Comments on: You say you wanna revolution…

By: Welcome to my world… » Blog Archive » Science in the Capitol, politics on the page

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 01:03:48 +0000

[...] I’ve said before that, for a genre that so often finds its writers dealing with big political ideas, relatively few science fiction authors demonstrate any sense that they have a clue about how politics really works. This leads to things like the sci-fi revolution and improbable conspiracies (sci-fi governments are very good at keeping secrets, real governments are crap – politics is a career for people who love talking) and half-arsed characterisation. [...]

By: Jonathan M

Jonathan M — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 10:39:43 +0000

China Mieville’s Iron Council did revolution relatively well too (as well it might, seeing as that was its whole point). I liked the way that the revolution instantly fragmented the second anyone got any de facto power and how reason and ideology instantly gave way to revenge and power-grabs.

I wonder if a case can’t be made for most genre revolutions being modeled on the freeing of France at the end of the second world war.

1) plucky and courageous rebel maquis
2) undeniably evil occupiers
3) orderly transfer of power
4) nobody ask themselves any questions at the end of the war
5) the guilty collaborators are quietly punished

Of course, the Sorrow and the Pity shows the extent to which the cleanliness of the liberation of France was largely a question of things being glossed over and then wartime PR doing the rest of the work rebuilding the nation’s reputation.

Hmmm…

By: gabe

gabe — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 07:30:50 +0000

Excellent blog you have going here, Martin. I hope you'll consider submitting to Scalpel Magazine; your voice would be an excellent addition!

By: Martin McGrath

Martin McGrath — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 07:02:18 +0000

Kev, absolutely agree that there are some very good examples of more realistic “revolutions” in sf – I’m a big fan of Kim Stanley Robinson’s work and think that the latest trilogy on global warming is some of the most sophisticated writing on politics in sf. I’d also praise Karen Traviss – though her politics are wildly different – for her take on “revolution” in the Wess’har books, which are full of consequences and shifting allegiances and complex moral problems.

By: kev mcveigh

kev mcveigh — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 02:39:00 +0000

The obvious example is the work of Kim Stanley Robinson. From Icehenge (where a failed revolt is bloody and messy and covered up as the work of alleged criminals) through the intense debates and ideological struggles of the Mars books to the current peaceful revolution depicted in The Science In The Capital series he has attempted to convey the complex nature of government and change.
KSR is on record as saying that for him utopia is a process, the continuous striving for better is the key, and this is best exemplified by his dystopia Pacific Edge. So for Robinson revolution is a rolling process.

The other recent-ish approach is to set stories within the revolution. Stories by Lewis Shiner, Lucius Shepard, Richard paul Russo and others effectively recognise that the whole revolution is beyond the single story but the effects on the individual are tellable.

And then there is Gwyneth Jones’ dissolution summer with its resultant civil war, betrayals, and chaos.