Genre clash
While I was pondering how to merge a SF plotline I have wandering about with a pre-existing universe, I realised that it probably just wouldn't work very well.
The SF story deals with the social upheavals caused by the introduction of a new technology. It's fairly 'hard' SF. The viewpoint I wanted to take is third-person semi-omniscient, in the action/drama genre, and hopefully in something resembling the present-day real world.
The pre-existing universe is less SF than it is space opera. The trappings are technological and it's often action/drama, but a lot of its media is Device/Monster Of The Week stuff with a great big helping of Reset Button. Not to mention that it has more than its fair share of alternate-history timelines, all of which have fairly obvious differences to the world as we know it.
Imagine, for example, trying to write the history of the development of the personal invisibility cloak from prototype to common household item, but set in one of the X-Men universes. It just wouldn't work, because the X-Men characters aren't there to provide commentary on the latest socially disrupting technotoy, they're there to fight battles, look cool, and get angsty.
And while I can think of half a dozen ways to graft the two together, none of them produce a whole greater than the sum of their parts. One of the components will inevitably be diminished by the conventions of the other, reduced to traces of crossover and obscure references.
Darnit.
I guess it'll have to be separate. I really do want to map out the reactions to the invention - from the average person's 'Hey, pretty cool' reaction to the fearful retaliations of private industry and governments.
The SF story deals with the social upheavals caused by the introduction of a new technology. It's fairly 'hard' SF. The viewpoint I wanted to take is third-person semi-omniscient, in the action/drama genre, and hopefully in something resembling the present-day real world.
The pre-existing universe is less SF than it is space opera. The trappings are technological and it's often action/drama, but a lot of its media is Device/Monster Of The Week stuff with a great big helping of Reset Button. Not to mention that it has more than its fair share of alternate-history timelines, all of which have fairly obvious differences to the world as we know it.
Imagine, for example, trying to write the history of the development of the personal invisibility cloak from prototype to common household item, but set in one of the X-Men universes. It just wouldn't work, because the X-Men characters aren't there to provide commentary on the latest socially disrupting technotoy, they're there to fight battles, look cool, and get angsty.
And while I can think of half a dozen ways to graft the two together, none of them produce a whole greater than the sum of their parts. One of the components will inevitably be diminished by the conventions of the other, reduced to traces of crossover and obscure references.
Darnit.
I guess it'll have to be separate. I really do want to map out the reactions to the invention - from the average person's 'Hey, pretty cool' reaction to the fearful retaliations of private industry and governments.