ramble: scifi priorities

[Warren Blyth]

Hi all,
I'm hoping this group will eventually give us an easy way to comment on and support each other's work. each week.
I've been meaning to put up some L4D map/story ideas, since they've been eating up daydreams and i'm not making much progress. And I won't mind if yall rip the ideas apart.

but in the mean time... something completley different:

Here's a weird article about scifi priorities (from someone who wrote for Terminator:theSarahConnerChronicles, apparently?)
http://io9.com/5347563/the-questions-you-shouldnt-answer-and-the-details-you-cant-let-go-of

I skimmed some parts of it. annnnd... Pretty sure I don't agree with any one of this guy's priorities/ideas.

I watched the first few episodes of T:tSCC and just thought they were badly written cheesy bullshit with horrible characters.
The image of this writer arguing that robot skin graft equations on a wall didn't look like they were written by a terminator makes me think: he's out of his mind.

But I worry that i'm missing the point. (is the article a joke?) Maybe it's just too early.
uh. so, just sharing this to see if it sets any of yall off. 

I want to argue that: it's better to have a clear single reason for what your characters are doing.
(and if the audience thinks something else, that's fine). For some reason i think of this as james cameron story telling. Craftily dragging the audience towards a satisfying climax. reminds me of propaganda films. you can't deny they had a goal.

bothers me that people seem to be heading away from this meat and potatoes approach to scifi. In a totally different space, i'm thinking of the way District 9 is presented like it was just accidentally captured on film. it was really cool. but i pined for big dramatic shots and one liners and pacing, like Aliens. I'm still wondering if District9 was trying to get away from this, or if it is just the future of filmmaking and I need see it a few more time to appreciate how it "changed the game." It certainly offered moments that made me want to cheer.

Anywho. this writer's idea of "it's good not to know why your characters take their actions, as long as you can thinking of many possibilities" sounds - like a retarded child babbling.
Am i being a simpleton? Missing his point? tarantino has talked about being suprised by the choices his characters make while he's writing.

- Can anyone put out an example that supports what the writer is talking about?
- (and can any guess what famous novelist/novel he's talking about?)

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
-warren

[Phil Lamb]

I'm going to make this short, since my lunch is just about over and I need to get back to work.

I think in any work of fiction the biggest thing that makes it good is good characters. Believable characters. They don't have to make good decisions, they don't have to be likable, but their decisions and personality should at least make sense.

They aren't scifi, but two examples: I love George R R Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series in a big part because of the characters. There are plenty of characters I don't like, a couple I despise, but they're good characters because thy have their reasons for acting the way they do, and those reasons make sense, even as they start do drift towards crazy. Then there's The Wizard's Firs Rule, which I read on the reccomendation of a friend, and hated, because the characters don't make any sense whatsoever. Their decisions seem entirely motivated by what situation the author wants them to and up in rather than any real decision making process on the part of the characters.

I don't think speculative fiction should involve the audience being confused by the character's motivations, the speculation should have more to do with the setting. Especially if the characters are human, or close enough to human that you identify them as someone who should think similarly to how humans think.

I also like the Schrodinger's cat reference in that article that makes it pretty clear he doesn't really understand the concept of Schrodinger's cat at all.

Back to work

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From: Warren Blyth
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:39:02 -0700
To: <solidfue...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: ramble: scifi priorities