Gripes of an Old Science Fiction Fan

I may as well admit it--I read, and watch, a lot less science fiction than I used to, with this especially going for new stuff.

To some extent this is because I pay less attention to new stuff in general, as I no longer review books regularly, as my research concerns again and again direct my attention back to older material--and as, certainly in the media world, new production is ever more dispersed among a plenitude of streaming services with which no one can keep up.

However, there is also the reality that, as is commonly the case with longtime fans of anything, I have developed distinct likes and dislikes, and so much of what is abundant these days falls into the "dislike" category.

At this point I have absolutely had it with Frankenstein complex stuff about rebellious artificial intelligences and the like. If I want disaster drama and apocalypse and dystopia I will just look at the news instead. Superheroes? I was already feeling superhero fatigue back in 2010. And I never really found zombies all that interesting, or "young adult" stuff, while I never really got hooked on urban fantasy . . .

I can go on and on, but I think it is easy to see how all this automatically leaves many of the most popular themes less than appealing, even before I get to my broader wariness of the misanthropy, Luddism, irrationalism, edgelordism and the rest of the tones and shades in which today's "artistes" tend to work--all as the "literature envying" middlebrowness and bulkiness of today's more respectable work leaves me only the more appreciative of, alongside the brisk and dash and freshness of yesteryear's "idea men," also the good old-fashioned pulpy storytelling of a Smith or a Howard or a Dent.

Might I be induced to give something a chance in spite of that? Of course. Conceptual originality may get me to take a look--but having read and seen so much my bar for what I would regard as original is pretty high these days, and there seems to me to be no more originality about than there was back when I penned "The End of Science Fiction?" back in 2007. Humor might also get me to take a look, but the truth is that comedy is very hard to do well--and what passes for comedy these days is not often to my taste (all as, admittedly, the obscenities and absurdities of the era we live in make satire particularly difficult to pull off).

Still, if something is to get my attention that would be the way to do it.