avevale_intelligencer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
avevale_intelligencer) wrote2009-09-01 07:59 am
avevale_intelligencer) wrote2009-09-01 07:59 am
More on the Robson piece I quoted last night
Now I bet you've heard these fancy city folks telling you about science fiction, good science fiction, bad science fiction, giving you all the buzzwords there, and one of the buzzwords they sure use a lot is character-driven. What's that mean? Well, sir, I'll tell you. Means that the story is driven, motivated as they say, by the characters, that's the ordinary folks like you and me that appear in the story. Character-driven sf is all about the people, how they think, how they feel, how they interact with each other. What's interact? Well, it's when you go to the store or the saloon or when you sit right down around the table and talk about the day's events, or when you and your sweetie go out into the cornfield and sit side by side and look up at the moon and I'm sure I don't need to draw you a picture gentlemen, you know what I mean. Human interaction, friends, that's everything we do as people, and that's what character-driven sf is all about. It's not about plot, no sir, it's not about science, it's not about great big historical events and movements changing the world in space, it's all about the characters, real three-dimensional folks like you and me and Sam over there, with his bad back and his funny walk and the pinky finger he lost in Korea and the guilt he feels 'cause he wasn't there for his little girl when she got raped that night behind the schoolhouse, yes sir, that's what makes a three-dimensional character and that's what you get in character-driven sf, and that's the kind these fancy city folks like.
Now you may be standing there thinking, gosh a mighty, this character-driven sf sure sounds good, but how in the heck are we ordinary folks ever going to get our hands on such a high-toned product? Well you're in luck there, friends and neighbours, because I got some right here in the back of the wagon, character-driven sf, that's right, I got your character-driven sf right here, and for just pennies--just pennies, friends--I'm fixing to let you in on the ground floor and give you a slug of that character-driven goodness.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Lost In Space.
Now that Miz Robson in her scholarly article, she don't mention Lost In Space none, though she comes close one time--but if you're looking for character-driven science fiction, friends, then Lost In Space is the show for you, because there sure as heck ain't nothing else driving it. Now let's break down those characters so you can see under the hood here, get a real feel for how character-driven sf works. You got your Professor, who's supposed to be a scientist and an explorer but since the ship got lost he's had to spend so much time on damage limitation and keeping his family alive he don't have time to do no science. You can just feel the frustration boiling off him. You got his wife, who seems on the surface to be nothing more than a stereotypical wife and mother, but I bet any of you gentlemen can name half a dozen ladies right here in this town you could say that about. The depths are there, friends, they just don't get dragged up to the surface and pawed over the way some of these moderin writers do. You got your Major West, the military man, and you just know he's seen some action from every move he makes, and you got the kids, all being kids and interacting just as hard as they can. And you got your Doctor Smith. Now what can I say? Complex? Layered? Strongly motivated? Holy Hannah, there ain't no character in the whole of science fiction more strongly motivated than Doctor Smith and you can take that to the bank. And every single episode, okay, you get your robots and your aliens and your six-foot talking carrots, but what the show is really about--what you see more of than anything else--is the ordinary human interaction between those characters. Lost In Space is character-driven sf at its most character-driven.
Who'll be the first to try it?
Now you may be standing there thinking, gosh a mighty, this character-driven sf sure sounds good, but how in the heck are we ordinary folks ever going to get our hands on such a high-toned product? Well you're in luck there, friends and neighbours, because I got some right here in the back of the wagon, character-driven sf, that's right, I got your character-driven sf right here, and for just pennies--just pennies, friends--I'm fixing to let you in on the ground floor and give you a slug of that character-driven goodness.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Lost In Space.
Now that Miz Robson in her scholarly article, she don't mention Lost In Space none, though she comes close one time--but if you're looking for character-driven science fiction, friends, then Lost In Space is the show for you, because there sure as heck ain't nothing else driving it. Now let's break down those characters so you can see under the hood here, get a real feel for how character-driven sf works. You got your Professor, who's supposed to be a scientist and an explorer but since the ship got lost he's had to spend so much time on damage limitation and keeping his family alive he don't have time to do no science. You can just feel the frustration boiling off him. You got his wife, who seems on the surface to be nothing more than a stereotypical wife and mother, but I bet any of you gentlemen can name half a dozen ladies right here in this town you could say that about. The depths are there, friends, they just don't get dragged up to the surface and pawed over the way some of these moderin writers do. You got your Major West, the military man, and you just know he's seen some action from every move he makes, and you got the kids, all being kids and interacting just as hard as they can. And you got your Doctor Smith. Now what can I say? Complex? Layered? Strongly motivated? Holy Hannah, there ain't no character in the whole of science fiction more strongly motivated than Doctor Smith and you can take that to the bank. And every single episode, okay, you get your robots and your aliens and your six-foot talking carrots, but what the show is really about--what you see more of than anything else--is the ordinary human interaction between those characters. Lost In Space is character-driven sf at its most character-driven.
Who'll be the first to try it?
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Let me get back to you on that, okay? [TIPTOES CAREFULLY BACKWARDS]
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