Fiction... not for the non-nerdly
Offline So, I started watching the X-Files series for the first time in years and years. I find myself fighting scorn for Mulder instead of being able to suspend my disbelief. It's sad because I really enjoyed the show when I was younger.
This brought up a question in my mind, What are the acceptable or expected limits of fiction?
Mulder's continued drone of 'there are things that science can't explain, that in turn explain things about our world...' becomes a mantra that is spoiling my enjoyment of the show. Video Games in which the character worships a god doesn't bother me at all. Things like Tolkein's books I enjoy thoroughly. I go out of my way to watch movies that portray entirely unrealistic aliens and fantasy settings.
I'm wondering what level of fiction is acceptable (subjectively) in your fiction?
If I have gained anything by damning myself, it is that I no longer have anything to fear. - JP Sartre
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I completely understand. I was watching the x-files a while back and i began to despise Mulder as well and i began to find more of a connection with scully. I remember watching when i was a kid and always liking Mulder and never liking scully. What really did it for me though was this weekend watching the movie that cam out, it just wasn't really the x-files i knew and remembered. So i have come to the conclusion that "I Don't want to Believe"
The thing about fiction like, say, the x-Files is that when framed from the perspective of the fiction's rules, not reality's rules, often the characters statements are quite logical. Mulder is right - within the X-Files universe, there are giant conspiracies and menaces that current science has no means of examining (because of a huge gap in technology), and there are phenomena that scientists can't explain (like telepathy, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, etc).
We can still be skeptical of Mulder, but we have to then remember to use his universe as our frame of reference. When we do that, we see overwhelming evidence that yes, he's correct - there are very strange phenomena at work and devious plots afoot. Dana is the one being irrational; despite the mountain of evidence in front of her, she fails to see what's there because she's so firmly attached to her own worldview.
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February 27, 1940
Do you think the whole series I taped off tv will be worth something some day? Maybe they'll be a backlash against the movie being so bad and they will destroy all dvds of x-files and then one day someone will want it again?? And I'll be set.
I don't think I have a problem with any level as long as it is labeled as fiction - as opposed to say a manipulated story being passed off as an actual historical event.
I don't think there are, or should be any limits to fiction. I love a lot of fantasy and sci-fi books, films and TV shows from Lord of the Rings to Doctor Who to The Dark Crystal. Anything is acceptable as long as it is within the realms of fiction. I've been writing and developing a fantasy trilogy on and off for some years now. It will probably never be anything like finished. In my fictional world there are many strange creatures, magic, even Gods, but non of it is ever supernatural and science and empiricism are always better solutions than superstition. The only problem is that it will never be finished because my brain gets so overloaded with new ideas for other stories that I'm always starting new ones. I reckon I should probably write them down, leave them to one side and discipline myself into concentrating on only one story for a few months.
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I never liked that show. It did seem it reinforced the paranoid and woowoo types (who often have trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality. )
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What I mean isn't to say that we should approve stories ahead of time, I meant more of when exposed to fiction when does it break. For instance, LOTR, no problem at all. Different world, different rules, got it. But there are some stories which ask me to cede facts I simply cannot.
'In this world, there are giant undersea monsters that can destroy submarines' OK, got it
'and one of the dangers is that while passing under an iceberg a piece will break off and sink, threatening said submarine' No. I reject flatly your world in which ice sinks.
I don't sit and decide, per se, what to believe and what not to.. there just comes a time when watching a show or reading a book where my mind suddenly goes 'no'
If I have gained anything by damning myself, it is that I no longer have anything to fear. - JP Sartre
Maybe the "ice" was really a solar blanket placed over the lake?
When stories are too unrealistic - as in the ice story you're describing I tend to think they are just poorly written. For instance, some times I see gaps in sci-fi stories that clearly are a result of the author not thinking through all the consequences of their original scenario.
I don't know that I would really have a problem with unrealistic fiction - including the ice sinking thing - if it were made clear that that was the standard for the particular setting.
That reminds me of a Doctor Who story where there was Dalek/Human hybridisation and they showed a Dalek DNA strand on a computer, the only difference being that the Dalek DNA had spikes attached because obviously they're evil.
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I currently watch the Battlestar Galactica serial. It's all pretty good, camera's stunning (documentary, not stationary), actors are skilled as far as I can tell, actresses are very hot, story's tough on nerves...
It's interesting there, how the Cylons (man-made race of artificial enemies, comes in form of classy robots, human clones and half-sentient interceptors) are so eager about the idea of God. Not only they're murderous walking toasters, they're also very intense believers in one God, while the BSG crew and surviving population is actually polytheistic. (you know, ancient Greece-like pantheon)
Cylons themselves doesn't usually talk much, but the main BSG scientist is possessed with Cylon alter-ego, who's a blonde woman, (a classic Cylon prototype) who talks about God very often (which sounds well because it's totally Bible-free) and fucks the scientist imaginarily in his mind just as often.
I think the scenarist did his job very well in this serial.
Beings who deserve worship don't demand it. Beings who demand worship don't deserve it.
Do agree BSG is one of the best things on tv and religion is very important in it. Religion and other forms of fantasy are great in the appropiate format fiction.
Through bare mind the Cylons are not mindless evil in it, the war was provoked by humans who were big fans of slavery. Admiral Adama is an atheist (but with a respect for religion) in his universe it appears he is actually wrong and some sort of supernatural forces do exist
One of the scariest film ever made was the Omen, the fact the fictional god of the bible is far nastier and evil than the fictional satan is beside the point, it makes good drama.
X files was a brililant series the fact that stupid people can't tell the difference between tv and reality doesnt mean its any less good. god exists but only in story books and thats a good place to keep him
The "Twilight Zone" cannon , even better than the bible when looking for wisdom.
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