[SKRIVA] Science fiction at the Nobel Museum
- From: Ahrvid Engholm <ahrvid@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "skriva@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <skriva@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "fictionmags@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <fictionmags@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "trufen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <trufen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "planetasf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <planetasf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "rgparaliteraria@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <rgparaliteraria@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 00:34:33 +0100
(I write this in English since I may then reach more than just the SKRIVA list,
and I can also give a pointer to the report through @SFJournalen on Twitter.
--AE)
The cafeteria of the Stockholm Nobel Museum was full, incl about ten Known Fan
Faces, as we had gathered (Oct 29th, 6pm) to hear Jonas Ramsten talk on the
subject "Science Fiction and Science". He began with a short lecture and then
opened for questions and opinions from the audience.
In 2010 Ramsten, together with Michael Godhe, edited the essay collection
Möjliga världar: tekniken, vetenskapen och science fiction ("Possible Worlds:
the Technology, the Science and Science Fiction", cover and review in Swedish
here:
http://www.spektakulart.se/michael-godhe-och-jonas-ramsten-mojliga-varldar/ ).
He is from the Department for Studies of Social Change and Culture at Linköping
University.
I can only summarise what was said, of course. In my opinion the genre of
science fiction has a higher status in Sweden these days than a few decades
ago, and that the subject moves into the noble Nobel Museum may be an
indication.
Ramsten began with defining the role of sf. It's an idea giver and a way to
speculate about social consequences of technology and new developments. He
talked about how eg WIlliam Gibson gave us a new world of concepts by which we
may understand the world. It's more about society than practical science.
Gibson himself is pratically science illiterate.
Ramsten talked about how one Mr Hugo Gernsback created a turning point for
the genre. It was he who made sf self conscious, able to reflect upon itself.
What he wrote himself was crap, and the stories he published weren't Top of the
Literature Pops, but it had ideas. It was read by mainly young men interested
in science, and step by step the genre developed and improved, as the writers
built upon the ideas of each other.
Sf is related to the early 20th Century "engineering culture". The engineer
was a hero, a doer, dedicated to inventing things to make life better, standing
above the small quibbles of the world. It was about positive thinking,
something that we also find much of in the the sf genre.
But Ramsten thought much positive thinking has left the genre in later years.
it's still there in the books, but in the films there are always disasters.
Earth is being threatened. Apocalypse. Environmental disaster. It's natural for
films to focus on the spectacular, things that explode, people in trouble, but
it doesn't give a relevant picture of what sf is all about.
He once taught a course where one of the students extracted plot elements
from sf films, to combine to scenarios. There were numerous negative plot
elements to create fifty-eleven new disaster scenarios from, but only *one*
optimistic scenario to be found. Someone has claimed that the difference
between sf and horror films is that both are scary but horror films are more
plausible...
When time came for the audience to give input, eg Anna Davour (chair of Swecon
2014) mentioned the Canadian skiffy author Karl Schroeder who suggested that
one should write sf to try to *influence the future*. Ramsten had comments
about how the genre has indeed have been importance for eg scientists. MIT has
sf reading in some of their courses. NASA astronauts read a lot of sf. NASA
even like to relate to Star Trek things in their public relations. On Swedish
universities getting sf into the courses hasn't been too common, which he
thinks is a loss for science. The genre is good for making science joyful and
give fuel for new thoughts.
Davour also pointed out - regarding sf in science - that science magazines
like Nature today sometimes run sf stories (and I think New Scientist has a
similar thing going). It may bring a "narrative" to science, which it needs,
Ramsten said, but it is also important to be a critic of science and not
believe something just because an important scientist or famous institution has
said it. And sf is good at giving critique.
I raised my hand and said that sf has been rather bad in predicting the
future. It missed the PC and Internet, the fall of the Soviet Union, we haven't
seen the Clarke AI (HAL 9000) or the Asimov robots, and so on. Ramsten agreed
and said that the genre most of all reflects the time when it is written. In
the 50's and 60's there was eg a lot about the Cold War and the threat of
Nuclear war. The sf writers can give ideas of how society may develop but are
no fortune tellers. Scientists, people in the public debat etc must pull their
weight too.
Someone in the audience pointed out that we today play a lot of games with
sf contents, which may be the most common way to know the genre. Ramsten said
it was a problem, to "do sf" rather than to read and think may become a bit of
a brake. It's a more mechanical contact with the genre.
Pebbles at my table (Known Fan Face) noted that in the 70/80's nerds were
at the bottom of the social ladder, but today nerds are cool. This also means
that science fiction is cool. Ramsten pointed out that things have changed a
lot. We can look at fashion for instance. Today you can see people walk the
streets in very strange clothes, which would have been impossible in the
70/80's. Sf has become more socially acceptable than its proponents realize.
Another woman in the audience said the US has always been a bit a bit before
the rest of the world in this respect, like for instance when it comes to new
culture (pop, rock, film etc - not to forget the Internet, I'd like to add!).
Ramsten said that in Sweden we've always had to struggle to find a "balance"
between highbrow and lowbrow culture - the former has usually had the upper
hand, but maybe it's changing.
Just a few things of what was said, during an interesting (just under an)
hour. The presenter from the museum, Ola, finished by saying that almost
everything was settled now - we only had to get that flying car from science
fiction airborne...
Stayed a while and talked to the sf gang, which apart from those mentioned
above also included Tomas C-m, Marten S-n, Lena J-n, Mikael P-n, Maths C-n,
Anders B-t (full last names withheld to puzzle the NSA and give them something
to work with!), and also Jonas Ramsten and a couple of others.
I before leaving I had a look at the exhibition about the new Nobel Museum.
The present museum is temporary and rather cramped, in the ground floor of the
Old Stock Exchange (where the Swedish Academy is also housed). They've been
designated a new spot for a much bigger museum, near the National Museum of
Art, and have had an architect competition. A dozen of the entries were
presented. I saw a couple of suggestions I liked, but also some that were
really Far Out and futuristic. Eg an idea to house the new Nobel Museum in a
series of glassed geodesic domes! It was clearly science fiction stuff, but it
would never work in Stockholm's climate, because of wintertime heating bills.
And winter time had arrived on our clocks this Sunday, so it was dark when
I returned home. But maybe a little bit of dawn for science fiction?
--Ahrvid Engholm
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