“The future is there… looking back at us. Trying to make sense of the fiction we will have become.”
Source: Pattern Recognition
“Science fiction pretends to look into the future but it’s really looking at a reflection of what is already in front of us.”
The Paris Review interview (2010)
Context: I often use the metaphor of Perseus and the head of Medusa when I speak of science fiction. Instead of looking into the face of truth, you look over your shoulder into the bronze surface of a reflecting shield. Then you reach back with your sword and cut off the head of Medusa. Science fiction pretends to look into the future but it’s really looking at a reflection of what is already in front of us.
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Ray Bradbury 401
American writer 1920–2012Related quotes
Nalo Hopkinson
(1960) Jamaican Canadian writer
On her comparing of science fiction and fantasy in “Nalo Hopkinson: Multiplicity” https://www.locusmag.com/2007/Issue06_Hopkinson.html in LocusMag (June 2007)
Source: Pattern Recognition
Marion Zimmer Bradley
(1930–1999) Novelist, editor
As quoted in The Faces of Science Fiction (1984) by Patti Perret
Neal Stephenson
(1959) American science fiction writer
A Conversation With Neal Stephenson http://www.sfsite.com/10b/ns67.htm
Doris Lessing
(1919–2013) British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
Boston Book Review interview by Harvey Blume http://www.dorislessing.org/boston.html (February 1998)
Arthur C. Clarke
(1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host
As quoted in The Making of Kubrick's 2001 (1970) by Jerome Agel, p. 300
1970s
Context: One of the biggest roles of science fiction is to prepare people to accept the future without pain and to encourage a flexibility of mind. Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories. Two-thirds of 2001 is realistic — hardware and technology — to establish background for the metaphysical, philosophical, and religious meanings later.
“What you are looking for is already in you… You already are everything you are seeking.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
(1926) Religious leader and peace activist
Source: You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment