;)
The city in science fiction
Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 07:00AM At Boskone, I was on several panels, a couple of which had topics to which I could actually make a contribution. One was The City and Science Fiction. My fellow panelists were the charming S. C. Butler (I had enjoyed listening to him on a panel about Revenge at last Boskone), my buddy James Patrick Kelly, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, and Steven H. Silver, who lives near where I grew up, in the Chicago area.
What was interesting about the discussion was that we were either talking about SF cities from long long ago (like Asimov's Trantor), or more recent fantasy cities (New Crobuzon, Ambergris). SF cities seem sterile planned Brazilias and Canberras, while fantasy cities manifest history, diversity, and conflict.
But the world is rapidly urbanizing. We spoke in Boston, a cute, tiny, obsolete town, hedged with development restrictions and out of the main flow of global capital (and a place I love). What could our experience there tell us about gigantic new Chinese cities springing up seemingly overnight, or giant slum of Kibera, near Nairobi, which has a population of over a million? Those are crucial urban experiences of the 21st century, and will influence events.
We can't leave thinking and writing about these sorts of things to Bruce Sterling. He can't do everything, and lately has prefered the Balkans. I'm not Bruce, but I think it's time I gave it a try.
Reader Comments (1)
Have to object to the characterization of my home city as tiny and obsolete. After all, you yourself AJ contributed to "Future Boston" (1994), a whole anthology of SF stories devoted to the city's development. Has that ever been done for other cities? I think Pohl had a series set in near-future New York, and Robinson has his Orange County trilogy, but where else has a group come together to celebrate their home like that?
Massachusetts has always been the most progressive part of the country - it actually liberated its slaves before the Revolution was even over - and its policies are still national leaders. E.g. charter schools, gay marriage, universal health care, and decriminalized marijuana. It has put up 7 candidates for president in the 16 elections since WW II (JFK, RFK, Teddy, Dukakis, Tsongas, Kerry, Romney), which is probably a record for any state.
The Boston area also holds the world record for most Nobel prizes associated with it - 159 ("Promoting a Local Industry, Nobel Generation"). That includes all Nobelists who attended local schools or taught there. New York is a close second at 153, and Columbia is the institutional leader with 93. Chicago and Cambridge UK are third with 85.
So, yeah sure, Beantown has a tiny fraction of the global impact of New York, but it's still a presence in the way that far larger cities are not.