I don't read much (genre), but why do they all have...?

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This is the thread where you query stereotypes in genre fiction that you don't know much about.

Why is it that in space-opera science fiction, the smallest polity unit always seems to be the planet? Why do planets in sci-fi novels never have multiple countries on them?

(OK, I except Charlie Stross's novels, where West Yorkshire is a)n independant socialist republic. Everything *else*, though.)

― caitlin (caitlin), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:16 (twenty years ago)

Because Earth is special.

― Huk-L, Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:18 (twenty years ago)

what about in Star Wars where each planet seems defined by one environment? (ice planet, desert planet, swamp planet, etc)

― The Sensational Sulk (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:19 (twenty years ago)

Maybe if we were suddenly (or gradually) confronted with an array of alien life, humans would realize that we have more in common than not and band together out of fear? To present a unified front against a cold and frightening universe?

xpost

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:20 (twenty years ago)

Yes, that's another aspect of the same thing.

(this thread was inspired by the mention of Star Trek in the non-dystopian sci-fi movies thread)

(xpost)

― caitlin (caitlin), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:20 (twenty years ago)

west yorkshire as independent socialist republic?

TELL ME MORE, tell me of the politburo of heckmondwike town

― charltonlido (gareth), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:21 (twenty years ago)

Why, again in Sci-Fi, have convention doors that you push/pull open gone extinct? What a waste of plutonic fuel cells! Lazy ass Captain Kirk.

― Huk-L, Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:23 (twenty years ago)

Flicking through Stross's first book: yes, one of the main characters is, "for reasons of nostalgia, a registered citizen of the People's Republic of West Yorkshire".

― caitlin (caitlin), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:24 (twenty years ago)

The same reason that there are hoverboards instead of skateboards, duh.

xpost

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:24 (twenty years ago)

xpost: they must be a big waste of space in cramped space ships too, because you need a big space for the door to slide back into.

― caitlin (caitlin), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:25 (twenty years ago)

insurance rules are even more insane in space, I guess.

― The Sensational Sulk (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:28 (twenty years ago)

And why is the Scotsman named Scott?

― Huk-L, Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:28 (twenty years ago)

Why do all cheap romance novels have Fabio on the cover?

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:30 (twenty years ago)

Why do all Fabio roller-coasters have geese?

― giboyeux (skowly), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:31 (twenty years ago)

Ubiquitous Fabio is a US thing, I think. He's not on cheap romance novel covers over here.

― caitlin (caitlin), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:32 (twenty years ago)

I don't read much erotica, but why do they all have sex?

― Ian Riese-Moraine's all but an ark-lark! (Eastern Mantra), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:34 (twenty years ago)

why are so many sci-fi writers hung up on earth? i didn't travel at magnificent speeds across the universe just to find some friggin' church devoted to elvis presley or some such shit. fuck an earth!

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:36 (twenty years ago)

Righty-ho!

http://www.westcoast-music.com/images/cd-pictures/image440.jpg

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:37 (twenty years ago)

But where is the orifice?

― caitlin (caitlin), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:38 (twenty years ago)

i have very strong feelings about the humanization of space:

When Is Someone Gonna Make A Sci-Fi Show Or Movie Without Any People In Them?

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:39 (twenty years ago)

But where is the orifice?

The Black Hole of Calcutta, obv.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:40 (twenty years ago)

The glory hole in the men's room at the local discotheque.

― Ian Riese-Moraine's all but an ark-lark! (Eastern Mantra), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:41 (twenty years ago)

Feasible interstellar travel would let people really spread out, and colonists of like mind would understandably prefer to find their own planet than share one with a group they didn't agree with.

Early on, when space travel is only interplanetary, disagreeing groups can't get away from each other as easily, which is why in Robinson's Martian Trilogy you've got the populace dividing up on sociopolitical lines rather than geographic (or areographic) lines, the Reds vs. the Greens (plus variations).

Taking a whole planet = North American Manifest Destiny.

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 19:58 (twenty years ago)

I scoffed the lot!

― DV (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 20:17 (twenty years ago)

I think the question is rather answered by the sub-genre: the space opera is already the most simplified, stereotpyical sci fi format, isn't it? Must be close to, anyway. Actually I'm having trouble thinking of an example in which the stereotype is true.

― Laurel, Wednesday, 1 June 2005 20:55 (twenty years ago)

I don't read much (any) romance, but ... do any of them not rely on the time-tested rich-princess + sweaty-workingman pairing?

― nabiscothingy (nory), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 22:40 (twenty years ago)

the sweaty workwoman + rich prince.

― latebloomer: Pain Don't Hurt (latebloomer), Wednesday, 1 June 2005 22:46 (twenty years ago)

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