The effect of First Contact on the science fiction market

In the setting of my comics, First Contact occurred in 2009. And while I've never really gone into details about it, it's generally been implied in the background that this effectively killed off the science fiction market as we know it. But recently I've found myself growing curious as to the details: what would the short and long-term effects of actually meeting aliens be on the modern science fiction genre?

This is unlikely to ever be relevant in any way to the plot, nor is it even likely to be mentioned as background detail. I'm just curious what any of you might think.

For the record, I think this may fit more in World Building, but it seems like I'd be more likely to get useful answers here.

I don't think it would kill sci-fi at all. Just because we bumped into some aliens doesn't mean there isn't anything left to speculate on about future inventions and outer space, unless your first contact comes with aliens who have scoured the entire universe for intelligent life and we believe them and the aliens apparently know absolutely everything somehow. I think it might just change the details and stuff, kind of like how the vision of the future by people in the 50s is different from how current visions of the future look.

I have a story where vampires broke their masquerade, but there is still vampire fiction that doesn't follow the vampire rules correctly and humans shrug it off like the way people shrug off bad science in soft sci-fi or a not that well researched historical novel... though some vampires get really offended by it.

You could honestly have it go either way, depending on how you explain it.

The anime adaptation of Dance In The Vampire Bund, for instance, has the popularity of media depicting vampires skyrocket upon the existence of vampires being revealed to the world. The explanation given was something along the lines of that their existence created a fad. Unlike Kaxen's example, these vampires don't mind because they've been feeding the humans false information about them for centuries.

It's also a possibility, though a remote one, that the general public would stop seeing something done a lot in fiction as cliche and overdone when it becomes part of everyday life instead of just a common fictional element. Ergo, depending on what exactly happens during and as a result of this First Contact, there could be more people stopping and looking at the genre.

At the same time, you could have the genre get ruthlessly slaughtered for the reasons you're likely thinking.

edited 26th Feb '12 10:16:49 PM by burnpsy

The only work I've seen that ever addressed it was Troy Rising, which just had it kill off the SF market nigh-completely. I don't see any reason why it should actually do that, though.

To clarify something, I implied it would kill off the science fiction market as we know it - there's always going to be room for science fiction of some kind, yes, but things will get seriously altered.

Anyway, keep the suggestions coming - this is interesting stuff.

It would really date older science fiction, much in the same way that soviet russia references are pathetically old to us. Which means that it would probably lose a lot of reread quality, only there for the lulz and wtfery.

Not all sci fi is alien or even space based. A lot of it is AU based, and that section will probably remain healthy.

I am unconvinced it would have an effect on their production. Some stories would change, others would not.

What it would do is change how people look at it. The aliens are real, and thus some of science fiction is no longer completely fictional. Authors have examined the concept of Humans Through Alien Eyes and the perils and problems of First Contact hundreds or thousands of times. People will turn to the genre not as entertainment, but instead sift through it for information and answers that seem relevant to the problems at hand.

And because numerous very bright people have considered the situation from numerous perspectives, those who seek answers will probably find some that are useful. Some author, Clarke or Niven or Banks, will find their name attached to fundamental bits of government policy. The genre will suddenly become legitimized in a way it never was before; it predicted the future in a way most useful.

And though Lit Fic will sputter and try to drag the relevant works into their canons, science fiction will be forever regarded differently. Reading 40k stories will get you treated as a racist; Star Trek will be a badge of enlightened liberalism; the most recent Galactica a favored work of pessimists.

edited 27th Feb '12 6:58:35 AM by Night

I don't think it would kill it off, but it would probably lead to more soft science fiction than hard. For example, even though we have landed probes on Mars and found its surface to be void of multicellular life, that doesn't mean that movies like John Carter Of Mars aren't being made. I'd also expect a rash of speculative fiction focused on the question of "will the visitors enslave us or save us?". Sort of like how the discovery of the atomic bomb ushered in the era of Post Apocalyptic fiction.

In the drake's tavern stories, there are aliens who claim to span the entire universe, Larry Niven still got some of his best stories, in my opinion, out of the concept.

Once, the entire story was about etymology of an alien language.

I would find sci-fi to be a little surreal in the event of actual first contact. Maybe some of the classic stuff might sell better, but it would kinda be weird to have actual sapient creatures from another world fact check everything and tell us what we got right and wrong, and why the vast majority of aliens are derivative of the human form with facial and head variations, and pop scifi might take a bit of a hiatus, since everything we now know about the universe at large is thrown into question.

That exact thing happened in "Calculating God", including a spiderlike alien with two mouths watching the entire star-trek series.