tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post2996356758131367870..comments2024-03-27T23:55:17.673-07:00Comments on Flogging Babel: "One of the Master Short Fiction Writers..."Michael Swanwickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18389836784776252022noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post-71860859187510462982016-08-02T10:13:45.237-07:002016-08-02T10:13:45.237-07:00I read that essay in a paper fanzine in the 1970s ...I read that essay in a paper fanzine in the 1970s or 1980s (it might have been an older fanzine than that, but not newer) and the title was "The Science Fiction Archipelago." If anyone can track it down I would love to be able to credit the author!David D. Levinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06366832248565675182noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post-52215846294502501632016-08-01T17:30:02.833-07:002016-08-01T17:30:02.833-07:00Star Trek is the mass-media descendant of that bra...Star Trek is the mass-media descendant of that branch of science fiction. I don't think anyone could dispute that the 5-year mission of the U.S.S. Enterprise is modeled on 17th-to-19th-century voyages of exploration and fictionalized versions of same. Every bit of it from the torpedoes to the landing parties is a pre-twentieth-century nautical metaphor: notably, the starships are like sailing ships from the era when sailing ships were the fastest/only means of transport.<br /><br />A different branch of science fiction is future war fiction, and Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica come from that by way of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. That branch is more heavily influenced by World War I and World War II metaphors: less exploration-based and more war-based plots, and the spaceships are single-seat fighters flown by joystick, that dogfight and then perhaps return to aircraft-carriers-in-space.Richard Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00833387144768089695noreply@blogger.com