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North Korean science fiction

arstechnica.com

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Re: North Korean science fiction

#41

Post by philwelch »

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…

> And no, you can't just become one of the special superheroes.

Two of the most iconic superheroes, Batman and Iron Man, are normal human beings who became superheroes from hard work.

Re: North Korean science fiction

#42

Post by philwelch »

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…

> Before the income tax, people like Rockefeller would just bail companies out during panics from their personal bank accounts, much to the consternation of bankers like J.P Morgan.

To my understanding it was Morgan and not Rockefeller who engaged in these kinds of bailouts.

Re: North Korean science fiction

#43

Post by havelhovel »

jacquesm wrote: post #36
dotnet00 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference that makes that much less logical being that in the West the government is not determining what people can watch, they're watching what they enjoy.

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.

Re: North Korean science fiction

#45

Post by orbital-decay »

Mainan_Tagonist wrote: post #24
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.

Well, for the soviet equivalent to James Bond, look no further than Vsevolod Vladimirovich Vladimirov, better known as Max Von Stierlitz. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stierlitz

Stierlitz is a typical noir character, entirely different from Bond. The entire premise of the James Bond series and of course Bond's lifestyle were completely incompatible with the ideology, so no real equivalent was possible.

Re: North Korean science fiction

#47

Post by piperswe »

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.

Are you talking about Soviet sci-fi or speculative sci-fi? If the latter, there's plenty of speculative sci-fi worth reading. I'd recommend giving "I, Robot" a read - much of it is about reasoning through a sort of moral philosophy, through the lens of robotics.

Re: North Korean science fiction

#48

Post by jborean93 »

philwelch wrote: post #41
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…

> And no, you can't just become one of the special superheroes. Two of the most iconic superheroes, Batman and Iron Man, are normal human beings who became superheroes from hard work.

Luckily they both didn't have rich parents in charge of large companies. Not saying they didn't work hard but they certainly had help financially that unfortunately normal people probably don't have.

Re: North Korean science fiction

#49

Post by actionfromafar »

philwelch wrote: post #41
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…

> And no, you can't just become one of the special superheroes. Two of the most iconic superheroes, Batman and Iron Man, are normal human beings who became superheroes from hard work.

And with Batman, a healthy chunk of inheritance.

Re: North Korean science fiction

#50

Post by devindotcom »

narrator wrote: post #34
AdamH12113 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Roadside Picnic" is a well-known novel that was the basis for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series of video games. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadside_Picnic

Roadside picnic is so ridiculously melancholy. Everyone in that book is so depressed! I also don't think I've ever seen so much smoking and drinking in a sci-fi book. You could tell the brothers were really not enjoying communism.

Now watch the film adaptation, Stalker - even more depressing!
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