SF from the past

[rolanni]

As some of you know, “Guaranteed Delivery” was posted to Splinter Universe in September. It’s a story about leadership, and fame, among other things, and generated a comment from od_mind, over in the Splinterverse discussion group, in which he comments that the story reminds him of Walter Jon Williams’ Drake Maijstral novels, which also deal with leadership, and fame.

First, if you haven’t read the Drake Maijstral series, you should do so — most especially you should do so if you’re a fan of Alexei Panshin’s Anthony Villiers’ novels. Walter’s books are just newly available as ebooks from Amazon and BN.

Second, the notion of a society that runs on fame and ratings and an aristocracy that is more or less always on camera. . .isn’t original with Walter, either. (This isn’t a complaint; it’s an observation. It’s not at all uncommon for writers to riff off of each other’s ideas, or for authors to be caught by the same phenomenon, and to write a story about whatever it is. The stories will be different, even very different. It’s only part of what makes the writing gig so much fun.)

Anyhow. Back in the late sixties and early 70s, when I was stuffing my head full of every bit of fiction I could put my eyes on, I read a whole run of older SF stories about what we would now call Reality TV. A young woman — usually it was a young woman — was followed constantly by a camera, her life projected for millions to watch.

Some of the stories questioned the ethics of the show’s producers introducing “plot devices” in order to shore up sagging ratings when life got too placid. Other stories wanted to talk about what happened to a star when she got old, (and of course ugly) and had to be replaced by a younger (prettier) girl, in order for the show to hold audience interest.

Then, of course, there was Isaac Asimov, who posited “dreamies” — movies made by recording the thoughts and sensations of coherent dreamers, which were then mass produced for public consumption.

Moving up in time, now we actually have Reality TV, and Facebook, and Twitter and the rest of the social media, which encourages people to live publicly.

It’s interesting when science fiction is almost right.

Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[otterb.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestion. Big-time fan of Anthony Villiers books and I've never heard of the Drake Maijstral series.

I notice, by the way, an excellent marketing plan with this e-book series. Perhaps this is standard, especially in putting a backlist into e-book form - as a person who has been trying to avoid e-books, I don't browse them much. In any case, the first book in the series is only $0.99; others are more standard e-book prices. I am perfectly happy to spend $0.99 to find if I like something, while I might hesitate longer over a higher price. And if I like, I'm happy to pay to continue.

[saruby.livejournal.com]

But why does it have to be the more uncomfortable science fiction that is right? Reality Life (TV, twitter, facebook, politics, etc.) is exhausting and intrusive. And if this prediction was so close, I shudder to think of other predictions that might come true or at least approach reality.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Well, to be fair, the stories I originally read were so old they were probably talking about the effect television would have on us, going forward, and trying to imagine scenarios. Television was a big concern -- see for instance Fahrenheit 451. The fact that they were right to be concerned can't really be called prediction.

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

One young woman version was The Continuous Catherine Mortenhoe by DG Compton -- US title was The Unsleeping Eye

[attilathepbnun.livejournal.com]

There was a version by... someone or other, I forget who ... a young woman horrifically scarred by childhood abuse/birth defects is educated, trained, to act as a beautiful woman, so that she could operate what was essentially a gorgeous flesh-puppet body .... It's been so long I can't remember what happened!

James Tiptree, Jr.

[jjbrannon.livejournal.com]

Alice Sheldon published the Hugo Award-winning novella "The Girl Who Was Plugged In" in 1973.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_Who_Was_Plugged_In


JJB

Re: James Tiptree, Jr.

[attilathepbnun.livejournal.com]

YESSS! Thank you! I thought it might be her, but it's been so long I couldn't be sure!
Knowing Tiptree, the poor girl probably came to an unpleasant end *sigh*

Who Knew?

[claire774.livejournal.com]

I had no idea that so many sci fi writers had prophesized the reality show. Amazing! I just didn't run across those stories.
C.