Writing and Reading

Nothing, nobody, not one thing on this planet (or other planets) could ever convince me that Star Wars sucks. I even like Star Trek. Yeah. I’m a nerd. This brings me to the actual topic for this post–

SPACE OPERA!!!

[insert epic John Williams soundtrack here]

 Naturally, I wanted to learn more about this remarkable sub-genre of science fiction. I knew certain works represented it on film and TV–”Babylon 5″, “Star Trek”, “Star Wars”, “The Last Starfighter”, “Stargate”, “Battlestar Galactica” (I ESPECIALLY loved this one as a kid. Those fighter ships were so damn cool!). The basic idea, I understood, was that the sub-genre usually consisted of grand scales, epic battles, pretty much primarily in space, a flood of different characters, super-charged with fantastic elements, elements that we couldn’t even possibly imagine ourselves (although I still am, to this day, freaked out whenever I see Captain Kirk flip open his communicator–literally 30 years ago when filmed!–and then watch me do that with my own cell phone, which never existed in William Shatner’s time. Can anyone say divine prophecy?)

But I never knew how it all began. Not to mention I really didn’t have much knowledge on a literary level either. For the most part, I figured space opera was simply a term standing for some of those cheesy TV shows and films. Take this remarkably limburgery, cheesy, Gorgonzola-ey space opera film, for example:

Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Danger Mouse, Mighty Mouse, Speedy Gonzales and even the Littles would have one mean, nasty orgy of astronomical proportions with that amount of cheese. That’s a lot of cheese.

But ’space opera’ isn’t necessarily those cute colby films of chunky cheddar.

(By the way, if you didn’t notice, yes, David Hasselhoff, good ol’ ‘Michael Knight’, Mr. Baywatch, was in that trailer for the movie “Star Crash”. Dear God.)

The term space opera was actually coined by the writer Wilson Tucker in 1941. Describing what he called the “hacky, grinding, stinking, outworn space-ship yarn, or world-saving [story] for that matter.” Gee, was he being negative, maybe? Possibly. Hence the example…

STAAAAR CRRAAAAAASH!!!!

[insert cheesy musical score…NOT John Williams, though]

I found it interesting that ’space opera’ actually originated in those flashy pulp magazines of the ’30s and ’40s. Remember the magazines “Weird Tales” and “Amazing Stories”? Those were cool magazines! Those pages poured ’space opera’ in gallons of space juice. Very cool.

Over time, the sub-genre became so popular, what with the flood of authors writing very substantial, imaginative, colorful and remarkably dynamic pieces of work–E.E. Smith, Edmond Hamilton, John W. Campbell and Jack Williamson in the ’30s and ’40s, just to name a few. Essentially, the sub-genre became malleable enough to be injected into any template from any other genre out there–romance, thriller, horror, comedy, western. (Yes, western, I’m serious. Ever watch the film “Space Truckers” with Dennis Hopper? Yeah. I did. Yes, I did! And I’m not afraid to admit that.) Pretty much anything works.

A writer could very well compose a plot with all the depth, characterization, seamlessness and page-turning power and easily make it into, very simply…a space opera! Substitute New York with the planet Andromeda, Cadillac CTS’s with star cruisers, gang-bangers with ugly alien smugglers. There you go. The concept of space, the scope of space, the ideas out of classic science fiction themes–they’re rich with possibilities if you simply write a story that has a resonance to it, people! It can be done. Amazingly enough.

The challenge of course, very much like epic fantasy, is not stretching that verisimilitude rubber band too far. Or it’ll snap. A writer has to be accurate and confident in the plot and action. It’s a true work of genius when someone like George Lucas could have Han Solo fly his massive round, thick hunk of steel (the Millennium Falcon) through a freakin’ asteroid field without even breaking a window–and we still think it’s believable. Seriously, people. That’s talent.

I don’t mean to simplify the concept, though. Honestly, it’s an undertaking to write a non-cheesy ’space opera’ and have it fly (like the Millennium Falcon through an asteroid field). And, in my opinion, even the cheesy space operas happen to be just plain fun! That’s escape fiction at its best. So I will have to say this….

You super-cool adventure science fiction writers out there, I salute you–live long and prosper–

cucha hota khhhhaaaaaka pfffffft (that’s the language Flopuvien of the naked anteater people). May the force be with you.