Sly Like a Fox
June 5, 2001
7:27 a.m.
Still printing the novel as I work this morning.   I saw where Salon reported that Battlefield Earth is going to be made into a cartoon. Or, I guess the term "animated feature" is the appropriate phrase these days. The report was, of course, loaded with the normal haughty tone that seeps from Salon, but that's all right because I enjoy that tone to some degree. It's a brash, liberal-leaning news outlet, after all (what else would you expect from an Internet mag with its headquarters in San Francisco, eh?). They had a pretty good time sneering at Battlefield Earth -- most probably with very good cause. I wouldn't really know because I haven't actually seen the movie. But I've got to say that when I heard the news, I had one of those eureka moments. "No doubt," I thought. "What a great idea." You see, my opinion is that Battlefield Earth never really stood a chance. Even if it was just a run of the mill flick, it would have been panned just for the sport of taking pot shots at Travolta, Hubbard, and Scientology. No comments here as to whether they deserved those shots or not [eep!]. The crew was just finishing the shooting process when I was out there for my last Writers of the Future session, and even then I couldn't help but wonder if the folks working on it were really prepared for what may well have been coming. The problem, you see, is that Battlefield Earth (the book) is pulp science fiction. It's good pulp, mind you--assuming you like pulpy science fiction, that is ... which I do, at least in reasonably measured doses. So when I heard that the book was going to be converted into an animated format, it struck me that they had actually found the best--or at least very good--format for the work. Now, I have no idea how it will come out, of course. And I'm not even a very big fan of animated features/graphic novels/comic books in that I rarely watch them. What struck me most about this whole bit, I guess, is tied up in that apparently perpetual convention panel that attempts to decide whether or not SF is still relevant or not. My opinion is that modern SF has been absorbed into the mainstream. You can see it in the movies of the day, and you can see it if you scan the mainstream fiction racks at your local bookshop. SF is everywhere. But (taking away the Travolta/Hubbard/Scientology baggage, which is in reality damned near impossible) Battlefield Earth is a throwback. Its content is from the Golden Age when aliens were purple, when men were men, and when women were adornments that wore skimpy clothes. Its storyline is one of full throttle events. Read two pages, and the story is someplace different from where it was when you started. It's also a bit ... well ... you know. I mean, there's guys picking up millenium-old weapons and machinery and finding that they work just fine. My point? I need a point? Hmmm... Battlefield Earth is fine pulp SF. It's a fun read and repays fans of its ilk greatly. But it is also SF's past. We've mostly moved on into different directions, and all this is good. A stagnant field is a dead field, and despite all the rumors to the contrary, I don't think SF is stagnant so much as metamorphosing into something new. My point through all this, though, is that Battlefield Earth represents to the "outside world" what they generally think of SF. It's light to the point of being nonsensical, and far-far less than literary. When folks outside the SF world talk about SF, they mean Battlefield Earth. I believe that's what they think of. They don't think of any of the hundreds of other movies or stories they've consumed in the recent past. They don't think of "City of Angels." They don't think of "Sphere." They don't even think of "Phenomena" (to stick with a Travolta bit). When they think of SF, people imagine things like Battlefield Earth. But we know better, don't we? [grin]  Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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