On Wed, 30 Apr 1997, Edward James wrote:
> To take another tack, science fiction writers have _usually_ tended to the
> dystopic, Makes for better fiction, arguably. And (to agree with your
> suggestion) it is a bit difficult to extrapolate a utopia of any kind from
> current trends. Do you remember the prologue of David Brin's _Earth_,
> where he says "This is the best 2050 I can possibly imagine: scary, isn't
> it?", or words to that effect. Admittedly, Kim Stanley Robinson
> extrapolated a utopic California of 2075 or so, in _Pacific Edge_: but
> somehow his dystopic 21st century Orange Counties, in _The Wild Shore_ and
> _Gold Coast_, seemed that much more plausible...
>
Along those same lines, I think Ursula Le Guin said something to the
effect of "anything carried to its logical extreme becomes pessimistic" or
dystopic.... Thus, the very activity of sf, extrapolation, necessarily
tends toward a dystopic future.
I don't know if it's just that, or whether we simply find the contours of
the shadows, or the "darkside", more interesting, more dimensional--as
others have suggested. Or maybe it is "milleniumism" :) as well, at least
in the U.S.
That's all, take care,
Andrea Klein
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