My Perfect SF World

(Unfamiliar and uneducated start here: educated and familiar, god-authors, author-gods, solopsists and functioning schizophrenics skip on down): The World as Myth concept is broad and varied but essentially means this: YOU and the world you live in were created by some author in a parallel universe. Here – you are ‘real’ and seem to enjoy free will. In your author’s universe, you are nothing but black marks on a white page, a ‘character’, a puppet on some self-important creative type’s string. The act of imagining you instantiated the universe you inhabit as real.

(Actually, there are multiple you’s, just as there are multiple authors of your world myth, and just as there are multiple mes, and all kinds of bizarre tangents and convolutions that turn this concept into an absolute mess, but we need not confound those who have chosen to read a section of this piece labeled for the uneducated and unfamiliar. Rest assured that in some other parallel universe the entirety of the concept is laid out in full and exacting detail, suitable for thesis submission, footnoted, indexed and TOCed. And rest assured that in at least some other parallel universes, you did not read the preceding sections but skipped on down to the next paragraph because in that world, you are not ignorant of the concept. I could go on, but what would be the point? Some other me has already done so.)

Those familiar with World as Myth enjoy it as a concept for playing around with (mostly of the crossed-genre/I want to live on Gor type daydream), but I want to take it one step further. If the theory holds any water, then the act of imagination is the act of creation. I may not get to see what I imagined realized in my own universe, but writing it down will insure that it does exist in some other universe.

I can’t think of a much more science fictional way to go about setting things right for the genre. My right for the genre. YMMV as they say. Speaking of which.

In my perfect SF world, the acronym ‘YMMV’ does not exist. No one ever heard of it, thought of it or will ever think of it.

In my perfect SF world, the commonly accepted name for the genre will be SF or Science Fiction. Sci Fi, SciFi, PsyFy, and SyFy (both the abbreviation and the channel) will not exist. During the early 1950’s an Uber Fan named Forry Ackerman saw that abomination used in a fanzine, rounded up his influential fannish friends and excised that phrase from the body politic of fandom forever.

In my perfect SF world, the following sentence makes perfect sense to everyone: “I’m not going to bother seeing it. All the reviews are saying Avatar is skiffy.”

Skiffy is regularly used by the mainstream press to invoke images of poorly conceived fare designed solely for low-brow appeal.

In my perfect SF world, Science Fiction is the genre that all good writers aspire to. Not just because the pay is really good. Successful writers of the genre are revered for their ability to weave real world rigor with fantastic concepts into compelling, thought-provoking literature.

In my perfect SF world, that old expression about gym teachers isn’t about gym teachers, it’s about fantasy writers: those who can’t write Science Fiction write fantasy. Those who can’t write fantasy write romance.*

In my perfect SF world, SFWA holds the cards when it comes to dealing with Hollywood and New York. Film and television shows are vetted by the Concept Infringement Committee, (which also has the dubious task of apportioning the assessed fees and fines. Some concepts date all the way back to Weinbaum, Williamson, Merritt and Lovecraft). Harlan Ellison has been trying to dump his job as Chairman of that committee for four decades now.

In my perfect SF world, remakes just don’t happen. Whenever the producers of a potential remake poll the fans, they get a resounding rejection. Well – except for that one time when some guy managed to convince enough fans to vote positively for a remake of Star Trek. We all know how badly that went – no need to recount the gory details here. Suffice it to say that the incident has made it virtually impossible to ever get anyone to go for a re-boot again.

In my perfect SF world, scientists have discovered a form of immortality. Long ago the citizenry decided to reserve the use of this technology to those deserving through their contributions to society. That’s right! You guessed it. Science Fiction authors are usually given this treatment when they reach old age. Therefore, Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Piper, Russell, Campbell, Chandler, Lovecraft, Howard, Burroughs, Wells and the rest of the pantheon are still with us. Most of them only write occasionally these days, which is ok, because their presence serves a much higher function; they keep the young whipper snappers in line and preside over the protection and preservation of the genre’s exalted place among the arts.  They make sure Science Fiction STAYS Science Fiction.

In my perfect SF world, Hugo Gernsback lived long enough to get the immortality treatment. In that same world, Hugo never lost his publishing empire. In fact, he ended up purchasing the Thrilling Group and several other largish magazine publishing concerns. He continued to expand his radio station holdings and when television came along, he got into it in a big way. In that world, there is no discussion of a modern ‘fourth network’ because there have always been four networks – ABC, NBC, CBS and GBC. The Experimenter Media Corp (owners of GBC and other properties) are considered to be the savior of print publications – a direct result of GBC’s active promotion and support of reading, educational programming and scientific ‘entertainments’. Hugo’s hiring of Murrow and Cronkite following WWII changed the entire course of broadcast history.

In my perfect SF world, John W. Campbell never became an editor of Astounding. Instead, he wrote full time, regularly wining virtually every literary award known to mankind. Eventually he opened up a writing school where he can still be found today. His influence on the genre is legendary.

In my perfect SF world, there IS a solid definition of Science Fiction. Damon Knight (immortality again) has every single work that might be science fiction paraded past him. Whatever he points at is awarded the Finger of Recognition Award. Damon is very tired these days and would like to get back to writing; there is serious discussion of cloning him or of finding a way to electronically replicate his critical faculties so that everyone could carry a miniature Damon-Decider with them at all times.

In my perfect SF world, Forry Ackerman is famous for reasons other than eliminating the phrase SxxFx from the language. He’s also famous for getting 98% of the world to adopt Esperanto as their official language. This has gone a long way towards completely eliminating the troubles associated with translated works. Now everyone anywhere can read the SF stories produced anywhere else in the world. The SF pantheon is truly enormous – but manageable because -

In my perfect SF world, everyone has time and patience. We’re doing just fine with mechanical integrators and seat of the pants navigation for spaceflight; those giant wheeled space stations sure look great sailing across the night sky, the Mars colony is thriving, the expeditions to Jupiter’s and Saturn’s moons have almost arrived, untold mineral wealth in the form of asteroids floats in Earth orbit and there’s no pressure from overpopulation, because an educated populace generally reproduces less.

We’ve got time, resources, and the luxury of a host of brilliant minds full of exceedingly wonderful visions to lead us into the future.

*Got a problem with any of this?  Fine – and understandable.  If you want to complain, you’ll have to take it up with the folks inhabiting the universe where those statements hold true.  They’re the ones with the issue.  (If you figure out a way to talk to them, please let me know….)  Your best bet though is to create your own perfect universe.  There’s an infinitude of them already, a few more won’t make any difference.