Do you want Atlas Shrugged? Because this is how you get Atlas Shrugged.
Political Science Fiction
Politics in Fiction
Farcical aquatic ceremonies are no basis for a system of government.
NON HIC EST ‘NAM! SUNT PRAECEPTA!
What you must learn is that these rules are no different than the rules of a computer system. Some of them can be bent. Others can be broken. Understand?
Advancing Story Through Combat
Or: You do not truly know a man until you fight him.
Cool Story, Bro
B-b-b-b-bonus post!More wisdom from the notorious TJIC on his early writing false starts:I always thought that once I had a premise (a guy who punches and fuses atoms; an anti-gravity drive; etc.) I had a story,but no,the STORY comes when you have a character and a conflict.- Travis Corcoran, @MorlockP on TwitterWhen he said this,…
“I had thought of putting: and he lived happily ever afterwards to the end of his days.”
It is a good ending, and none the worse for having been used before. Now I shall have to alter that: it does not look like coming true. - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring Alright, I can't promise that this will be my last Game of Thrones inspired blog post, but I can…
Apocalypse How?
Charlie don't wrench? When someone says "I liked the story, but I wish the hero didn't have to struggle so much; I wanted it to be a wish fulfillment cakewalk," they're just insulting themselves. - Prometheus award winning author Travis J. I. Corcoran, @MorlockP on Twitter This problem can occur in any sci-fi, but it…
Flawed Characters and Heroism
Imperfect heroes aren't just ok, they're the most interesting ones. I may have been a little hard on Grimdark. Sure, sure, we're all tired of Dark and Gritty Realistic worlds where everything sucks. But Grimdark did get one thing right: heroes aren't perfect. Cyberpunk frequently acknowledges this as well; sometimes criminals and misanthropes are the…
Grim, Dark, and Epic Blog Post of Epic Grimdarkness
In which I make the obligatory halfhearted defense of Grimdark in theory, but admit that in practice it is almost universally self-important teenage nihilist tedium. In the Grim Darkness of cable television, there is only gritty "realism," and as a representative of Generation X, I have to admit that this is mostly our fault. Our…
Religion in Fiction
Or: Why a Russian Space Pope can Speak Ex Cathedra from the Moon in Hard Sci-Fi. An alien learning about our culture exclusively from a library science fiction section could be forgiven for being almost entirely ignorant of religion. Golden age, new wave, and cyberpunk generally (when they mention it at all) either treat religion…
