What is Russian and Chinese sci fi like in terms of themes and beliefs?
>>43916784
I would also like to know this.
>>43916784
I've heard that the Chinese Government actually bans plots and stories dealing with Time Travel
>>43916784
>Russian
Read the Strugatsky brothers
>>43917013
So multi-dimensional travel but with sliding scales of time-lines to allow access to possible past and future scenarios is cool?
S'not technically time travel. Which is probably why Looper gets a pass.
>>43916784
Given that Russia is a big place, it probably depends on the person.
For example, it gave us both the Metro 2033 series AND Isaac Asimov, which are wildly different from each other.
China...that's a hard one, because the current political climate of the PROC is incredibly anal about a lot of arbitrary shit since as a government they are terrified of loosing control.
>>43917078
Asimov never even learned russian, he moved to the US when he was a very young child and his family was more jewish than russian.
>>43916784
China is really weird about what they do and don't allow in sci-fi. Time travel is usually banned (I cannot remember the reason for it), as well as some other random things that don't make a whole lot of sense. I'd also imagine that collectivism and nationalism features quite heavily into their sci-fi, because collectivism is drilled into them pretty much their entire live (despite the fact that Chinese culture often requires people to out-work each other and to be the very best at everything possible ever or they're nobody).
Russian sci-fi is very dark and dystopian, either in a literal or a metaphorical sense, but is also often strangely optimistic at the same time. Sure, demons have popped up out of the ground and are killing people, the world has totally ended, the world is run by mega-corps that are almost flat-out evil, but there is still time to laugh and joke while shit is hitting the fan. This cultural trope makes sense given Russian history, especially post-Soviet Union.
>>43916784
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eIMafROjyo
Rusiian scifi short film
>>43917493
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyMNIFZTQkg
And another
Solaris, based on the book by Stanislav Lem. No, the Tarkovsky version from 1972. I think it is on you tube.
>>43916784
China just steals shit from wherever, like their Macross ripoff Astro Plan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astro_Plan
>>43917013
>I've heard that the Chinese Government actually bans plots and stories dealing with Time Travel
That is for television shows, usually of the romantic variety made for middle aged women. They also banned MMO based plots.
>>43917197
Time travel is banned in China because they don't want discussion of history and revisionism.
>>43917197
>collectivism is drilled into them pretty much their entire live
No. The rejection of the collective society and the embrace of the individual is a predominant theme of the post-80s artistic and cultural landscape. You are dealing with conceptions that are 30 years out of date.
>>43917668
That's just the anime shit to appease the weebs
Have some real Chinese sci-fi
http://www.theworldofchinese.com/2012/12/the-3-generals-of-chinese-sci-fi/
http://kenliu.name/translations/three-body/
>>43917724
They have no problem revising what the Communists did during WW2. WW2 era dramas are one of the few things that is still allowed along with Mao era, post-Mao era and contemporary dramas. It's just social criticism and anything that talks about overthrowing governments that they are afraid of.
>>43917013
>>43917721
What? Why?
>>43917013
That's one of the most reasonable decisions I've ever heard them make.
>>43917850
That's just it, they don't want some petty thing like entertainment and sciencefiction serving as a gateway to criticism of the government's version of the past.
>>43917850
No, it's more a focus on how great the Communist party is. Anything where they can potentially lose however is a no-no. Like Command and Conquer Generals. That got banned because China was a playable multiplayer faction, meaning it could lose potentially, something they couldn't abide.
>>43917853
Because the governing body responsible is totally out of touch with the rest of the country. They're guidelines were basically
>no fantasy, time-travel, random compilations of mythical stories, bizarre plots, absurd techniques, even propagating feudal superstitions, fatalism and reincarnation, ambiguous moral lessons, and a lack of positive thinking
Whoa, this semester we've been doing a comparative analysis of sci-fi about space exploration in movies/cartoons during the cold war between the US and the USSR, trying to find interesting differences or similitudes between them.
We found a lot of interesting shit, starting with the fact that the USSR had a more scientific approach towards the space explorations, their spacecrafts having navigation tools that could be compared to the ones that an astronomer may use, while the US's spacecrafts' had cockpits that seemed to have been taken from a fighter plane, giving you the idea that their approach was much more military like.
>>43917013
Well I certainly didn't start the day thinking I'd end up applauding the CCP's common sense, but here we are. I have three basic rules for sci:
No Time Travel
No Parallel Universes
No Psychic Powers
China's already got no.1 covered - I wonder if they'd institute two and three if I asked them?
>>43917853
>>43917870
>>43918378
Their reasoning is that it 'disrespects history'.
>>43918483
The funny thing is that the BBC originally made Doctor Who because they wanted to teach children history. The sci-fi was just a clever way of disguising a history lesson.
>>43916784
Well, for China you can look up Steel Wings (AC:VD knockoff) and Astro Plan (Macross + Aquarion knockoff). Good luck.
>>43916784
Hard-boiled, Yeti Babba-Yaggas in GLORIOUS MOTHERLAND SPESS
>>43918378
Have you ever read any Stanislaw Lem? He's Polish but still has that profoundly pessimistic eastern European outlook in most of his non robot fairy tales sci-fi.
"The unfathomable futility of human life under the sway of mass murder cannot be conveyed by literary techniques where small groups form the core of the narrative".
>>43918755
Stanislaw Lem is fantastic. His most popular work is Solaris, and all versions are worth a look. The basic premise is a man is sent to investigate a station on an odd planet only to find the men there odd or insane.
Actual spoilers follow.He also find the woman he loved in college.
but she killed herself years ago,and there is no way she can be here
>>43918903
Indeed. I'd class a lot of his works as having elements of cosmic horror. The main difference being that where Lovcraftian entities are malevolent, Lem's are indifferent. People suffer in Lem's stories for the same reason people suffer if they take a boat out into a storm.
One of these days I'm going to have to write a comparative essay on Solaris and Kelvin and Moby Dick and Ahab.
>>43918584
And then they failed miserably. China was right.
>>43916784
Check out Ekaterina Sedia's work for some pretty good Russian sci-fi and fantasy. It tends to be a little bleak, but pretty cool.
Russian Scifi is at the heart of the genre, historically. The whole Eastern Block produced cutting edge utopy well into the 70s. While American Scifi heroes were raygun wielding Master Race mavericks, Eastern European Scifi dealt with questions of artificial life, cosmic responsibility, and the nature of man vs the nature of infinite space.
And let's not forget, the Russian space program has always been on the cutting edge. Nasa may have marketed the moon landings as the ultimate scientific frontier, meanwhile the Russian program has boldly torn down more borders into space and overcome more technical issues than is generally known in the Western Hemisphere. After the USSR fell the first thing Nasa did was buy up any rocket engines left over they could get their hands on, because they couldn't make 'em like that themselves.
Now lay back and enjoy Solyaris. No, it's not a Clooney flick, that's the silly remake.
>>43920847
>baiting this hard
>>43920847
>Solaris
>movie
How about you won't be a pleb and read the fucking book?
>>43921086
>Solaris
That's the name of the Clooney movie.
>>43921086
>reading a translated book
>not reading it in its glorious original language
>>43917013
>>43917060
What? One of the most well received TV drama was about a woman who got transported to the Early Quing Dynasty and falling in love with the local Lord.
There was also this one novel where a Salaryman gets reincarnated as a loli princess in Not!Tang Dynasty
Party-sactioned Soviet science fiction often went along the same lines as Star Trek. Anything Heinlein-like and Darker and Edgier, e.g. Military Science-Fiction, was banned.
>>43917942
>Because the governing body responsible is totally out of touch with the rest of the country
Doesn't that sound familiar
>>43921133
There's another older movie. Neither is liked by the original author of the book. He believes that they focus way too much on human dramas when the whole point of is the impossibility of communication and understanding a truly alien intelligence.
>>43919112
>The main difference being that where Lovcraftian entities are malevolent, Lem's are indifferent.
There are plenty of Lovecraft stories in which the entities in question are indifferent. That's one of the biggest themes of Lovecraft. Have you never heard of Azathoth?
>>43919112
>Lovcraftian entities are malevolent
Actually read some Lovecraft before referencing his work? You are mistaken about a basic premise.
When i think Russian sci fi i think of the Stalker video game series and Roadside Picnic.
>>43923262
Roadside Picnic soon, fellow Stalker!
>>43917721
>They also banned MMO based plots.
This is the first genuinely positive thing I have heard about China in a very long time.
Reading the wiki page. Russia during the soviet era impacted science fiction throguh censorship.
Wonder if OP is actually doing this for literautre homework come to think of it.
>>43917721
>They also banned MMO based plots.
Are they the real deal?
>>43920847
We bought and buy the engines to give Russia incentive to keep making them and therefore keep their experts in a job in a country that already has ICBM tech, rather than, say, Iran or the DPRK
>>43921028
Don't see any factual errors in what he said desu
Well okay, I can see one. He should have said soviet space program, not russian space program.
>>43923503
The NK-33 rocket are genuinely superior to any other rocket in their category and has the highest thrust-to-weight ratio of any Earth-launchable rocket engine. Quite good for a technology that was sealed in a warehouse and forgotten for 30 years.
>>43916784
I don't know about modern day Russia, but Soviet science fiction is the shit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdpIUbx-6NE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMqf81U8RoU
https://youtu.be/JKwq-wrHboU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fEaStyH8rk
>>43916784
For Chinese science fiction, read 'The Three Body Problem' by Cixin Liu. It's recent, like 2010s, and deals with both science fiction and social issues. A lot of the plot is set in motion by events of the Cultural Revolution, which is discussed more openly than I ever thought the censors would allow.
>>43923884
My brother of slavic descent.
>>43918047
That's an interesting point. If you read >>43917015
,you notice that in most of them Earth is living in post scarcity and war is a thing of the past or the book focuses on the point how advanced socialist Earth should handle backward capitalist/theocratic/royalist aliens on another planets.
>>43917013
There's a billion people in China, most people really don't give a shit about what the government wants.
>>43919112
>Lovcraftian entities are malevolent
Like, only Nyarli cares to fuck with us, other things don't really care that we exist.
>>43923348
Seeing as there's Overlord books in Chink I don't think that the prohibition actually does anything.
>>43924177
There is a difference between having a rule and actively enforcing a rule.
>>43923975
>you will never be a slav
Life is suffering
>>43923588
>On May 13, 2014, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin announced that Russia would no longer supply rocket engines for U.S. military launches, amid tensions arising from the 2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine.
Oh well.
>>43917078
Isaac Asimov (/ˈaJzɨk ˈæzɨmɒv/; born Isaak Yudovich Ozimov; circa January 2, 1920 – April 6, 1992) was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books.
>>43916784
>Russia
>making fun of totalitarianism
>writing about science
>writing space adventures in the style of Star Trek
>writing WE ARE ALL LIVING ON BORROWED TIME WE ARE ALREADY DEAD stories
>>43921350
>There was also this one novel where a Salaryman gets reincarnated as a loli princess in Not!Tang Dynasty
W-what?
>>43916784
>Russian scifi fiction
pre-90 (i.e USSR) sci fi wasn't bad. Main themes in that days was: science predictions, space travel, explorations, future society, etc. There was bad things of course (thanks, "socialist realism"), but I doubt you'll ever find them translated to English.
If you're looking for examples, I particularly recommend Strugatsky brothers. Maybe also Kir Bulychev and Ivan Yefremov for the "classic feel". There are another good authors, but I don't know if they was ever translated.
Nowadays 99% of Russian sci fi literature is absolutely garbage. And fantasy, as an "easier genre", is more popular (among the authors). However, 99% of Russian fantasy is shit too. Good thing is - you have a pleasure of "translation filter". I.e. - no one will translate garbage. So if you'll see something translated - it's, probably, at least an "ok" tier.
>>43916784
I've just realized that despite growing up on Soviet sci-fi I couldn't tell you about it's general themes, because I'd mostly read the classics. Whelp.
Though I can name one global feature in that all the works dealing with the future had to have the whole world be a communist post-scarcity one.
Russian sci-fi of 90's-00's widely imitated Western scifi. Many works were pretty dystopian. There was also a definite trend of strengthening nationalism, either making Russia a superpower in the future or going for alt history.
Most of it was horrible. I much stopped reading Russian sci-fi altogether.
But if the chinks are afraid of information or books about overthrowing a goverment. Should they ban Maos books too? They give you a really good idea how to start rebellions gorilla war and shit.
Just wondering
>>43917656
Lem was polish, not russian.
>>43921140
>Kurwa! Kurwa kurwa kurwa kurwa kurwa kurwa. Kurwa kurwa kurwa kurwa?
>>43916784
You know, if you read 'The Martian' it could easily be a Soviet sci-fi book. You just need to substitute USSR for the USA, get rid of the unscrupulous types in the space agency and shoehorn some bit about superiority of communism. Otherwise, the book has it all: an engineer MC who prevails through mastery of science, pride for science's achievements, practically all the characters are honest and compassionate, people are ready to sacrifice themselves and spend enormous amount of resources to save one of their kind.
>>43924357
You can get close and be a chav.
I'm actually genuinely interested in this subject now. Hopefully this thread will be here when I wake up.
>>43924800
Literally poetry
>>43924800
> Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo
>>43924800
>>43924897
Barbara Ara bar Ara araba bara rabarbara!
>>43917197
Science fiction is effectively banned in China. It's not that there's a single law that states that, it's that there are dozens of little ones that effectively "check off" the allowance to write any science fiction that can't be summed up as "the current government takes over the world and everyone is happy like that, the end."
>>43925283
Didn't The Three Body Problem literally just win a global award this year?
Interesting thing I've read: despite being a democratic, highly westernized state at the forefront of social and technological development, where life is dominated by omnipresent technology AND which has an extremely lively media industry aimed at all ages and which doesn't shy away from both modern and historical fantasy, South Korea produces BAFFLINGLY little science fiction. Even when they do, it tends to be extremely low-key ("4 years from now, a new party would be in power!" or "8 years from now, the Saudis will run out of oil!") The explanation for that has been the subject of several studies, with various conclusions. Most seem to believe that the South Korean mindset is simply too cynical to create any science fiction more speculative than that. It ties into their history and all.
You could count the number of serious (non-children's) fantasy books produced by my country on a single hand, and none of them were even good (though there was an astonishingly good gamebook).
You could count the number of science fiction books produced by my country on a fucking elbow.
>>43925401
Which country are you from?
>>43925401
Do you live in a micronation?
>>43925409
Israel
>>43925401
Do you discard many as "non-serious" because they include the genocide of all arabs?
>>43925432
Nope. You'd think that, but no.
>>43925436
Mind describing those books then?
What language were they even written in?
>>43925432
By "non-serious" I mean children's books with fantastic elements. And not Narnia stuff, I mean books you read to toddlers before bedtime. These have dragons and shit. In terms of books /tg/ would call "fantasy", there were literally like 2-3 in Israeli history so far, all of them officially aimed at "young adults" (and shitty at that).
>>43925381
Future shock, maybe? They can't write about the future because they're living in a cyberpunk reality complete with ominous megacorporations and the threat of nuclear war, and the cultural psyche hasn't really accepted that as "the present" yet.
>>43925446
When I'm back from work, sure.
>>43925401
That's pretty sad.
What's that gamebook called?
>>43920487
>And then they failed miserably.
Well, they quite doing historical dramas towards the end of the 1st Doctor's run, which is a good thing, because the sci-fi shit was usually considerably more interesting.
>>43925510
לשחק באור המנסרה ("Playing with The Prism's Light")
>>43921350
>There was also this one novel where a Salaryman gets reincarnated as a loli princess in Not!Tang Dynasty
Explain.
The only thing I remember is a bunch of stories about xeno loving loli Alice, muh boner nostalgia. By the way, was author inspired by Carroll and it was a homage?
>>43925723
>Carroll
Nope. The books were for kids, so it would make sense to have young character as a protagonist.
>>43922953
>Anything Heinlein-like and Darker and Edgier, e.g. Military Science-Fiction, was banned.
Bullshit.
Snegov's "Humans as Gods" trilogy was Military Space Opera - (protagonist is a space fleet admiral, FFS). Though, somewhat deconstructivist.
>>43923350
>Reading the wiki page. Russia during the soviet era impacted science fiction throguh censorship.
What does this even mean?
Also, don't read wiki about USSR. 60% is propaganda, 30% - someone's delusions.
>>43925723
Man, I used to love these series so much.
I think I still have at least ten books somwhere at my parents' place.
> have dozens if not hundreds of good books just lying around the apartment
> enjoy reading, buy even more books
> hope one day your sister will read them too
> she never reads anything
> she never reads anything AT ALL
The East Bloc was into post apoc, because depicting a society in decay which was all the rage in the West was banned, so they just skipped the decay part.
>>43924776
Lem was Soviet.
>>43924818
>You know, if you read 'The Martian' it could easily be a Soviet sci-fi book.
Yes. Actually, that's a good summary.
Except you can keep unscrupulous types ("evil bureaucrat" is a common archetype in Soviet Sci-fi) and don't mention communism. Communism gets mentioned only if there are non-communists around.
>>43919112
I loved Eden from him. It's about the ship crashlanding on a planet and the crew finding bizare local lifeforms, inscrutable abandoned structures and all sorts of seemingly eldritch shit, but in the end it turns out the local aliens live under a totalitarian government and the bizarre abandoned things they saw are the remnants of a failed eugenics experiment, and the rest is just fundamentally different biology and technology.
It's Hard to be a God and Monday Starts on Saturday. First doesn't really focus on its sci-fi elements and second isn't very serious but I think these books really capture that unique feel.
>>43926320
Lem was Polish, unless you believe Philip K. Dick:
'Dick thought that Stanisław Lem was probably a false name used by a composite committee operating on orders of the Communist party to gain control over public opinion, and wrote a letter to the FBI to that effect.'
>>43926360
>Except you can keep unscrupulous types ("evil bureaucrat" is a common archetype in Soviet Sci-fi)
It's not that he's evil, it's that he tries to cover up information to manipulate public opinion. Things like that were an absolute no-no in Soviet books, because it hit too close to home.
>>43917078
> Russia is a big place
Well it must be, given your comparing two authors from opposite sides of the planet and 50 years apart.
>>43926433
Are the translations any good?
I remember trying to read MSoS in English and feeling somewhat disappointed.
>>43917078
>Russia is a big place
Kinda like Afghanistan?
>>43926559
MSoS relies on context awareness a lot. The farther you are from a young Soviet R&D engineer fresh from their higher education, the less you'll catch.
>>43924735
The only modern russian scifi novel worth shit is Sorokin's Blue Salo.
I probably should read Day of the Oprichnik as well.
>>43925417
>not simply claiming everything ever written by a Jew or anybody who would have been jewish enough for the Nazis
>>43926067
It was literally Star Trek, the Second Gen.
>>43916784
Judging by Metro 2033 and Roadside Picnic, Russian sci-fi features the collapse of society, the hard scrabble for survival, and a desperate desire on the MCs part just to live comfortably and be a family man.
>>43926647
I don't think Blue Salo qualifies for sci-fi at all.
>>43925381
Considering that Seoul basically is LA from blade runner, science fiction might just seem redundant.
>>43923993
Ever read/watched Solaris?
>>43926629
True. Probably that's why is stays one of the lesser known Strugatsky's works.
>>43925417
So every single book written by a Jewish person was written by your people.
That's quite a bit.
>>43925401
I'm pretty sure there's not a single decent non-comic science fiction or fantasy book from my country (Belgium)
>>43925381
SK is literally halfway to cyberpunk. They've got megacorps and shit.
>>43923911
Seconded. I just finished this book.
>>43926786
When has Belgium ever done anything that wasn't either comics, chocolates, or mutilating Africans?
>>43926559
Not as good as translations of English/French/... literature to Russian were.
That's one of the least known aspects of Soviet literature: it didn't translate all of the books, but the ones that got through had a perfect translation. I'd say sometimes better than the original.
Modern commercial translations make my eyes bleed.
Also - >>43926629
Monday is Soviet book for Soviet readers about Soviet people doing Soviet things with magic.
>>43926683
>Star Trek
I can't really agree.
Either way, fun fact: the first book was published the same year as the first Star Trek.
>>43926732
>Set in the future
>time-travel
>creating new energy sources through SCIENCE
>political conspiracies
>Alt-history
Totes not scifi
>>43916784
>What is Russian and Chinese sci fi like in terms of themes and beliefs?
Well, thread is full of examples of what it used to be just a few decades back, so let's talk about modern trends for a second.
Ever noticed that trend in the anime where it's all about teens and you adults from modern day earth kicking ass and taking names in virtual reality/alternate fantasy worlds/distant past? That sort of silly stuff that is guilty pleasure at best and full of insufferable pandering at worst?
Well, that's all Russian sci-fi and fantasy is these days. Well, 95% of it, anyway. The rest is written by authors who seen the zenith of their career in the 90s/early 2000s and now are very obviously simply trying to pay the bills.
>>43917013
WELL, GOOD FOR THEM M8. GOOD FOR THEM.
>>43926904
That's stereotyping. Also, you forgot tulips.
>>43926931
>Monday is Soviet book for Soviet readers about Soviet people doing Soviet things with Soviet-ly scientific Soviet magic.
Not enough of Sovietness, fixed it for ya.
>>43926904
We do firearms, beer, waffles and high-level international corruption too
>>43926952
Rudasov started out like you describe but I think he managed to get past that.
>>43926952
>let's talk about modern trends for a second.
Let's not. It's horrible.
There is only ~1% of semi-readable books out of all produced.
>>43926971
>Soviet-ly scientific Soviet magic.
Eh. No. Magic is pre-Soviet. Soviet magic would be the computer.
>>43926812
SK megacorp CEOs tend to also have this nationalistic mindset that it's their responsibility to bring prosperity to their country more than just themselves, which is quite honorable IMO.
>>43916784
>>43924766
The Mainland is an interesting case as its regulations on sci-fi and fantasy tend to only exist in the areas where the current government is involved. You could write just about anything about fantasy adventures in Not!X-Dynasties and such just not in the current era.
One of the most well known sci-fi/fantasy novels out there is actually about a man who went back in time and became a Qin General. There are also comedy movies that come out once in a while about Tang scholars-in-training traveling to the 21st century Thermae Romae style.
Another thing here is that most Chinese fantasy/sci-fi, be it from the Mainland, Taiwan or Singapore mostly have the theme of "The good ol' days of the X-Dynasty." Which says quite something about the people's mindset.
>>43926983
Thing is, Rudasov actually knows just a little bit about writing, and he actually wanted to write about silly funtime adventures, so his books aren't full of constant wanking. But he's an exception.
>>43927014
I just wanted to emphasize their extremely Soviet approach to handling magic.
>>43926980
AND DIAMONDS.
>>43927074
>SK megacorp CEOs tend to also have this nationalistic mindset that it's their responsibility to bring prosperity to their country more than just themselves, which is quite honorable IMO.
Can we kill all the CEO's in America and replace them with SK CEO clones? Please?
>>43927336
Why would you want American CEOs bringing glory to SK?
>>43925401
Oy vey.
>>43927371
Well, the "psycho-indoctrination to make the clones love America" was implied.
>>43926096
Sorry, English isn't too good :(
>>43927336
A big part of it comes from the way their values are taught, though historical influences might also play a part in it.
To put it generally:
Koreans are taught that they need to work hard and cooperate so it brings glory to their people, compared to Chinese who are taught that everyone is a rival and they need to work hard so it brings glory to their family.
>>43918047
In the US Astronauts were military personnel, Do you think that had something to do with it? Did the Cosmonauts need military jet training before they could go into their stuff?
>>43927488
>tfw America isn't as nationalistic as it once was
>now it's just empty patriotism
rip.
SKorea sounds like a pretty cool place, though.
>>43927558
And their pop singers are much cuter.
>>43927558
Fuck their work hours.
>>43927505
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot-Cosmonaut_of_the_USSR
All cosmonauts had one of this, so yes.
>>43927558
Literally run by the 'corps, though. Like, a MP revealed that his colleagues were taking 'corp bribes, and he was the only one arrested.
>>43917853
In case people get ideas about changing history, or dreaming up 'what if' scenarios.
What if Tienamin Square hadn't happened?
What if the CCP had done this differently? (Implying the CCP might have been wrong, which is of course, heresy.)
There's also the idea that it 'disrespect history', but just lookt at some of their dramas about Japanese occupation.
>>43919112
>Lovcraftian entities are malevolent
Sorry brah, but as a big Lovecraft fan, no. They really aren't. Or at least as malevolent as we are to ants when we walk on them because we don't even notice them.
>>43916784
The few Russian sci-fi I've read were pretty Humanity: Fuck Yeah, showing off how awesome humans are for having mastered nature of Earth and built spaceships for exploration. These humans come as peaceful explorers and scientists, having more or less wiped out malice and disease back at home, but do not hesitate to put aliens in their place if they are sufficiently outraged by their practices.
>>43927617
There pop singers all had plastic surgery, along with a huge amount of SK women. It's almost seen as a right of passage now a days.
>>43928931
SK dogs even have plastic surgery.
>>43917942
>out of touch with the rest of the contry
Just like literally every government, ivory towers are universal and fighting government corruption is a zero sum game
>>43918378
What's the matter with any of those three things? You always have some gimmies in sci-fi
>>43927558
>the American people used to be one of the most thrifty people in the world, fixing something when it broke and only buying things they really needed
>>43927744
Surprised Japan is this low, considering their salaryman image.
>>43916784
There is absolutely no way this "knowledge" can help you (unless it's for your homework) so I'm curious about why you're asking.
>>43918378
What's wrong with Psychic Powers?
>>43918584
Modern Doctor Who is so historically inaccurate that it's actually painful to watch.
>>43929957
Not OP, but general curiosity?
>>43929120
>No Time Travel
>No Parallel Universes
If you allow time travel in a setting then basically anything can be retconned and nothing really matters. Case in point, Star Trek - every Trek series except Enterprise has been retconned from the official timeline due to the JJ Abrams movies (looking forward to Star Wars, btw). Likewise, anything bad that happens like the death of one of the main cast can just be undone with a short trip back in time. Parallel universes have a similar problem: nothing really matters because everything that happens didn't happen somewhere else. Cast members that die can be brought back just with a short trip to a near-identical parallel universe.
>No Psychic Powers
If you want magic, go for a fantasy setting. Psychics are basically just wizards without the robe and pointy hat.
>>43929908
They have robots to do so much stuff anyways.
And imagine what all the NEETs do to the numbers.
>>43930101
>retconned out of existence
but that's simply not true. Original timeline goes on, just without Spok, in Star Trek Online.
>parallel have similar problem
says you. Look how Stargate handled the issue: the people from parallel universes are not interchangeable. They all care for their own worlds.
>>43930024
It's not at all the same thing.
>>43929908
Yeah, that surprised me too. I've heard Japan has been moving towards reduced hours, but I would've expected it to have more than the US. On a related note, I think it's about time that I learned to speak German.
>>43927558
We need to go through harsh change but anyone in a position to do it feels that they have too much to lose
>>43930101
Psychic powers can be done right or wrong, but lots of people can't accept a fantasy setting leaving the planet so they have to make it sci-fit and then cover magic with psychic power
>>43925446
Okay, so I've ran another search just to be on the safe side, and it turns out I've been grossly underestimating the Israeli fantasy literature market. In the several years I haven't bothered to check it, as many as FIVE new books came out! That puts the total number of original Hebrew language fantasy books at a staggering EIGHT! (at least that I've been able to find references to. It's always possible that one or two more are floating around, but even if there are a whopping TEN books out there, I wouldn't call it much of an industry).
Obviously, I haven't read any of the new books I don't know about, so I can only give descriptions based on what I have. From the sound of it, though, I haven't missed much. Practically all of the new ones were generic medieval fantasy, with the exception of one teen vampire romance which I assume tried to ride the Twilight wave.
The first and probably most famous Israeli fantasy book is Hagar Yanai's "The Whale of Babylon" (the first in a trilogy which only gets worse). Since it was the first, Yanai wanted to do something unique and brewed up a really cool fantasy world based on a combination of Mesopotamian mythology and high-science, so its got shit like Babylonian demons powering force-fields and hovercraft launching missiles at giants. A pair of Israeli teenagers are drawn into this world, in which they have all kinds of adventures before finding out it's actually only one of many (between the worlds is "The Sea", and within the sea swims the titular "Whale", which in Hebrew is "Leviathan") over which a conspiracy exists to take involving ruthless Earth businessmen and psychiatrists (for some reason, but I'm sure Ron Hubbard is proud).
(cont.)
>>43930377
Unfortunately, while the premise is passably cool and Yanai is full of good intentions, she just isn't a very good writer and so the result ends up being an inconsistent fantasy setting which simply comes out as poorly designed (the most glaring example probably being the fact that there's no real logic or in-universe reasoning to when and how high-technology is used rather than magic. One moment the army's using tanks and automatic weapons, and the next moment the heroes are fighting with swords and bows because... that's what fantasy heroes have to do, it seems), the characters are shallow are cartoonish (sometimes to an offensive degree, although it's hard to elaborate on to people who don't know the stereotypes associated with various ethnic groups in Israel. Basically imagine a Nordic fantasy setting which not only features a black dude with a really flimsy explanation, but that black dude acts like a modern day gangsta). Like most young female Israeli fantasy writers (interestingly, that's most of them) Yanai tries to give her story feminist themes, but for the most part fails even at that (with the exception of one sequence which I have to admit was really cool due to the vivid descriptions and general creepiness of it. Long story short, the female heroine wants to masquerade as a boy in order to join the army, so she cashes out a favor from the Daughters of Naoma (a type of sensual demon), who, as they put it, "having mastered femininity, know how to hide it as well". They give her a kind of drug that basically causes her to turn androgynous, but the process is slow and eerie and the results aren't actually all that attractive, and it somehow ends up feeling like something out of Neil Gaiman rather than SJW magical realm.)
(cont.)
>>43930286
Germany
>Great beer
>Autobahn with no speed limit
>Low working hours
>You can legally have a loli waifu
No wonder all the Turks keep trying to get there.
>>43930397
The second Israeli fantasy book I remember coming out was about a fantasy world where a steampunk nation is fighting a fanatically religious magic using nation, and I must admit it was just so generic and poorly written I literally don't remember how it was called or who wrote it. I THINK that the name included the words "fox" and "lion", but I'm honestly unsure and it could just be my imagination.
The third remarkable fantasy book was called "Illusions", and it was yet another poorly written, YA-oriented "teenagers pass into (a different...) fantasy realm which also has high technology" where it feels like the author just introduced the seperate setting elements because each sounded cool at the moment and never bothered to try and make them work together.
Fourth, which I've read only the beginning of because I didn't have the time to finish, is called "Heresy", and is somewhat notable for being by Israeli magician/debunker Nimrod Harel, famous for his rivarly with "psychic" Uri Geller. You'd think that someone like that would give his own unique spin to a fantasy book but for the most part it's just generic fantasy (thankfully, without the high-tech bullshit this time). Magic is almost all based on illusions, and they're fairly low-key. It's also probably the only Israeli fantasy book (at least that I know of) to include elements of Jewish mysticism and mythology in the plot. It sounds weird to some foreigners that the Israelis wouldn't use Jewish mythology in their fantasy books but you got to understand that with the demographics of Israel being what they are, and the fact that it's more or less impossible to introduce those elements into a fantasy books without coming off as being critical (or at the very least slightly disrespectful) of them, doing so is assumed to be a recipe for such a shitstorm nobody in their right mind considers it.
(cont.)
>>43930413
The only two new books which didn't sound to me like they'll be more of the same old generic fantasy are called "The Lord of Telekinesis" (which, according to the back cover, takes place in the US and centers on a hidden midwestern town populated by psychics after some kind of government experiment), and "Shadow Lake", a children's/YA book about a girl who travels to some kind of fairytale world in order to save her sister. It stood out to me because the cover looked shockingly dark to me (reminded me of drawings of Slavic mythology), there are strong hints that one or both sisters might be dead, and the oldest among them is 13. All in all, while I can't say for certain, "Shadow Lake" gives off a strong "Bridge to Terabithia" or "Lauren and the Silver Wolf" vibe, and that just might be interesting.
(cont.)
>>43930431
"Playing with The Prism's Light", a gamebook by Dasi Alber, is a rare point of light and in my opinion, the best piece of Israeli fantasy literature to come out to date. It's extremely well-done as a gamebook, for once. It reads a bit like a combination between a visual novel and the Fabled Lands series (Dave Morris), being at once open world/sandbox (with a day/night mechanic to encourage the player to move on, since most of the action takes place in The Forest, but every action takes time and if you aren't back to The City by nightfall you will be vulnerable to some insanely dangerous encounters before you can make it) with a system of passwords for tracking plot advancement, and featuring distinct "routes" the protagonist may find themselves on as they advance through the story, each of which leads to one of several endings. Notably for a gemebook, PwTPL has a named protagonist with a past and a personality, the writing is very adult, the plots are emotionally involved (including some very mature romance plots, in the best, literary sense of the word) and most impressively, IT MANAGES TO DO FEMINIST THEMES RIGHT. Or, rather than feminist, one of the running themes of the story is "gender".
(cont.)
>>43930286
Don't be fooled. A German work day is very productive. No lunch hour or water cooler chat. You start at 8.30 and stay busy until lunch around 12. Half an hour later it's back to the treadmill until 5, unless you messed something up and have to stay and fix it. It's a different attitude.
Research shows that to be productive, workers must be well rested and motivated. By that theory more work gets done in less work hours as long as off hours are spent with family, relaxation, and reinvigorating recreation. It doesn't work if people have 2 or 3 jobs. It also only works if workers are paid well and don't have to worry about getting sick or having children.
Understand your company as a social construct and stop optimizing for shareholder value - and whatdoyouknow, shareholder value rises. Together with GNP, happiness, and life expectancy. People really want to be productive, just take the boot off their neck.
>>43930477
For example, one route reads like what would happen if Freud and Neil Gaiman joined to write a book (involving the protagonist getting into a possibly sexual, probably not romantic, definitely creepy relationship with a woman (?) who starts off as a sweet little girl asking him to complete morally dubious quests. As he does so, the little girl grows before his eyes into a seductive maiden, a mature pregnant woman, a mother, etc. eventually turning into a monstrous crone, but by that point she's got her hooks sunk into him emotionally and sexually so deeply he cannot run away from her. The creepy combination of discomfort and arousal underlying the whole thing is done very well, added to by the fact that the woman always meets the protagonist when he's alone in a dark place. It is actually possible (in some ways) she might be all in his mind. It culminates with her ordering him giving the goddess of love (who has spent the last several thousand years frozen in a crystal coffin) a mercy kill, which ends the world and probably (?) turns him into a doll on strings in a highly symbolic and disturbingly erotic ending sequence. It sounds weird here, and it is weird, but it's a very good kind of weird. Another route focuses on a civil war between the forces of the Prince (a scheming, effiminate man with a crippled arm) who is an effective but ruthless dictator, and the rebel Princess, a butch warrior woman who's face is scarred. The symbolism sounds really blunt when I put it like that but in the book it's refreshingly subtle, and the Freduain conclusion is discussed in a complex and two-sided fashion (the prince cannot fight, and therfore is not a real man, the princess is not beautiful, therefore she is not a real woman - also they lusted after each other as kids, because why not). The war, by the way, is eventually stopped by a figure known as The Witch, a perfect hermaphrodite from "a country where the concept of gender doesn't exist".
>>43930501
Finally, it may be worth noting that while books aren't doing so good there IS a bit of Israeli science fiction and a tiny bit of fantasy (the ratio is reversed there) in television and cinema. These, however, a whole other subject to talk about.
>>43930411
The United States
>Great television
>no gun control
>everyone's fat
>You can legally rape Latina inmates
No wonder all the Saudis keep summering there.
>>43930491
>You start at 8.30 and stay busy until lunch around 12. Half an hour later it's back to the treadmill until 5, unless you messed something up and have to stay and fix it. It's a different attitude.
What, isn't that normal? That's normal, right? Why do I get a feeling like one of those horror stories about other countries.
>>43930411
>people who love poop jokes graviate to the country that loves poop.
Sounds natural to me.
>>43919112
Ah, as we're on the topic of Polish sci-fi writers. Dukaj is just amazing and it's such a shame he got only a few of his stories translated. He often deals with the technological singularity - but for him it's not a miraculous cure for everything but a great source of new problems, mostly related to the fact that we, as biological organisms, are wired for survival and deficiencies. As we break that barrier there's very little left for us.
>>43930491
I'm fine with working and being productive. Honestly, it's what I prefer. I just like being treated well and actually having some free time.
>>43924654
>Strugatsky
Snail on a Slope is a goddamn masterpiece and everybody should read it. A powerful anti-communist piece too.
>>43930377
>>43930397
>>43930413
>>43930431
>>43930477
>>43930501
So Israeli fantasy fiction is basically defined by being about world-hopping teenagers, technomagic, and feminism?
>>43930988
Fantasy isn't seen as a "serious" genre to write in, so most fantasy writers in Israel are young women (most writers are male, but they deal with heavy stuff). It shows.
>>43930722
>Snail on a Slope
> powerful anti-communist piece.
No, it's not. It's just the younger brother whored out every book as "anticommunist" and became an unconditional supporter of the "democracy" (i.e. Yeltsin's regime) in exchange for becoming "Writer #1" in the 90s (since he didn't have literary talent of his elder brother, he couldn't rely on his own books).
God knows what the elder brother would've done to him, if he was alive.
>>43927074
>Singapore
>Part of China
I'm pretty sure that Singapore is a dictatorship that is separate from China.
>>43932128
It's actually a parliamentary republic based on the Westminister system. From what I've heard it's still pretty authoritarian, though.
>>43918378
Good man, fuck those 3 things
>>43932205
it's a pretty FINE country thoughnudge nudge wink wink
>>43932205
I'm pretty sure their dictator died recently. It's just they don't call it a dictatorship because most of those guys are fucking assholes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benevolent_dictatorship
Yep, wiki says it's one of these things.
>>43932694
I see. Thank you for pointing me towards some new information, anon.
>>43917850
And social commentary is basically the point of most good Sci fi
>>43917078
Asimov was not Russian in any way we might use the term nowadays. He was Jewish, which meant he definitely wasn't Russian -- to the Russians, anyway.
>>43933239
>to the Russians, anyway.
Wat.
Asimov wasn't Russian because didn't live in Russia, didn't know Russian and (most importantly) never considered himself Russian. Everything else doesn't matter.Granted, everyone has Nazis, but nobody considers them to be relevant (unless they are in charge, of course).
>>43926904
They refused to let france build the maginot line along their borders.
Also, most illegal firearms in Western Europe come from there.
>>43935788
You say that like it's a bad thing that Belgium wanted to maintain its neutrality
>>43917668
>mfw I like the China man knock off way more than the skinny bitch VFS we've been getting
>>43929908
Actually its' considered bad manners to leave before the manager, and the manager is considered a bad manager if he leaves before his underlings clock out.
That and there is this rising problem of 'black companies' that exploit the huge pool of desperate job seekers by forcing to work many many hours of unpaid, unlogged overtime. Some even have them sleep in the office so they don't need to go home, usually for bullshit excuses.
The reason those hours are so low is because after that, they go into overtime, and that doesn't get recorded...
