Question of the Week: How can Space Opera keep itself relevant?
Shaun asked me to do the question of the week a few hours ago, and I accepted, even though he forgot my birthday. So the question I pose this week is: how can space opera stay relevant? Space opera, in many ways, is the heart of SF. A decent space opera extrapolates current technologies and theories past their breaking points, muse on alien culture and philosophy, contrasts the everyman with the extraordinary, and heaps on that good ol’ sensawunda until it topples over and spills some into other subgenres. That’s what a decent space opera should do, in my opinion, but they’ve been doing it for decades. In this time of the naysayer slandering SF, saying it’s a “dying medium” because of some garbage about “SF catching up with reality,” what can space opera do to say, “Au contraire Monsieur (or Madame) Naysayer,” and proclaim its relevance? How can a subgenre over 100 years old reinvent itself for our increasingly cynical and overly fantastic world? Respond please. P.S.: I didn’t forget his birthday. He never told me that his birthday was this weekend. Totally Adam’s fault.
