My turn, I guess.
Linking what amounts to straight author fiat to Spinoza is, in my estimation, overthinking it. So let’s talk about the genre directive, since that seems to be the main point of contention.
The directive is not universal, and by that I mean it’s a rule that exists outside the universe of Fenspace. It’s a directive aimed by the editor towards the creator, by the consensus of the current creators towards new creators or by the consensus of the creators towards themselves. It was put in place because Fenspace started during a long stretch of bad karma in the global zeitgeist – one that we’re still wallowing in, to be frank – and there was a temptation to just go grimderp with the setting. You can see flashes of this in the older material: things back on Earth were obviously not good and looking like they weren’t going to get much better anytime soon, so why not flee into space?
So, the genre directive became “this is not a dystopia.” The intent was to head off people who wanted to turn Earth into a generic Orwellian cyberpunk nightmare world, as well as people who wanted to fill the hinterlands of Fenspace with psychopaths, monsters and slavers. When I wrote it, I wanted to wall off our bitterness and our cynical nihilism and keep it from infecting an otherwise fluffy bit of adventure fiction with angst and grimdark and atrocity-to-be-edgy writing. It also helped to stave off creepers who might’ve been attracted to the more unorthodox uses of handwavium, like the one dude who wandered in and wanted to make Pokegirls a reality in Fenspace.
Unfortunately, the genre directive comes with a problem. By stating that this is not a dystopia a lot of people immediately assumed that this was a utopia and proceeded to either write accordingly or bitch about it. Fenspace does have utopian elements to it; science fiction is often utopian in general, and as guy-who-takes-the-fall-for-everything I add a brand of somewhat Rousseauian faith in the better angels of human nature to the setting. But as I intended it to be, the universe of Fenspace is neither deterministically dystopian nor utopian – it’s a place, as neutral as the real Universe is to human morality. Handwavium is something that exists within that universe, but it isn’t an instrumentality gifted by the Universe to the Fen. Utopia and dystopia aren’t supposed to be hardwired into the fabric of the universe; they’re human constructs built on our perceptions of the world around us, and that’s just as true for the Fen as it is for us.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
Linking what amounts to straight author fiat to Spinoza is, in my estimation, overthinking it. So let’s talk about the genre directive, since that seems to be the main point of contention.
The directive is not universal, and by that I mean it’s a rule that exists outside the universe of Fenspace. It’s a directive aimed by the editor towards the creator, by the consensus of the current creators towards new creators or by the consensus of the creators towards themselves. It was put in place because Fenspace started during a long stretch of bad karma in the global zeitgeist – one that we’re still wallowing in, to be frank – and there was a temptation to just go grimderp with the setting. You can see flashes of this in the older material: things back on Earth were obviously not good and looking like they weren’t going to get much better anytime soon, so why not flee into space?
So, the genre directive became “this is not a dystopia.” The intent was to head off people who wanted to turn Earth into a generic Orwellian cyberpunk nightmare world, as well as people who wanted to fill the hinterlands of Fenspace with psychopaths, monsters and slavers. When I wrote it, I wanted to wall off our bitterness and our cynical nihilism and keep it from infecting an otherwise fluffy bit of adventure fiction with angst and grimdark and atrocity-to-be-edgy writing. It also helped to stave off creepers who might’ve been attracted to the more unorthodox uses of handwavium, like the one dude who wandered in and wanted to make Pokegirls a reality in Fenspace.
Unfortunately, the genre directive comes with a problem. By stating that this is not a dystopia a lot of people immediately assumed that this was a utopia and proceeded to either write accordingly or bitch about it. Fenspace does have utopian elements to it; science fiction is often utopian in general, and as guy-who-takes-the-fall-for-everything I add a brand of somewhat Rousseauian faith in the better angels of human nature to the setting. But as I intended it to be, the universe of Fenspace is neither deterministically dystopian nor utopian – it’s a place, as neutral as the real Universe is to human morality. Handwavium is something that exists within that universe, but it isn’t an instrumentality gifted by the Universe to the Fen. Utopia and dystopia aren’t supposed to be hardwired into the fabric of the universe; they’re human constructs built on our perceptions of the world around us, and that’s just as true for the Fen as it is for us.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"