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North Korean science fiction

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Re: North Korean science fiction

#101

Post by swayvil »

xhevahir wrote: post #97
3np wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why the CCP supports SciFi is can be detached from motivations of individual authors.

Something tells me the Party's support or funding of an author's work could have a lot to do with the author's ideology (or the perception thereof).

Not only must the work be ideologically correct, the work must also be understandable by ruling ideologues.

That is a serious choke point.

The ideologue brain is incompatible with big weird scifi ideas.

We see that in the west too.

Re: North Korean science fiction

#102

Post by raincole »

1shot37291007 wrote: post #9

> "Stories often touch on topics like space travel, benevolent robots, disease-curing nanobots, and deep-sea exploration. They lack aliens and beings with superpowers. Instead, the real superheroes are the exceptional North Korean scientists and technologists who carry the weight of the world on their shoulders." Here is an interesting symmetry as reflected by ideological mirrors. In NK, the state sanctioned imaginal…

> Both are aiming to pacify the target society.

You know what the big secret is? Let me tell you. Everything is aiming to pacify the society.

Movies, books, TV shows, video games: obviously tittytainment. Time wasters to waste your time and energy.

Education: to produce workers who are useful for the big system.

Religions: the ultimate form of brainwashing.

Yoga/Meditation/etc: religions but instead of gods we follow some gurus, even worse.

Unemployment: makes you at the mercy of welfare, a.k.a. the government.

Getting a job: becoming a slave for evil cooperations so they can lobby the government more. Also remember to pay your tax.

Voting: makes you feel you're in control and living in a democracy while you're just choosing from two equally bad guys.

Spedning time with your family: there are people you care? Great, now if you ever riot the gov knows who to keep as hostages.

If you swing the hammmer with enough force, you can make everything a nail.

Re: North Korean science fiction

#103

Post by totetsu »

calimoro78 wrote: post #3
gumby wrote: post #2

I 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.

Can you share some examples of Soviet SF? Should be quite exciting.

"the heart of a dog" is quite a good example of sci-fi as social critique https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_a_Dog_(1988_film)

Re: North Korean science fiction

#104

Post by totetsu »

5040 wrote: post #4

Tangentially related: NG You know, I was in China in 2007, and it was the first ever state-sponsored, Party-approved science-fiction convention. They brought in some people from the west and I was one of them, and I was talking to a number of the older science-fiction writers in China, who told me about how science fiction was not just looked down on, but seen as suspicious and counter-revolutionary, because you coul…

Someone in China saw how well hollywood sci-fi could be used as a vehicle for PR and glorification of the American military and decided to follow suit.

Re: North Korean science fiction

#105

Post by swayvil »

5040 wrote: post #4

Tangentially related: NG You know, I was in China in 2007, and it was the first ever state-sponsored, Party-approved science-fiction convention. They brought in some people from the west and I was one of them, and I was talking to a number of the older science-fiction writers in China, who told me about how science fiction was not just looked down on, but seen as suspicious and counter-revolutionary, because you coul…

The inventors at Google and Apple and Microsoft also like to trip on the occasional LSD. That might be something else China will have to allow if they want to be a magical radical land of invention.

Re: North Korean science fiction

#106

Post by [deleted] »

narrator wrote: post #31
1shot37291007 wrote: post #9

> "Stories often touch on topics like space travel, benevolent robots, disease-curing nanobots, and deep-sea exploration. They lack aliens and beings with superpowers. Instead, the real superheroes are the exceptional North Korean scientists and technologists who carry the weight of the world on their shoulders." Here is an interesting symmetry as reflected by ideological mirrors. In NK, the state sanctioned imaginal…

Jules Verne is fun to read in this regard because the people who organized to go to the moon in "From Earth To The Moon" were simply part of a gun club that chose to fund the effort privately, not the government. It reflects how people had a different relationship with the government in the 19th century. Before the income tax, people like Rockefeller would just bail companies out during panics from their personal ban…

[deleted]

Re: North Korean science fiction

#107

Post by rtpg »

narrator wrote: post #31
1shot37291007 wrote: post #9

> "Stories often touch on topics like space travel, benevolent robots, disease-curing nanobots, and deep-sea exploration. They lack aliens and beings with superpowers. Instead, the real superheroes are the exceptional North Korean scientists and technologists who carry the weight of the world on their shoulders." Here is an interesting symmetry as reflected by ideological mirrors. In NK, the state sanctioned imaginal…

Jules Verne is fun to read in this regard because the people who organized to go to the moon in "From Earth To The Moon" were simply part of a gun club that chose to fund the effort privately, not the government. It reflects how people had a different relationship with the government in the 19th century. Before the income tax, people like Rockefeller would just bail companies out during panics from their personal ban…

Jules Verne is an interesting example, because his books often have themes about traveling more than anything. I feel like at the time (and now!) major projects to just go somewhere were seen as "rich people hobbies". Things are "easier" now for things like mountain climbing but even now most undersea exploration is just financed out of rich people's pockets.

In a world where artificial satelites aren't a thing that is a useful good, I doubt that NASA exists.

Re: North Korean science fiction

#108

Post by james4k »

havelhovel wrote: post #43
jacquesm wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You watch from what's available.

And in the West what’s available is the product of people making what they want to make with relatively few restrictions.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/how-hollywood-became-the-unof...

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/04/how-creative-writing-...

https://www.vice.com/en/article/4x3vg3/how-the-cia-turned-am...

Re: North Korean science fiction

#110

Post by dee-bee »

throw1234651234 wrote: post #26
worrycue wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> SF is pretty much always about the current day. SF is often speculative fiction that extrapolate current trends into the future - frequently taking them to their logic conclusion - to explore and critique. Good SF anyway.

Is it even worth reading? Genuine question. I thought it was campty sort of satirical old-timey stuff, but I never read it.

Yes. I'm going to specifically recommend Octavia Butler, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Ursula Le Guin for particularly socially-focused fiction that is, in many ways, much more relevant to our current social issues than most contemporary fiction you can pick up off the rack. Not to knock fiction of course, but it can be hard to explore issues thoroughly while also delivering a believable and enjoyable story set in current times.

For the campy stuff, people seem to really enjoy The Expanse, both the books and the tv show.

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