Russian famous historian Andrei Fursov points out (in some of his lecture and television talks ) an interesting tendency in the contemporary popular culture.
In his youth, he says, Science Fiction was a very popular genre. But after 1980s, instead of Sci-Fi fantasy has become more and more popular (he also draws examples of recent Hollywood films based on the fantasy novels that must have been waiting for their time for decades).
Though being much younger than Fursov, I also belong to the generation when Sci-Fi was a popular genre in fiction and cinema. In my childhood the genre easily draw my attention with its inherent belief in rational thinking of human being and in the unlimited achievement of natural sciences in the future.
Even then, the future on Earth and in Space was depicted not always "futuristic", as in "Soylent Green", "The planet of apes"and "Rollerball". But in those films the technologies were supposed to be far more developed than today.The reality is that today, almost none of those technologies (space travel to another solar system, totally artificial-looking food made from unknown materials, A.I. with the ability to do real conversation with individual human etc.) has not been realized yet. These future technologies will, if being realized, serve to the intellectual development and widening the cognitive overlook of human being as species.
Instead,technological developments for these 20-30 years have achieved to the contrary purpose: ENTERTAINMENT and BUSINESS. To make human being more dull, more active consumers of goods, having lesser interest in history, philosophy, and works of arts.
Recently I walk around in a rental DVD shop to see which genres of movies are now popular (the numbers of stock DVDs and percentage of empty cases among them approximately show the popularity of each genre). For my surprise, "Harry Potter"series are far more popular than any kind of Sci-Fi series( not to mention classic Sci- Fi films of 1980s and before).
What kind of intellectual labor is needed to see such fantastic tales, totally alien to the social reality of any historical period? And what kind of anxiety or philosophical thought will they stimulate in the viewer?
Nothing. Such films are not so different from amusement parks, the only difference is the existence of strong mythological, or irrational elements. In these films only the mythological, irrational elements have their roots in human history.
I don't insist that fantasy is a "bad"genre, that they are secret propaganda of irrationality. But if remember such films of 70s and 80s as "Solaris", "Andromeda" , "West World", and "Blade Runner" and the "zeitgeist"of the time of their release, the prevalence of fantasy on screen today seems something unhealthy. Do people really want only such fairy tales with "initiation"of kids?
Strangely enough, recently made Japanese anime film "Mardock Scrumble" based on the Sci Fi novel of the same title, also has strong irrational elements and "initiation"-like development of the plot. In mid 90s, we saw also "Evangelion"and "Serial experiments Lain". In all these anime films and TV series, dominant tone is made from irrational, uncontrollable things in human (basic instinct, unconsciousness, dream and fear of death, passions). They are total contrast to the Japanese classical Sci-Fi anime series made from late 70s to early 80s with clear human drama and hi-tech machines as tools.
Fictional technology has become to be depicted as some kind of "magic" on the one hand, the human physical body --as a hi-tech machine with inner "ghost" at its best ("Ghost in the shell" and "Innocence"), mutated or mutilated flesh at its worst--on the other ("Evangelion"and "Mardock Scrumble") .
Technology as "black magic" wipes out the border between the reality and nightmare, as it happens in Cronenberg's "Videodrome" and in later works of Ph.K.Dick.
As we know, Dick hadn't (and Cronengerg in "Videodrome" neither, I think) been indulged in the depiction of such "black magic" technologies. He rather feared it.
Something has changed, really.
In his youth, he says, Science Fiction was a very popular genre. But after 1980s, instead of Sci-Fi fantasy has become more and more popular (he also draws examples of recent Hollywood films based on the fantasy novels that must have been waiting for their time for decades).
Though being much younger than Fursov, I also belong to the generation when Sci-Fi was a popular genre in fiction and cinema. In my childhood the genre easily draw my attention with its inherent belief in rational thinking of human being and in the unlimited achievement of natural sciences in the future.
Even then, the future on Earth and in Space was depicted not always "futuristic", as in "Soylent Green", "The planet of apes"and "Rollerball". But in those films the technologies were supposed to be far more developed than today.The reality is that today, almost none of those technologies (space travel to another solar system, totally artificial-looking food made from unknown materials, A.I. with the ability to do real conversation with individual human etc.) has not been realized yet. These future technologies will, if being realized, serve to the intellectual development and widening the cognitive overlook of human being as species.
Instead,technological developments for these 20-30 years have achieved to the contrary purpose: ENTERTAINMENT and BUSINESS. To make human being more dull, more active consumers of goods, having lesser interest in history, philosophy, and works of arts.
Recently I walk around in a rental DVD shop to see which genres of movies are now popular (the numbers of stock DVDs and percentage of empty cases among them approximately show the popularity of each genre). For my surprise, "Harry Potter"series are far more popular than any kind of Sci-Fi series( not to mention classic Sci- Fi films of 1980s and before).
What kind of intellectual labor is needed to see such fantastic tales, totally alien to the social reality of any historical period? And what kind of anxiety or philosophical thought will they stimulate in the viewer?
Nothing. Such films are not so different from amusement parks, the only difference is the existence of strong mythological, or irrational elements. In these films only the mythological, irrational elements have their roots in human history.
I don't insist that fantasy is a "bad"genre, that they are secret propaganda of irrationality. But if remember such films of 70s and 80s as "Solaris", "Andromeda" , "West World", and "Blade Runner" and the "zeitgeist"of the time of their release, the prevalence of fantasy on screen today seems something unhealthy. Do people really want only such fairy tales with "initiation"of kids?
Strangely enough, recently made Japanese anime film "Mardock Scrumble" based on the Sci Fi novel of the same title, also has strong irrational elements and "initiation"-like development of the plot. In mid 90s, we saw also "Evangelion"and "Serial experiments Lain". In all these anime films and TV series, dominant tone is made from irrational, uncontrollable things in human (basic instinct, unconsciousness, dream and fear of death, passions). They are total contrast to the Japanese classical Sci-Fi anime series made from late 70s to early 80s with clear human drama and hi-tech machines as tools.
Fictional technology has become to be depicted as some kind of "magic" on the one hand, the human physical body --as a hi-tech machine with inner "ghost" at its best ("Ghost in the shell" and "Innocence"), mutated or mutilated flesh at its worst--on the other ("Evangelion"and "Mardock Scrumble") .
Technology as "black magic" wipes out the border between the reality and nightmare, as it happens in Cronenberg's "Videodrome" and in later works of Ph.K.Dick.
As we know, Dick hadn't (and Cronengerg in "Videodrome" neither, I think) been indulged in the depiction of such "black magic" technologies. He rather feared it.
Something has changed, really.
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