An anonymous reader writes: Invasion of the modernity snatchers: science fiction has traditionally been the whipping-boy of literature, movies and art, characterized as a refuge for geeks, nerds and morons, an avenue in which lonely men project their adolescent fantasies about androids with pink hair and neon boob-tubes. But the curious fact is that science fiction and fantasy have been the most successful genres of the Noughties.
Science fiction tends to flourish in periods of unease. HG Wells was popular in the 1890s because of the gloomy, introspective mood of the fin de siecle. Metropolis (1927) represented a sense of both hope and despair about the course of German history. And we all know that low-budget American sci-fi flicks of the 1950s were a metaphor for fears about communism, homosexuality, masturbation, Jews, Catholics, Teamsters, Elvis Presley, the blacks, and so on.
The 2000s are no different. The 9/11 attacks will probably be recorded as the defining moment of this decade. But this has also been a decade when we have worried about the economy, the environment, overseas wars, multiculturalism, GM foods, identity politics, victim politics, the smoking ban, dirty bombs, Sellafield, moral relativism, paedophiles, internet piracy, the EU, or whatever happened to Mitchell McLaughlin’s moustache. In short, the Noughties have not been a happy time
