Science fiction films are not about science. They are about disaster, which is one of the oldest subjects of art.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Sontag argues that sci-fi movies use scientific settings as backdrops for stories about catastrophe and human endurance rather than exploring actual scientific concepts.
- In plain terms
- Science fiction films focus more on disasters than on science.
- What can you take from it?
- Look beyond the setting to find the real human drama in genre fiction.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What themes drive most popular genre films?
- How does setting serve story?
Another view
This view overlooks science fiction that genuinely explores scientific ideas or ethics.
More from Susan Sontag
In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art.
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Permalink to quote #45 Real art has the capacity to make us nervous. By reducing the work of art to its content and then interpreting that, one tames the work of art. Interpretation …
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