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Settings of Hope vs Settings of Despair
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 9786199" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>No. Maybe someone has but it is not at all obvious to me that the words are commonly used as you use them here. </p><p></p><p>For example, this is a quote using the term Wellsian from SF literary criticism of 1935.</p><p></p><p>"How much more courageous realistic and honest to say ‘the dark ages before us’...than to gibber cravenly in Wellsian fashion of vulgar Utopias." M. McLuhan Letter 31 Mar. in M. Molinaro et al. Marshall McLuhan Letters</p><p></p><p>That quote understands Wellsian to mean pertaining to (presumably in the author's mind simplistic) Utopianism. Wellsian actually is in its common usage only meaning, "like the writings of H.G. Wells", and to be quite frank, you haven't read as much of the writings of H.G. Wells as I have. So, no, it's not at all clear to me that the terms are commonly used to characterize this divide or that there is even this great divide you claim. Wells is more known in literary circles as believing in technological progress towards scientific utopias to the degree that many associate much of his later works with fascism or fascist ideologies. </p><p></p><p>I mean please read "Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon Human Life and Thought" if you are going to accuse Wells of seeing science as typically the cause of the problems. Wells is a technocratic socialist who believes in eugenics and no more sees the coming scientific revolution as the cause of problems than he say the industrial revolution as the cause of problems. Rather, he's actually tends to see cause of problems as being the reluctance of the uneducated or the superstitious to embrace necessary change and progress.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>So stop making up and misusing terminology in shallow ways to make points that aren't particularly credible.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>No. Have you even read any of the works I mentioned earlier? Science Fiction can no more be cleanly divided into two camps like that than you can say all of fantasy is about nostalgia for the past (or even that science fiction is always about the future, considering how big of a genre alternative history is). </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>No. Because your terms are not commonly understood and you've repeatedly introduced definitions that seem particular to you (or some one particular author you read perhaps) that aren't in fact commonly used that way. Wellsian doesn't commonly mean pessimism about progress and scientific advancement. And plenty of SF authors and works can't be fit into either of the narrowly defined camps that you just defined.</p><p></p><p>You want a nice little word, how about Orwellian. That is a word that has to do with attempts to control discourse by redefining words and controlling the meaning of words.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 9786199, member: 4937"] No. Maybe someone has but it is not at all obvious to me that the words are commonly used as you use them here. For example, this is a quote using the term Wellsian from SF literary criticism of 1935. "How much more courageous realistic and honest to say ‘the dark ages before us’...than to gibber cravenly in Wellsian fashion of vulgar Utopias." M. McLuhan Letter 31 Mar. in M. Molinaro et al. Marshall McLuhan Letters That quote understands Wellsian to mean pertaining to (presumably in the author's mind simplistic) Utopianism. Wellsian actually is in its common usage only meaning, "like the writings of H.G. Wells", and to be quite frank, you haven't read as much of the writings of H.G. Wells as I have. So, no, it's not at all clear to me that the terms are commonly used to characterize this divide or that there is even this great divide you claim. Wells is more known in literary circles as believing in technological progress towards scientific utopias to the degree that many associate much of his later works with fascism or fascist ideologies. I mean please read "Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon Human Life and Thought" if you are going to accuse Wells of seeing science as typically the cause of the problems. Wells is a technocratic socialist who believes in eugenics and no more sees the coming scientific revolution as the cause of problems than he say the industrial revolution as the cause of problems. Rather, he's actually tends to see cause of problems as being the reluctance of the uneducated or the superstitious to embrace necessary change and progress. So stop making up and misusing terminology in shallow ways to make points that aren't particularly credible. No. Have you even read any of the works I mentioned earlier? Science Fiction can no more be cleanly divided into two camps like that than you can say all of fantasy is about nostalgia for the past (or even that science fiction is always about the future, considering how big of a genre alternative history is). No. Because your terms are not commonly understood and you've repeatedly introduced definitions that seem particular to you (or some one particular author you read perhaps) that aren't in fact commonly used that way. Wellsian doesn't commonly mean pessimism about progress and scientific advancement. And plenty of SF authors and works can't be fit into either of the narrowly defined camps that you just defined. You want a nice little word, how about Orwellian. That is a word that has to do with attempts to control discourse by redefining words and controlling the meaning of words. [/QUOTE]
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