Post by sturgeon on Jan 5, 2022 23:05:04 GMT
Yay, it's 2022. Can't be worse than the last couple of years... although, come to think of it, wasn't Soylent Green set in 2022? Yikes.
Talking of classic science fiction, here we have a cap that attempts to measure up to the comic sci-fi stylings of Harry Harrison (who inspired Soylent Green) or Douglas Adams. But, alas, this cap demonstrates how hard it is to write good sci-fi and be funny.
Don't get me wrong, it is funny. The humour makes a virtue of being whacky, with fanciful flights of imagination and liberal use of rather blunt wordplay. There are a few zingers I especially enjoyed.
An omniscient narrator - a literal all-seeing eye - observes a friendly rivalry between Politics and Religion, personified as aliens (disguised as humans). Somehow, a hapless human gets involved, seemingly more as a foil for the aliens' jokes than as a character in her own right.
And that's the kicker. The whole piece came across more as a vehicle for satire and space jokes than as a dramatic progression of narrative or character.
Observe: Harry Harrison's comic character Bill (the Galactic Hero) has a backstory filled with pathos, as a farm-boy conscripted into a terrible war. Douglas Adam's famous Hitchhiker's Guide starts with an average guy waking up in a sleepy West Country village - with his house about to be knocked down. The attention paid to the characters in these stories makes the humour pop. We see the bizarre sci-fi worlds through their relatable eyes.
Whereas this cap is all laffs and no heart. That lack means many of the jokes don't land.
Looking back now at Rockefeller's criticism, he nailed it with "Perhaps it has innoculated me from caring about or identifying with the characters in Fischer's very well penned yarn. Is it a series of disjointed scenes, or does a plot lurk somewhere in its vast drollery?"
Make us care, then make us laugh. A no from me.
Talking of classic science fiction, here we have a cap that attempts to measure up to the comic sci-fi stylings of Harry Harrison (who inspired Soylent Green) or Douglas Adams. But, alas, this cap demonstrates how hard it is to write good sci-fi and be funny.
Don't get me wrong, it is funny. The humour makes a virtue of being whacky, with fanciful flights of imagination and liberal use of rather blunt wordplay. There are a few zingers I especially enjoyed.
An omniscient narrator - a literal all-seeing eye - observes a friendly rivalry between Politics and Religion, personified as aliens (disguised as humans). Somehow, a hapless human gets involved, seemingly more as a foil for the aliens' jokes than as a character in her own right.
And that's the kicker. The whole piece came across more as a vehicle for satire and space jokes than as a dramatic progression of narrative or character.
Observe: Harry Harrison's comic character Bill (the Galactic Hero) has a backstory filled with pathos, as a farm-boy conscripted into a terrible war. Douglas Adam's famous Hitchhiker's Guide starts with an average guy waking up in a sleepy West Country village - with his house about to be knocked down. The attention paid to the characters in these stories makes the humour pop. We see the bizarre sci-fi worlds through their relatable eyes.
Whereas this cap is all laffs and no heart. That lack means many of the jokes don't land.
Looking back now at Rockefeller's criticism, he nailed it with "Perhaps it has innoculated me from caring about or identifying with the characters in Fischer's very well penned yarn. Is it a series of disjointed scenes, or does a plot lurk somewhere in its vast drollery?"
Make us care, then make us laugh. A no from me.
