小说与文学2018bbc.com
我们的科幻小说折射出什么
What our science fiction says about us
导读
BBC 文化版文章讨论科幻小说如何映照出产它的社会，并指出长期以来人们把"未来的想象"视为西方的专利，如今中国、非洲等地科幻正在发声。这篇文章值得写作者读，是因为它示范了"虚构世界即社会自画像"这一视角，同时其论证本身也提供了反面教材：论据选取不当会让宏大论点显得视野狭窄。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
把科幻当作一面镜子：你设定的制度、人物构成与权力关系，往往在无意间暴露你所处社会的默认假设，写作时应主动检视这些默认值。
- 02
谈论"多元"前先做功课，承认已有的先例与先驱，否则"新发现"式的叙述只会显得无知，反而削弱论点。
- 03
世界观的可信度来自具体化的机构与权力结构（谁在统治、谁在服从、谁在例外），而非仅靠技术奇观撑场。
- 04
例证要经得起反驳：拿一个本土色彩浓厚的商业产品当"外来多元"的证据，整篇论证都会被读者一并打折。
- 05
翻译与介绍异文化作品时，注意不要把"我此前没注意到"写成"此前不存在"。
- 06
人物名单本身就是世界观声明，列角色时可以刻意设计其出身与背景，而不必默认单一文化模板。
HN 评论精选
西方科幻里早就有大量非西方角色与背景，把"多样性"说成新现象是作者的视野问题。
作者显得很无知，似乎突然对刘慈欣大惊小怪。西方读者一向欢迎斯特鲁加茨基兄弟、斯坦尼斯拉夫·莱姆这样的作家，也欢迎日本科幻；他还忘了厄休拉·勒古恩这样的先驱以及背景多元的西方作家。而且传统上著名的西方小说里，角色也一直很丰富。我是印度人，随手就能想起西方科幻中这些"历史上的"印度人物与场景：凡尔纳《海底两万里》中的尼摩船长是印度本德尔坎德的旧王公；《八十天环游地球》的主角福格救下并后来娶了印度女子艾娥达；《2001太空漫游》中 HAL 9000 的程序员是来自伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校的钱德拉博士；《星际迷航》最著名的反派之一是可汗·努尼恩·辛格，一个锡克人角色；萨根《接触》里的五位科学家中有一位印度人；海因莱因《严厉的月亮》把印度阿格拉作为关键情节地点。
sn41查看英文原文
The author just sounds ignorant, and seems to have jumped up at Cixin Liu. Western fans have always welcomed authors like the Strugarsky brothers and Stanislaw Lem, and Japanese scifi. He also seems to be forgetting pioneers like Ursula Le Guin, authors from a diverse Western background. Moreover, even traditional well-known Western fiction has had diversity in characters. I am Indian, and off the cuff, can recall the following "historical" Indian figures/settings in Western scifi: - Captain Nemo, in "20000 Leagues Under the Sea", was the erstwhile Maharaja of Bundelkhand, India - "Around the World in 80 days" - Phileas Fogg, the main character, rescues and later marries an Indian, "Aouda". - The programmer of HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey, is Dr. Chandra, from UIUC - One of the most famous antagonists in the Star Trek universe is Khan Noonein Singh, a Sikh character - One of the five scientists in Carl Sagan's "Contact" is Indian (Devi?) - "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert Heinlein has Agra, India as a pivotal plot venue.
选《黑豹》作"多元突破"的例证站不住脚，反而暴露作者长期的文化盲区。
作者用《黑豹》作为"脱离西方垄断"的例子，可《黑豹》是纯正的美国产品，漫画超级英雄也是上世纪科幻里最陈旧、被反复翻炒的一个子类型，作者却拿它来展示"来自世界各地的多元想象"正在"开花"。从杜波依斯的《彗星》到《黑豹》、再到 Nnedi Okorafor，非洲未来主义全都出自美国，难道不算"西方"？非裔美国文化不算西方文化吗？整篇文章像是几十年视而不见的人写的，如今才发现周围还有其他文化存在。走到自己的泡沫之外看着像进步和前卫，但这种惊讶与自我感觉良好，恰恰暴露了此前有多偏狭。文章谨慎地用了"知名"这个限定词还算可取，因为科幻从一开始就极其多元和进步——真要说的话，现在反而是另类右翼小圈子在试图"殖民"这个类型。
grive查看英文原文
Citing Black Panther as an example of a departure from > Well-known artistic depictions of the future [...] showing a marked lack of diversity. Black Panther was a purely american product, Comic book superhero is the most stale and rehashed sub-genre of science-fiction from the last century, and this author uses it to show a "blossoming" of new diverse and imaginative production from "around the world"? Afrofuturism, reaching back from W. E. B. Du Bois with The Comet to Black Panther, Nnedi Okorafor, ALL of them american products, would not be considered the "West"? African-american culture is not western? > “But this phenomenon, which is now making its voice heard from areas like China or Africa, also has a much longer history that precedes today’s boom.” This whole article seems to be written from the point of vue of someone who have been blind for decades, discovering that other culture exists all around. Reaching outside their bubble seems progressive and forward-thinking, but this surprise and this impression of being so avant-gardiste only serves to show how bigoted they were for so long. > Well-known artistic depictions of the future have traditionally been regarded as the preserve of the West, and have shown a marked lack of diversity. I can appreciate the prudent use of "well-known" here, because science-fiction has been extremely diverse and progressive from the beginning. If anything however, there is a backlash from alt-right cliques to colonize the genre, with the recent attempts to subvert the Hugo Awards[1]. This seems to go against the narrative of this article, but I think this is more important (and disturbing). That Cixin have won the award recently does not mean that science fiction is becoming more diverse, only that foreign authors have been welcomed into the fold. So typical, the only boom that matters is the one playing into the US cultural codes, one face of imperialism. Only there it is pretending to be diversity. [1]: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/17/hugo-award-nominees-withdraw-amid-puppygate-storm
作品的世界观结构（军事化的机构、隐形的中心文化）最能暴露它所来自的那个社会。
我个人看到的幻想类作品、反乌托邦未来小说远多于真正的科幻。我同意这类作品反映当下社会趋势，艺术家总体上比其他人更能预见未来。再往深处看，像《星际迷航》这样的科幻也在书写它"出身"的社会：它明明描绘一个"国际化"的未来，呈现的却是美国式的中心视角——那就是星际舰队；它也并不是一个真正自由的社会，虽然不必工作、人人看起来都很快乐，但一切都围绕星际舰队或军事机器运转，而不是民主制度。
xte查看英文原文
Mh, personally I see far more fantasy production, distopic future fictions than science fictions ones... And I agree that they represent actual society trends since artist in general foresee the future far more than any other... And if we dig deeper even science fiction like Star Trek represent their "originating" society, for instance while ST clearly represent an "international" future they represent it as USA-style-centric vision, that's is the starfleet. The same they represent a not-really-free society because yes there is no need to work and anybody seems to be happy, but anything goes around "starfleet" or around a military apparatus, not a democracy.
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