SOME scifi is written as he says, but it’s often the gayest form of it, and dies out relatively quickly because it’s a commentary on current events. (Not that these can’t be otherwise great; after all you can argue that the Inferno is just sci-fi commentary on current events of the time, but it’s still a deep and good story).
I’d argue that you can make good sci-fi based on current events, but you need to talk about the general zeitgeist of the time rather than specific details.
The Forever War is really a Vietnam war book with a sci-fi trapping, building on Haldemans own experiences. It works because the themes are about the futility of warfare, PTSD and the alienation that veterans feels upon returning home. That’s something that readers would be able to connect with for decades or centuries to come, as it’s a theme that humanity will always have to deal with.
Same deal with
A Canticle for Leibowitz (one of my personal favorite novels). Millers service fucked him up, and writing that novel helped him contextualize his feelings. It’s also a wonderful novel about man’s unwavering faith, his constant urge to preserve knowledge and ultimately how we are bound to repeat ourselves in endless cycles. All of those things are once again timeless aspects of the human character.
Now what wouldn’t work is if Haldeman had written a character called Plyndon P Plonson, who kept slapping his dick out on a desk and yelling about how those dastardly
commies space aliens needed to die. That’s a pop culture reference that would age like milk and confuse future readers. It’s also lazy and dull.
Which is exactly why Patrick writes that kind of shit. He has no actual lived experiences, he’s never done anything with his life. All he can do is regurgitate ideas from the sci-fi shows he had watched (because let’s face it, he’s never read a book apart from
The Hungry Caterpillar) and slip in pop culture references from current year.
He is a failed author, a failed father and his is also very FAT.
