Hey, folks, At worldcon, I was arguing (in the rhetorical barcon sense, not the having a fight sense) with a friend about the Rainbow Age of Science Fiction, which I still maintain is the best descriptor of the current moment in genre. We have the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the New Wave, the Cyberpunks, the Grimdark Era… but what’s happening currently (and has been for about ten years) is a flowering of technicolor diversity such as publishing has never seen. It’s glorious, if you ask me.
I think "Rainbow Age" is a pretty good sobriquet for our time. I was recently thinking "Starburst Age" might fit because of the sheer explosion of new things from heretofore diminished voices, and, as you point out, diverse influences, but I think yours is snappier. :)
WRT diverse influences, I was trying to explain to someone around my age that there's entire generations of SFF readers/watchers whose foundational experiences aren't Heinlein juveniles or Clarke or Asimov, but rather Harry Potter and Pokemon, and their head nearly exploded. I agree it's important to recognize that there are legions of people who are part of the community now who never participated in the fandom of old - even if some of us were of an age to have done so - and whose first loves are TNG and Xena, or Vampire: The Masquerade, or any of the dozens of other alternate paths of entry we now have.
I think SFF these days is like an enormous interwoven river delta, like the Louisiana bayous or the pre-reclamation lower Rhine, full of myriad channels, some of which interconnect in interesting and unexpected ways. There's still a few which, having split off from the mother river, resolutely plow on without touching their kindred, but less as time marches on.
Stretching is how we prepare for the unexpected. Brilliant works of Speculative Fiction brought upon us by the likes of PKD and Gibson critically changed the SF genre, opening the door to blend Science-Fiction with Noir, Fantasy (The Force), Japanese Sword Fighting, and brilliant humour. Without these hybrids we would have no Star Wars, no Blade Runners, no Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, among many more. In my humble opinion, these exotic and unique fusions allow for stories to shine with such a "technicolour diversity" that we as readers identify that much closer with the characters, the worlds, the narratives being told, allowing further suspension of disbelief through a diversification more representative of the real world. There are many more stories to tell if one widens their view. I feel quite strongly about this topic and as an aging white male author I find my soapbox tends to disappear before any audience listens long enough for the finale. For the record, I am a double immigrant, England to Canada, then Canada to Hong Kong, and now back to Canada. I have experienced racial hatred and violence based purely on the colour of my skin, and I CELEBRATE this Rainbow Age, both in publishing, and in racism. My wife comes from a First Nations background and so our son is another step forward in how I foresee a utopian ethnically diverse future. My characters in "The Sequence," live roughly one hundred years from now, and all are multi-racial. My vision of a humanity mixed almost to homogeny, is that how could racism exist if EVERYONE carried the genes of multiple ancestral descendants. Rose-coloured glasses perhaps, I am just so happy that we are finally seeing some change towards an attitude I have carried all my life. Cross-genre, multi-racial, the world is better with both.
I think "Rainbow Age" is a pretty good sobriquet for our time. I was recently thinking "Starburst Age" might fit because of the sheer explosion of new things from heretofore diminished voices, and, as you point out, diverse influences, but I think yours is snappier. :)
WRT diverse influences, I was trying to explain to someone around my age that there's entire generations of SFF readers/watchers whose foundational experiences aren't Heinlein juveniles or Clarke or Asimov, but rather Harry Potter and Pokemon, and their head nearly exploded. I agree it's important to recognize that there are legions of people who are part of the community now who never participated in the fandom of old - even if some of us were of an age to have done so - and whose first loves are TNG and Xena, or Vampire: The Masquerade, or any of the dozens of other alternate paths of entry we now have.
I think SFF these days is like an enormous interwoven river delta, like the Louisiana bayous or the pre-reclamation lower Rhine, full of myriad channels, some of which interconnect in interesting and unexpected ways. There's still a few which, having split off from the mother river, resolutely plow on without touching their kindred, but less as time marches on.
In any case, it's a great time to love SFF.
Stretching is how we prepare for the unexpected. Brilliant works of Speculative Fiction brought upon us by the likes of PKD and Gibson critically changed the SF genre, opening the door to blend Science-Fiction with Noir, Fantasy (The Force), Japanese Sword Fighting, and brilliant humour. Without these hybrids we would have no Star Wars, no Blade Runners, no Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, among many more. In my humble opinion, these exotic and unique fusions allow for stories to shine with such a "technicolour diversity" that we as readers identify that much closer with the characters, the worlds, the narratives being told, allowing further suspension of disbelief through a diversification more representative of the real world. There are many more stories to tell if one widens their view. I feel quite strongly about this topic and as an aging white male author I find my soapbox tends to disappear before any audience listens long enough for the finale. For the record, I am a double immigrant, England to Canada, then Canada to Hong Kong, and now back to Canada. I have experienced racial hatred and violence based purely on the colour of my skin, and I CELEBRATE this Rainbow Age, both in publishing, and in racism. My wife comes from a First Nations background and so our son is another step forward in how I foresee a utopian ethnically diverse future. My characters in "The Sequence," live roughly one hundred years from now, and all are multi-racial. My vision of a humanity mixed almost to homogeny, is that how could racism exist if EVERYONE carried the genes of multiple ancestral descendants. Rose-coloured glasses perhaps, I am just so happy that we are finally seeing some change towards an attitude I have carried all my life. Cross-genre, multi-racial, the world is better with both.