on what life would be like without it, because that doesn't tell us anything relevant to our current experience. it doesn't help me to speculate on what life would be like, for instance, if i hadn't learned to think in a theistic manner, because it neither shows me how to change my thinking nor offers me a solution to theism.
but, it is the magic of much of the better written sci-fi series that shows us both these static realities and those who work outside of them. we see in star trek an evolving consciousness of humanity and extra-humanity that still hasn't resolved our old problems. we may have fixed human v human discrimination and infighting and politicking, but we haven't managed it between species. the problem is still the same, and viewing it as possible to resolve among ourselves while watching us resolve it with other species helps us to learn to resolve those problems closer to home.
why is 7 of 9 a psycho, distant, frigid bitch? because she was borg, a communist collective. (communism is still evil in the world of scifi, see: zombies also.) she is learning to redevelop her individualism and being reborn according to human values. it's a character development and they picked a girl cause they could, and also because women are allegedly even more emotional than men and so she is all the more alien and has that much more shift to make. but they never require it of her; it is a journey she makes by choice, with assistance.
ds9 is another good one. it's an island of different in a universe of racism and warfare and doubt and suspicion. it discusses theism, but grounds it with clear reality. the prophets are simply an alien race that lives in the wormhole and have abilities we don't yet understand. they are not, in the traditional sense, gods, though that reality is both recognized and ignored by the bajorans depending on their level of faith. there's more that's amazing in particular about ds9. it's mostly about politics (and certainly aims to be the opposite of reactionary) and relationships. it explores, throughout the series, several distinct and unique kinds of platonic and romantic relationships. in fact, these cross in places, such as with the trill. it's very powerful when taken as a whole.
and i supremely disagree that major carter is one-dimensional.
but, i think that feminism does the world a disservice by devaluing everything that disagrees with it. i think it's very simplistic to only look at the way things are superficially presented and then judge the lot by that instead of carefully watching and ingesting the information and seeing what it's really about. yes, they wear uniforms and carry weapons. does that really make them militaristic? is military everything completely reprehensible?
because fiction is designed to help us digest and to comment on the universe at hand. the universe at hand is hierarchical and filled with reactionary thinking (case in point...) and sexism and theism and so forth. it doesn't really do us any good to speculate on what life would be like without it, because that doesn't tell us anything relevant to our current experience. it doesn't help me to speculate on what life would be like, for instance, if i hadn't learned to think in a theistic manner, because it neither shows me how to change my thinking nor offers me a solution to theism.
but, it is the magic of much of the better written sci-fi series that shows us both these static realities and those who work outside of them. we see in star trek an evolving consciousness of humanity and extra-humanity that still hasn't resolved our old problems. we may have fixed human v human discrimination and infighting and politicking, but we haven't managed it between species. the problem is still the same, and viewing it as possible to resolve among ourselves while watching us resolve it with other species helps us to learn to resolve those problems closer to home.
why is 7 of 9 a psycho, distant, frigid bitch? because she was borg, a communist collective. (communism is still evil in the world of scifi, see: zombies also.) she is learning to redevelop her individualism and being reborn according to human values. it's a character development and they picked a girl cause they could, and also because women are allegedly even more emotional than men and so she is all the more alien and has that much more shift to make. but they never require it of her; it is a journey she makes by choice, with assistance.
ds9 is another good one. it's an island of different in a universe of racism and warfare and doubt and suspicion. it discusses theism, but grounds it with clear reality. the prophets are simply an alien race that lives in the wormhole and have abilities we don't yet understand. they are not, in the traditional sense, gods, though that reality is both recognized and ignored by the bajorans depending on their level of faith. there's more that's amazing in particular about ds9. it's mostly about politics (and certainly aims to be the opposite of reactionary) and relationships. it explores, throughout the series, several distinct and unique kinds of platonic and romantic relationships. in fact, these cross in places, such as with the trill. it's very powerful when taken as a whole.
and i supremely disagree that major carter is one-dimensional.
but, i think that feminism does the world a disservice by devaluing everything that disagrees with it. i think it's very simplistic to only look at the way things are superficially presented and then judge the lot by that instead of carefully watching and ingesting the information and seeing what it's really about. yes, they wear uniforms and carry weapons. does that really make them militaristic? is military everything completely reprehensible?
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