Mundane SF and the New Space Princess Movement
My Jesuit confessor, Father de Casuistry, has just been released by the Time Cops from his unjust imprisonment in the Ice Age, fought his way with ray-pistol and rosary-beads up from the vampire-infested hollow core of the planet, emerged from a volcano crater in Iceland, swam the raging North Atlantic in the frozen dead of midwinter through maelstrom and hurricane, arrive here, heard my confession, and as penance threw me through a plate glass window down four stories into the tarmac, where I was run over by a streetcar. Then he gave me KP, PT and pushups in full kit. Boy. I thought I would get a few ‘Hail Mary’s’ or something. Don’t let priests watch Ahnold Swartzkopf movies, or it gives ’em ideas.
Anyway, what I have been doing wrong is writing on my blog instead of on my latest novel. The novel is going to be a thoughtful in-depth character study and reflection on the existential melancholy of the human condition set in a well-researched science fictional background based on the latest cutting-edge discoveries of modern physics: the working title is LESBIAN LOVE SLAVES OF THE BONDAGE BITCH OF MARS.
No, no, just kidding. The novel is actually going to be a heartwarming Christmastime-tale of family love, rivalry, and reconciliation, the births and losses, the humor and heartbreak of life in the near-future. The working title is DEATHCOUNT! THE REVENGE OF AGENT BLOODSLAUGHTER!
In any case, no more posting until Fridays for me. This time, I promise. For sure. Really. Hard at work. Novel writing.
But of course (of course!) there is nothing wrong with just posting a link!
Here is an essay on the Mundane SF movement. And here is the ruminations of esteemed SF writer Ian McDonald on the topic.
Now, I have to admit to an all-consuming jealousy, the kind of thing that makes the main character in Edgar Allen Poe’s A TELLTALE HEART commit murders and go stark gibbering mad. It seems as if the Mundane SF movement is garnering more attention and more support than the New Space Princess movement that I started as a joke! That hardly seems fair! Here are people who have something interesting to say about the future of SF, and it is getting treated with more respect than my completely shallow crackpot idea!! Where is the justice in that?
You see, if I had been serious, this could have turned into a serious and interesting debate, because the Space Princess movement could act as a vanguard and spokesman for all writers and readers who want to see the fantasy aspects of science fiction, the sense of wonder, the romance, the time travel, the thinking machines larger than earth, the psionic mind-readers, the ninjas, the space-dinosaurs, the ninja-space-dinosaurs, the space-pirates, the amoeba-men, the ninja-space-dinosaurs of Mars fighting the psionic mind-reading space pirate amoeba-men of Boskone, and everything else that makes pulp-rooted science fiction the great genre it is. We could have taken the first step to undo the work John W. Campbell Junior did in introducing realistic science into science fiction during the Golden Age!
Butnow it is too late, and all we can do is post internet pictures of space princesses showing bare midriffs. Alack and wailaway.
You might not recognize her, but this above is Yin-Ylan, Flower of Cath, from a cartoon adaptation of Jack Vance’s TSCHAI books. She is a real honest-to-space Space Princess, but her fate is particularly Vancean. Vance characters never get the girl.
Evil Space Princess Aura, of course, standing between a evil barbarian space-viking and an evil space-mandarin!
She is the living symbol of our movement! Of course, she never gets the guy, does she? Flash Gordon escapes her evil, lust-filled painted-fingernailed clutches, doesn’t he, and she has to settle for that Robin Hood second-rate wannabe, the Green Arrow of Outer Space, Prince Barin of Arboria. Jeesh! I simply hate that Dale Arden! The Earthwoman is always spoiling Aura’s plans!
Irulan. So if princess Irulan fought princess Aura, who would win? Irulan could have her dad send his Saudakar Terror-Troops against her rival, or maybe even her messianic superhuman husband, Paul, but on the other hand, Aura could send her dad’s various Shark-men, Lava-men, Beast-men, robots and mutants. One the one hand, Ming the Merciless is immortal, but on the other hand, the Padishah Emperor has a greatly extended lifespan due to his addiction to the geriatric spice. The spice extends life! The spice expands consciousness! The spice is more addictive than thionite, and it is only a matter of time before the Galactic Patrol finds the apex of these drug-runners and smashes their whole evil zwilnick drug-ring! We all know the Padishah Emperor is merely another name for the Tyrant of Thrale, don’t we?
You see, while the Mundane SF movement is discussing the nature of human destiny and the role of realism in futuristic literature, we here at the Space Princess movement are discussing what Carrie Fisher looks like in a metal bikini.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
