ENG 503 Study Guide - Final Guide: Spanish Moss, Roadside Picnic, The Dispossessed
7 Apr 2016
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Document Summary
It"s a mistake to think sci fi always ends on a bleak, downbeat minor chord. The time period in which it is written, the generic influences (cyberpunk, noir, detective fiction, the gothic) on it are reasons for its ambiguity. At least 3 related topics: quests, heroism, journeys. Detective story plot is really a marginal consideration. It"s the corruptive, immortal power of this meth and the attraction and repulsion of his world that fascinates morgan. Thus other narrative features prove more important than the quest eg. setting, character, action. But if the quest isn"t a good one, that has consquences for heroism. As kovacs becomes less a man on a mission and more an envoy errand boy, an ex soldier doing his job. Once a sci fi writer is done with his/her plot and estranging world, then leaving that world gives the story and the reader one last journey to look forward to and ponder.
