A lot of people enjoy the idea of watching a Science Fiction, popularly known as Sci-Fi, movie or TV show. It can be a great distraction from the day-to-day hassle, not to mention it allows you to test your creativity and reach some new heights all the time! But you have to wonder: what is science fiction?
Science fiction is a fictional genre that brings in concepts that may be a part of a potential future. The Sci-Fi ideas include potential technologies like time travel, space travel, advanced science and technology, and so on. Some Sci-Fi shows or books even venture onward to things like the existence of parallel universes, light travel, or even extraterrestrial life!
You will also note the fact that sci-fi tends to explore the potential consequences of scientific and technological innovations. Many call it a literature of ideas, mainly because it builds upon ideas and helps take them to the next level. Despite the fact that sci-fi novels and movies tend to be very creative in regards to the potential future, they do tend to have at least a grounding factor most of the time.
Science Fiction did evolve quite a lot throughout the years, but some concepts like parallel universes, time travel, and alien lives have been accepted by every author and movie creator. That being said, each creative person that works with sci-fi ideas does tend to bring his/her influence when it comes to creatures, concepts, and stories as a whole. Sci-Fi is making the improbable possible according to Ron Serling, whereas fantasy makes the impossible probable..
Maybe the primary benefit you get from this genre is that you can leave our world behind and you can engage in a story with multiple dimensions, realities, and worlds. You are free to let your imagination wild and create new stories or expand on those that you see in front of you. Plus, the Sci-Fi content usually makes you find products and items that relate to the show/book you read, so you can expand that fictional universe and bring it to reality. Star Wars and Star Trek or Dune are great examples of fictional worlds that were brought to life by merchandise, among many others!
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History of Science Fiction
Past events that were either failures or successes formed the ground that we walk upon today.
Understanding how Sci-Fi came to exist can be complicated or very simple. However, it’s imperative to know origin and history so we can find it easy to understand the position we find ourselves today.
The simple way: While science fiction is deeply rooted in history, the simplest way to relate to science fiction in a way that people recognize is referring them to the stories of Utopia and Gulliver’s Travels, Frankenstein – the origins of science fiction.
The more complicated way: In this wise, the history of science fiction is a graphical arrangement of events in a chronological order that shows the literary genre from its initial roots in systematic collection and study of myths and awesome stories to the post-Star Wars space epics showing today.
Science Fiction can be described as the progeny of the impact that Enlightenment era and Romanticism era had when they collided together which brought about Gothic fiction which in turn birthed sci-fi, horror, crime novels, fantasy, and westerns.
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Writing Science Fiction? Writing Fantasy?
A lot of us have learned to write at a young age, so a lot of us have the ability to write. But can we write fantasy and science fiction?
While it may seem like a very hard thing to process, from writing the book to putting it on the big screen, it’s really not impossible. The truth is the ability to write and having the sense of creating imagination are the two most important skills that help when writing a story. Let’s think about it for a minute, going from a book to the big screen shouldn’t be that hard, right? It’s like rewriting the story but even then it should be done well.
Whether producers or studios agree or not, writing is one of the key determinants that determines if a TV show or a movie will be successful. Want to get more information, then check Looking into the Value of Sci-Fi Screenwriters.
When it comes down to writing, you have a choice. You can choose to write fantasy stories, romance or science fiction. As long as you are interested, you can check the Internet for different resources to get you started. Set your goals and pursue them.
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Reading Science Fiction
Since talking about TV shows and Movies is watching them on the big screen, why should we then talk about reading?
Oftentimes while watching movies, we find it hard to comprehend what we are watching and we tend to misinterpret the scene.
This is why we need to talk about reading. Provided you have the right information, reading makes it much easier for you to understand what you are watching.
Unfortunately, in the era of social media today, one cannot easily obtain the right information. If you want the right information, then you may need to search for information and then compare your sources. While this may seem like too much work to do, it’s worth the time and effort.
Likewise reading available source material helps a lot. Also, you have the right to choose when you want to start your readings: you can read before watching the TV show or after watching. Reading before watching the TV show and after watching the TV show both have advantages and disadvantages, it all depends on the story.
Now the question is, what kind of stories should we read?
You can read stories of your favorite characters. Stories that explain their background, and how they came to be who they are. You can also read behind the scenes stories, books the show is based on, comics the movie is based on and fan-fictions.
Besides DC and Marvel, there are other comic books in the fantasy genre and science fiction that you can read. There are good books like The Adventures of TinTin, Akira, Ghost World, Uncle Scrooge, Lumberjanes, The Walking Dead, Saga, Preacher and Sin City.
Often, filmmakers do not end stories in TV shows or movies the way we want it to end. So some fans who cannot sit still or accept the story the way it ended result to rewriting the story and tag it a fan fiction. For some years now, fan fiction has been gaining popularity. Although fan fiction is rarely authorized by the creator or producer of the original work, as such, it’s hardly published professionally.
Fan fiction may or may not break the copyright of the original creator depending on the rights and questions as whether or not the book passes as fair use. The attitudes of copyright owners and producers to fan fiction have ranged from encouragement to indifference to rejection. In turn, copyright owners have slammed fan fiction creators with legal action.
Some years back, I was of the opinion that fan fiction was just an invention that will go away with time but the creators of fan fiction have managed to convert these stories to books thereby gaining much popularity. So you won’t know if you are reading the next future bestseller. When I read Master of the Universe, a fan fiction story, I didn’t realize that the story would come back to become 50 shades of grey.
If you can just search a little further, you will find books that will interest you.
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Watching Science Fiction
Is watching science fiction a great idea? Of course it is. But the question still remains: what do you watch?
Science fiction has many categories and many science fiction sub categories. These sub categories present viewers with the opportunity to watch stories in diverse scenarios. In time back, this wasn’t the case as science fiction was associated with monsters and space battles.
But today, the genre has evolved into different categories. The combination of these subcategories gives rise to many possibilities and also provides an opportunity for an audience to watch movies in different angles. Today, science fiction is more than monsters and space battles. Let’s see in how many sub-genres we have:
These subcategories are often mixed with other TV genres to produce awesome pieces. One notable example is Logan (2017). The film has science fiction combined with superhero, action adventure, western, drama, social and fantasy.
There are more films that you wouldn’t expect to be as good or that they even fall in the Sci-Fi category which is great. It shows that the genre has evolved and that there is something for everyone.