@dang, Do you know why was the title changed from "The strange, secretive world of North Korean science fiction" to "North Korean science fiction"?
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North Korean science fiction
111–120 of 168 posts
Re: North Korean science fiction
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
And in the West what’s available is the product of people making what they want to make with relatively few restrictions.
I so wish that that were true. No, a lot more is made than what is available to you.
Not really. These days, if you have talent, spreading your work is as easy as making a Reddit or HN post and get traction in no time at all. What sinks probably isn't worth much attention. Of course, works are also made and not published anywhere, but people are free to stay a hermit and not publish their work.
Re: North Korean science fiction
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
And in the West what’s available is the product of people making what they want to make with relatively few restrictions.
No, you only are able to watch a tiny part of what is marketed for you. What doesn't get money doesn't get views.
Not anymore. I can't imagine what media doesn't have a free type of publisher (Youtube for videos, Amazon or Lulu for text, itch.io for games, Github for software, play store for apps, etc), and getting traction is as easy as a Reddit/HN post.
If your content is good, it takes 5 minutes to get it to the entire world for free.
Re: North Korean science fiction
#114I sometimes watch/read South Korean SF and this description of Northern SF sounds familiar. Yes, there are often nefarious Americans behind the protagonist's problem. Yes, the plot often makes a hash of logical coherence. I think a study of both northern and southern SF would find there is still a significant shared culture.
Re: North Korean science fiction
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky were pretty prolific during this time (often writing in secret, and reciting their works only to trusted friends). "The Doomed City" is one of the best pieces of philosophical scifi I've ever read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doomed_City
The Doomed City is a bad example since it was specifically released in a post-soviet era. It had very direct criticisms of communism which lead to the authors deciding to not release it during the soviet era they wrote it. "Hard to be a God", mentioned below, is a better example. Soviet era Sci-Fi where Star Trek esque space communists try to uplift a medieval society into modern political belief before establishing…
Technically, 'The Doomed City' was released in Soviet times, not in the post-Soviet one, as a result of Glasnost'/Perestroika. It was published in serialized form in "Neva" magazine in '88-'89, then in book form, while the USSR would still be a going concern for a couple more years.
Re: North Korean science fiction
#116I look forward to reading some of this. SF is pretty much always about the current day. Soviet SF was quite illuminating to me (back when anybody cared about the USSR). I’ve always wanted to read a couple of the Soviet equivalent of the James Bond novels.
> SF is pretty much always about the current day.
I'm not sure that's true, although in the past two decades or so it may have been.
But going back to the classics of 1960s and 1970s SF, I just don't see it. Sure, The Forever War is a thinly veiled allegory of Vietnam, but how are Lord of Light, Dreamsnake, The Left Hand of Darkness, or even Dune about their "current days"?
Dune seems prescient today because of its focus on natural resources, but back when it was written (long before the Oil Crisis) that wasn't really a political hot topic, or even something that most people thought about at all.
Re: North Korean science fiction
#117I look forward to reading some of this. SF is pretty much always about the current day. Soviet SF was quite illuminating to me (back when anybody cared about the USSR). I’ve always wanted to read a couple of the Soviet equivalent of the James Bond novels.
> SF is pretty much always about the current day. I'm not sure that's true, although in the past two decades or so it may have been. But going back to the classics of 1960s and 1970s SF, I just don't see it. Sure, The Forever War is a thinly veiled allegory of Vietnam, but how are Lord of Light , Dreamsnake , The Left Hand of Darkness , or even Dune about their "current days"? Dune seems prescient today because of it…
Dune very much commented on the contemporarybproblems of its day. A big theme was around the scramble for Africa which, while over, was still affecting the continent in various ways as decolonisation continued.
I agree that the extent of the commentary varies, and Dune is light handed in terms of political hot topics, but it was certainly there.
Re: North Korean science fiction
#118I sometimes watch/read South Korean SF and this description of Northern SF sounds familiar. Yes, there are often nefarious Americans behind the protagonist's problem. Yes, the plot often makes a hash of logical coherence. I think a study of both northern and southern SF would find there is still a significant shared culture.
Same as Chinese SF, although they also have global collaboration saved by the Chinese people’s honour as a big plot line too.
In fact it’s the same as Chinese martial arts movies too. Anyone seen the Ip Man series?
Re: North Korean science fiction
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you share some examples of Soviet SF? Should be quite exciting.
One example would be "The Invincible" by Stanisław Lem [1]. Worth noting that a video game [2] based on the novel (which looks very well produced) is releasing in November. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invincible 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo7Ca6kXz08
Lem's Invincible, Solaris and Eden form a trilogy of "what if we meet a civilization so alien to humans that we can't establish a contact with them"
Re: North Korean science fiction
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
> And no, you can't just become one of the special superheroes. Both are aiming to pacify the target society. Worse: You aren't such a superhero, but by random chance you might be chosen to become one and you are invited to imagine yourself in that situation. Any common person who might want to limit your hypothetical powers is an awful bigot and many of the stories revolve around tension between those with powers wh…
Reality: Americans have not been ruled by the superhero-like ultra rich for decades, and are starting to notice that little is improving and much is getting worse.
I think a lot improved for the countless people who got medicaid.
When you assert something hasn't improved, it tells me it hasnt improved according to your personal criteria. I suspect those dont cover the wellfare and health of your society.