Science Fiction

There's a reason why Neil Gaiman is the most famous writer scifi, horror & fantasy ever made. That rockstar reputation didn't start with appearances on The Simpsons. By the age of 32, when most writers are just getting started, Gaiman had already written a masterpiece of fantasy. The 75 issues of The Sandman are a tour through the mythos of humanity, and a masters thesis on the uses, and abuses, of fantasy. But the origin of The Sandman in comic books kept it a cult classic for over 30 years. Gaiman became better known for novels like American Gods and stories for children. (The Sandman is NOT for children.) Now a new Netflix adaptation, created by Neil Gaiman himself, is a chance for The Sandman to meet the mainstream. Will it succeed where previous adaptations of Gaiman have failed? I feel quietly confident the answer is yes. Audio extracts from The Sandman audiobook produced by Dirk Maggs https://amzn.to/3ox9qox Follow the the Science Fiction podcast and become a member https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/ Advanced Scifi & Fantasy Writing https://damiengwalter.com/advanced-scifi-and-fantasy/ The Rhetoric of Story https://damiengwalter.com/the-rhetoric-of-story/ Join the discussion on the Science Fiction community https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197

Psychohistory is among the most important ideas born in science fiction. A science that allows us to predict the future of human civilisation. It's tempting to ask...could Psychohistory be real? Algorithms can control masses of humankind. Complexity science and agent based modelling are already predicting mass human behaviour. And as we face our civilisational "Seldon Crisis" can we learn a less from Isaac Asimov about the future of humankind? 00:00 We are in a Seldon crisis 01:48 Isaac Asimov's Foundation 03:51 Why do civilisations collapse? 06:17 What is the Foundation saga about? 12:12 Psychohistory 17:50 The Metacrisis 26:07 Psyche & Civilisation 39:28 Resolving the Metacrisis Follow the the Science Fiction podcast and become a member https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/ Advanced Scifi & Fantasy Writing https://damiengwalter.com/advanced-scifi-and-fantasy/ The Rhetoric of Story https://damiengwalter.com/the-rhetoric-of-story/ Join the discussion on the Science Fiction community https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197 The best book to understand Ken Wilber https://amzn.to/3NSwBnu Read the Foundation saga https://amzn.to/3yp65MN

Transhumanism makes grand claims about the future of humankind, from genetic engineering and artificial wombs to immortality and uploading humanity to the cloud. Lead by pseudo-scientific thinkers like Ray Kurzeil, Transhumanism has become a popular ideology among Silicon Valley tech leaders including Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. In recent years it has also become the focus of conspiracy theorists from Anti-Vaxxers to Qanon, who claim the ultimate goal of the "global elite" is to turn humans into post-humans. The truth is that Transhumanism is a fantasy born in the pages of science fiction. While authors like Bruce Sterling and William Gibson warned against the terrors of Transhumanism, today's Transhumanists see it as an inevitability, and have transformed the fantasy of Transhumanism into an anti-human religion. 00:00:00 The Torment Nexus 00:01:34 Welcome to the Science Fiction podcast 00:04:06 Beyond our ape brained meat-sacks - a profile of Elise Bohan 00:08:23 We are in a time between worlds & Transhuman conspiracy theories 00:13:14 Understanding Transhumanism as narrative, storytelling and modern mythos 00:19:15 ONE - Transhumanism is Utopian 00:24:06 TWO - Transhumanism assumes fundamental change 00:26:00 THREE - Transhumanism is a pseudo-science 00:29:34 FOUR - Transhumanism is a religious vision of transcendence 00:34:38 FIVE - Transhumanism is authoritarian 00:39:12 SIX - Transhumism wants to liberate us from our human bodies 00:44:38 SEVEN - Transhumanism is science fiction 00:48:04 EIGHT - Transhumanism believes technology is the force of progress 00:51:40 NINE - Transhumanism devalues the human 00:55:58 TEN - "We're building God you know." 01:06:53 ELEVEN - Transhumanism is a power structure 01:13:01 TWELVE - Transhumanism is dystopian 01:16:20 THIRTEEN - Transhumanism is anti-humanism Beyond Our Ape Brained Meat Sacks - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jun/04/beyond-our-ape-brained-meat-sacks-can-transhumanism-save-our-species Jonathan Rowson on Zak Stein and our time between worlds - https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Rowson/status/1532318004071084034 Follow the the Science Fiction podcast and become a member https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/ Advanced Scifi & Fantasy Writing https://damiengwalter.com/advanced-scifi-and-fantasy/ The Rhetoric of Story https://damiengwalter.com/the-rhetoric-of-story/ Join the discussion on the Science Fiction community https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197

“With Jules Verne and the publisher Hugo Gernsback, H.G. Wells invented the genre of science fiction.” Tweet by @nytimesbooks, November 2021 A badly worded tweet by the New York Times revealed a deep anger at the false history of science fiction. Written out of that history were hundreds of women writers of the 1800s who created what today we call science fiction. The true history of science fiction is deeper and richer than many fans and readers know. It reaches back to the Enlightenment and the collapse of belief in the Christian mythos. It is the search for a new mythos for the modern world, that continues into the 21st century. 00:00 The forgotten authors of science fiction 02:30 Welcome to the Science Fiction podcast 07:07 The true history of science fiction...why does it matter? 09:21 Commercial Genre vs Creative Movement 17:12 The Problem : the collapse of the Christian mythos 23:36 All science fiction is myth, not all myth is science fiction 26:38 The seeds of science fiction 29:01 The Novel Experiment 36:20 Birth of Genre 38:41 The ideological capture of science fiction by John W Campbell 43:47 The New Mythic 50:01 The process of genrefication 54:44 Writing the 21st century myth Follow the the Science Fiction podcast and become a member https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/ Join the discussion on the Science Fiction community https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197 Read my top science fiction to rewire your consciousness https://amzn.to/3gQqfGR Pre-1950 Utopias and Science Fiction by Women https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/_collections/utopias/utopias.html

“It’s trying to thread that needle between the wonder and the splendour in this mythology without being beguiled into actual fascism.” ~Adam Roberts Adam Roberts is a professor of nineteenth century literature, a prolific essayist and critic, and one of our best science fiction writers. Our interview traces a path between two powerful forces in science fiction – the mythic stories of transcendence and self fulfilment that animate much of today’s most popular sci-fi storytelling, and the mundane and ordinary lives that ground our reality. We touch on the shifting perception of science fiction in academia, questions of worldbuilding and the endless argument to define science fiction, the new optimism of hopepunk and solarpunk, HG Wells long fascination with eugenics, the balance between stereotype and archetype in storytelling, and professor Roberts answer to the question of where science fiction began. It’s a great insight into the thinking of a great SF author. 00:00:00 A mistrust of myths 00:01:51 An interview with Adam Roberts 00:04:39 The professor's productivity tips 00:08:11 The nineteenth century and science fiction 00:11:03 Has the academic perception of science fiction shifted? 00:14:29 The worldbuilding question 00:19:16 Why do we keep arguing about the definition of science fiction? 00:23:39 We spend more money on Star Wars than space travel 00:32:12 Melding the literary and the sci-fi 00:42:49 The process of writing science fiction 00:48:03 Translating Joyce and algorithmic writing 00:59:50 Hopepunk and Solarpunk 01:11:22 The Community vs. the Individual 01:18:03 The Heroic and the Quotidian 01:28:02 A segue to Wellsian scholarship 01:35:01 Emmanuel Kant and the Fermi paradox 01:44:24 Tolkien and the English mythos 01:49:47 Stereotype vs Archetype 01:57:14 When does science fiction begin? Become a member of the Science Fiction podcast: https://damiengwalter.com Join the discussion on the Science Fiction community https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197 Read the novels of Adam Roberts https://amzn.to/3LjUfZQ

This episode of the Science Fiction podcast is re-published from an original video essay first published in September 2018. I spent years searching, after I first read the Culture novels of Iain M Banks, for other space opera novels that equalled them. And this is what I discovered. Nothing else in the space opera genre even comes close to the Culture. Nothing. Zip. Nada. As Theodore Sturgeon said, 90% of everything is crap. But as a young reader I wondered why, with all these books marketed as space opera, did none read like the Culture? The answer is – theme. Science fiction tends to obsess over concepts, but almost entirely ignore themes. Scifi is full of big ideas about the nature of reality or the physics of space travel. But scifi that deals with the basic themes of human life is a rare, rare thing. Banks was a genius at weaving high concept scifi stories together with great thematic depth. In this episode I look at the opening chapter of what is, arguably, Banks’ most thematically complex novel – Excession. Read the full novel – Excession by Iain M Banks: https://amzn.to/2p9ZFOf Watch the original video essay - https://youtu.be/vjsYz-Xv5lo Become a member of the Science Fiction podcast - https://damiengwalter.com

Solarpunk is the newest genre of science fiction, a joyous and optimistic vision of a future where humans and our technology live in balance with nature. Solarpunk is an artistic, cultural and political movement that encompasses the arts, architecture, fashion and technology. But optimistic visions of the future are never all that they seem. From HG Wells' The Shape of Things to Come, to Ursula Le Guin's Always Coming Home, one science fiction author's vision of a bright utopia is another's grim dystopia. Can Solarpunk envision a utopia for all? 00:00 Two quotes from Brave New World 01:02 Welcome to the Science Fiction podcast 02:33 Am I trolling the scifi community? 03:49 The pre-history of ****punk 09:33 There is no such thing as Solarpunk 12:15 What is Solarpunk? 20:14 A Solarpunk Manifesto 23:17 Solarpunk is a genre without a story 25:12 Ursula Le Guin : patron saint of Solarpunk 33:13 The moral absolutism of Those Who Walk Away From Omelas 35:53 Science Fiction and the shadow of Utopianism 39:33 Can we ever achieve a utopia? Follow the Science Fiction podcast: https://damiengwalter.com/podcast Join the Science Fiction community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197 Follow the full course in Writing the 21st Century Myth : https://damiengwalter.com/advanced-scifi-and-fantasy/ Enroll on Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/course/advanced-science-fiction-fantasy/?referralCode=B7B13C5C3D413999ED95 Subscribe monthly via Skillshare: https://skl.sh/3pO6pPV Read Always Coming Home by Ursula Le Guin: https://amzn.to/3nxHQqS Solarpunk's political manifesto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHI61GHNGJM

We are living in strange times. Politics. Society. Culture wars. Things have gone weird. We're looking for knowledge and wisdom to guide us in strange times. I can think of no better guide to the year 2022 than Philip K Dick. The author of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the inspiration for Blade Runner, is best known as a science fiction writer. But after his infamous spiritual awakening and the events of 2-3-74, Philip K Dick became something more....a visionary prophet who saw our strange times coming. 00:00 Welcome to strange times 01:07 The prophetic Philip K Dick 03:45 A career of three parts 08:54 2-3-74 12:40 The films of Philip K Dick 15:24 The nine prophetic visions of Philip K Dick 15:47 NINE - The Exit Door Leads In 18:10 EIGHT - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep 21:21 SEVEN - Chains of Air, Web of Aether 24:59 SIX - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch 28:12 FIVE - V.A.L.I.S 31:52 FOUR - The Electric Ant 35:25 Interlude: what is reality? 36:45 THREE - Ubik 40:18 TWO - Exegesis 42:53 ONE - The Man In The High Castle 45:59 The Man Who Gazed Into The Mythos 51:49 Writing the 21st century myth Follow the Science Fiction podcast: https://damiengwalter.com/podcast Join the Science Fiction community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197 Follow the full course in Writing the 21st Century Myth : https://damiengwalter.com/advanced-scifi-and-fantasy/ Enroll on Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/course/advanced-science-fiction-fantasy/?referralCode=B7B13C5C3D413999ED95 Subscribe monthly via Skillshare: https://skl.sh/3pO6pPV

There's a question about The Matrix I've been asking myself since the franchise established itself in the collective unconscious of humanity back in the early 00s. What is Sigmund Freud doing in these movies? 00:00 What's Sigmund Freud doing here? 02:21 Welcome the the Science Fiction podcast 04:01 Freud vs Jung 09:05 Good vs Evil 13:00 Carl Jung's little Red Book 16:26 The Jungian tradition in 20th century storytelling 22:21 The Matrix and the archetypes of Carl Jung 35:17 The false god of the Gnostics 37:34 The journey to the Self 39:56 A Jungian myth for the 21st century Watch the original Matrix full movie: https://amzn.to/3GUbPRh Follow the Science Fiction podcast: https://damiengwalter.com/podcast Join the Science Fiction community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197 Follow the full course in Writing the 21st Century Myth : https://damiengwalter.com/advanced-scifi-and-fantasy/ Enroll on Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/course/advanced-science-fiction-fantasy/?referralCode=B7B13C5C3D413999ED95 Subscribe monthly via Skillshare: https://skl.sh/3pO6pPV

Rick Deckard is a Replicant. And Rick Deckard is also not the hero of Blade Runner...but is the villain. But the obvious questions about Blade Runner are also the least interesting. Empathy is the core of the Blade Runner story. Why we feel it, who we feel it for, and who we choose to exclude from our empathy. Blade Runner is an empathy test...for the audience...to see if you and I are human. All too often, we fail the test. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/qWpLcC7QaSA Follow the full course in Writing the 21st Century Myth : https://damiengwalter.com Enroll on Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/course/advanced-science-fiction-fantasy/?referralCode=B7B13C5C3D413999ED95 Subscribe monthly via Skillshare: https://skl.sh/3pO6pPV Join the Science Fiction community on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197

It's more than a little ironic that the motion picture widely called the greatest science fiction story ever told was made by an artist who hated science fiction. Stanley Kubrick thought science fiction was a failure at myth making, and set out to make a new myth for the modern world, and the only great science fiction movie. Watch the full video essay on YouTube: https://youtu.be/NNE9vxLUGpE Follow the full course in Advanced Scifi and Fantasy : https://damiengwalter.com Enroll on Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/course/advanced-science-fiction-fantasy/?referralCode=B7B13C5C3D413999ED95 Subscribe monthly via Skillshare: https://skl.sh/3pO6pPV