/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.8917927]

What would a post-science fiction novel be about?

[Anonymous No.8917936]

>>8917927

my life desu

[Anonymous No.8917940]

It'd be Gene Wolfe

[Anonymous No.8918001]

>>8917940
Well that is still science fiction. I mean would such books come out only after we accomplished or invented things that we write about in modern science fiction books? I dont mean the end of earth subgenre. More like the fact how advanced would the vision of future be that we could call it post-sci-fi. What would it actually be about.

[Anonymous No.8918036]

>>8918001
It's fiction revolving around future science. How can you post- that. It's always going to lie in the future. Things don't stop being future speculations with the progress of science but the science-fiction of the past is eventually perceived as fantasy.

[Anonymous No.8918045]

It would be a lot of tryhard self-referential humor mixed in with wacky science japery

[Anonymous No.8918053]

science fiction is a catch-all term or what used to be short stories proposing the possibility of unlikely scientific discoveries.

people who are insistent on calling their genre "SF" are usually fans of the old style, which include stories like the early "Pale Neptune Equation' or as a more recent example: "Terminal Man" (maybe not a good example, but the first that came to mind) These tend to put the fictional science, and its ramifications to /the scientific community/ in specific, first and foremost.

'sci-fi' on the other hand, tends to have little to no scientific method or inquisitive characters and instead focuses primarily on the good or bad potential that future discoveries might bring to the common man.

You could make a fairly powerful case that the 'Star Wars' genre of science fiction is - in fact - post-science fiction. A story building on the predictions of excited scientists and the precedents set by science fiction pioneers, yet containing no formal explanation, insight, or even passing interest in the mechanics that led to the setting. In short, in the first case the science moves the story forward. In the second case, the science merely provides the backdrop for the story taking place.

Additionally, people have been subverting the science fiction genre for over a hundred years. There's new directions you can take, but the idea that no one has gone 'past' science fiction yet is ridiculous.

[Anonymous No.8918200]

I had an idea for a humanity that has solved every problem mankind ever had and is just chilling but everyone can't handle how awesome they are.

Then I found out about Iain Banks The Culture. Basically the same thing, star trek on steroids. I'd argue that that is science fiction taken to it's limit where the science doesn't matter at all anymore and it's humans being an entirely different race of beings. Then you tell the story from the aliens perspective, who are closer to human's current view of the world.

I think science fantasy is true post science fiction though, because you've literally said to yourself that you need fucking dragons to make science interesting again because it's gotten too boring.
Science fiction usually lacks enough science as is, if I had my way I'd put everything into one section, fantasy.

[Anonymous No.8918490]

You don't reach post-genre like you do post-modernism. A novel set in modern San Francisco isn't a "post-Western."

[Anonymous No.8918529]

>>8918490
well put, but i'm sure I've heard the phrase 'post-genre' applied to a book before

[Anonymous No.8918851]

>>8917927
'Post' suggests time, which is something science fiction transcends, purposefully.

[Anonymous No.8918952]

>>8917927
Read Jinrui wa Suitai Sumashita

[Anonymous No.8919958]

Modern magic realism?

[Anonymous No.8920132]

Ok. Maybe not a post-science fiction novel, but neo-science fiction.

>>8918490
You still can have a neo-noir, neo-western book.

[Anonymous No.8920454]

>>8918200

I've read all of the culture books written by Iain M Banks.
And now I'm having great difficulty in finding books that are equally awesome in setting.

Would anyone know other writers I could try? Preferably with the type of super powerfull AI that seems to draw me to it.
Pic very related.

[Anonymous No.8920490]

>>8917927

It will be about a person of undetermined gender in the distant future trying to write a historical fiction novel about our current times based on the available literature. He fails in the end.

[Anonymous No.8920526]

Chinese global warming hoaxes.

[Anonymous No.8920553]

>>8920132
Techno-thrillers, space exploration worship, military fiction.

But i'm not sure i understand what you mean.

[Anonymous No.8920793]

>>8920454
>equally awesome in setting
maybe reddit is more your speed

try blindsight if you want interesting nonhuman characters

[Anonymous No.8920805]

do you mean a fiction novel which is post-science

or a post-scifi novel

because I think you mean the latter but I find the former much more interesting to think about

[Anonymous No.8920811]

>>8918529

Yeah, but "post" is used to describe a deconstruction of the genre.

[Anonymous No.8920857]

>>8920805
Honestly I just wanted to started a discussion how would such a novel look like. So both of your answers are what I meant

[Anonymous No.8920888]

>>8920793

Reddit is ok. I like /lit/ better (though almost never post).

I'll look into blindsight! I've read exchopraxia, didn't know it was a sequel. Thanks.

[Anonymous No.8920912]

>>8920888
>Reddit is ok.
why don't you stay there then

[Anonymous No.8920955]

>>8920454
It's a bit of Bubblegum space opera but the A.I. Character is fun.

[Anonymous No.8921008]

>>8920912

Yes. Getting info from different sources sure sucks. Different opinions on things would be unhelpfull. I'd better stick with one place to get everything so I don't have to type and click as much. Oh yeah and all people that are on reddit suck ass and are degenerates who don't know anything.

I just ordered blindsight. Seems like a good read.

[Anonymous No.8921069]

>>8920955

Thanks. Looks a bit too bubblegummy for me. But the AI seems to be interesting indeed.

[Anonymous No.8921197]

>>8921069
Post a disposable email address Or shoot me a line [e-mail] and I'll email you a free digital copy of books 1 and 2. The situations become more dire as the series progresses.