Re:Children of Men: The Future Is a Mirror for the Present
by rglullis on Monday November 09, 2026 @04:33PM
(#50432519)
This is not what I'm arguing.
Of course authors will inject their worldview into what they create. Of course stories will reflect fundamental aspects of humanity, and with that how people (and groups of people) relate to one another. This is all valid.
> Sometimes in the context of the modern day
The problem is that writers nowadays write *only* for the "modern day". Everything becomes "social commentary" for $CURRENT_THING, which means that the story becomes stale the moment that the powers-that-be move on and $CURRENT_THING stops being a thing.
Good stories are perenial and worthy of be retold, no matter who is in power at any given moment. "Malcolm in the Middle" is a TV show that has things that working class families can relate, no matter if they are living in 2006, 2026 or 2056. "The Wire" is a show with very clear social commentary, but the same story would be told whether you had a Democrat or a Republican in the White House. "The Boys" was a show that started with a perenial premise (what if gods were just as broken as humans) and by the third season it turned itself into a caricature of Trump's America. Guess which ones from these will be talked about 25 years from now, and which one is pretty much forgotten already?
Of course authors will inject their worldview into what they create. Of course stories will reflect fundamental aspects of humanity, and with that how people (and groups of people) relate to one another. This is all valid.
> Sometimes in the context of the modern day
The problem is that writers nowadays write *only* for the "modern day". Everything becomes "social commentary" for $CURRENT_THING, which means that the story becomes stale the moment that the powers-that-be move on and $CURRENT_THING stops being a thing.
Good stories are perenial and worthy of be retold, no matter who is in power at any given moment. "Malcolm in the Middle" is a TV show that has things that working class families can relate, no matter if they are living in 2006, 2026 or 2056. "The Wire" is a show with very clear social commentary, but the same story would be told whether you had a Democrat or a Republican in the White House. "The Boys" was a show that started with a perenial premise (what if gods were just as broken as humans) and by the third season it turned itself into a caricature of Trump's America. Guess which ones from these will be talked about 25 years from now, and which one is pretty much forgotten already?