When Someone Told Our Editor that Science Fiction Was Dead...

A little less than a year ago, I went on a first (and only) date with a guy we’ll call Mr. Downer*. Mr. Downer met me for drinks at a bar near my apartment. After initial pleasantries and a drink order, he asked me to tell him a bit about ESP. I told him that we’re a new kind of science fiction publishing company and begin to tell him a bit about one of our projects.

Before I could get through just a few sentences about giant killer robots and forecasting themes in society, he stopped me with a wave of his hand. Mr. Downer had heard enough to know that my business was going to fail. Why? Well, it wasn’t for bad business practices, and it wasn’t because there’s no space at all in the industry for a new publishing company.

 

This pic is here because I just made my boyfriend watch Barbarella for the first time, and now he cringes whenever it's my turn to choose a movie...

No, ESP was destined to failure because, in Mr. Downer’s expert opinion, science fiction was a dying genre. He cited the fact that everyone has access to technology now that no one really had back in the days of Golden Age, New Wave, and Cyberpunk science fiction. Apparently, all of the intrigue for science fiction readers was that they didn’t know diddlysquat about science or fiction.

“I mean, it was one thing when Matthew Broderick was the only one with a modem, but now that everyone has the Internet in their pocket…” he said.

I blinked, arched an eyebrow, and said, “One, that makes no sense. Two, why does access to technology mean we’re going to stop wondering where we go from here and what’s next?” He didn't have a good answer for why science fiction couldn't survive if anyone other than Ferris Bueller had Internet access. I finished my drink, made my excuses, and headed out the door. Mr. Downer was obviously wrong, of course, but his theory was eating at me. Then, over the next few months, Hollywood and filmmakers all over the world just kept proving me right and Mr. Downer wrong...

I want to go to there.

2013 gave us Oblivion, Pacific Rim, Elysium, Riddick, a new Star Trek movie, Ender’s Game, The World’s End, The Purge, and another Hunger Games movie. Science fiction didn’t exactly look dead to me by the end of last year, but maybe that was just a fluke. 2014 would show…

Oops, io9 has just published a list of 65 sci-fi and fantasy movies coming out this year. The list includes dystopic futures (one by Christopher Nolan!), technothrillers, a Godzilla reboot, the Wachowskis’ take on a Fifth Element-esque ride through the universe, a Hercules re-imagining (well, two, but only one of them features Dwayne Johnson), a vampire movie by Jim Jarmusch, a third Hunger Games film, and Darren Aronofsky and Ridley Scott taking on science-fictiony Bible stories. And that’s not nearly all. So, I think we’ve established that, at least as far as the silver screen goes, the future is not off the table. Having iPhones apparently hasn’t ruined us for speculative fiction.

Now that we’ve been thoroughly reassured that science fiction isn’t dead, let’s open this bad boy up for some discussion. At ESP, we have a few ideas of where we think the genre’s going, but we want to hear from you. What do you foresee? What do you like? What annoys the living crap out of you? What would you like to see more of, and what would you like to see disappear? And, most importantly, should I call Mr. Downer back to gloat?

Oh, and here's a picture of the Rock in front of a refrigerator with a nearly empty gallon of milk. Because we love you.

And because Dwayne makes everything better.

-Amelia.

*Names have been changed to protect the guilty.