Re: Oldest SF not necessarily most dated?

On Tue, 13 May 2008 05:49:50 -0700 (PDT), ilya2@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:

>> > And the
>> > whole thing where Islamism replaces Communism as the big
>> > bugaboo is just weird.

>> I guess I'm lucky in that last one.

>> Circa 1990, at least one investment newsletter I subscribed to
predicted
>> that the West vs. Islam would be the new Cold War of the 21st century.
>> (And they suggested investing accordingly.)

>> So SF writers may not have predicted this.  

>Well, one did. In 1986 David Brin predicted that in 21st Century
>liberal West will find a new enemy in (quote) "one of the world's
>macho cultures -- most likely Islamic". He indentifies Latin and Hindu
>cultures as equally "macho" and considers it a blessing they appear to
>be on our side.

Sarah Zettel's _Fool's War_ was mid-90s IIRC, and had a backstory where
that Cold War heated up, and Islam lost.

The more common version of that SFnal prophecy, 1980s or 1990s version,
was I think for Islam to turn its attention violently towards the West,
find that the West's Easternmost outpost in those parts was, obviously,
Israel, and since Israel had nuclear missiles, the rest of the world
didn't have to worry much about the Moslems any more.

Sometimes that give us the Plucky Space Jews, sometimes it's just a bit
of colorful backstory that explains why the author isn't going to be
dealing further with that issue.  Always it was a bit simplistic, and
of course too simplistic to get away with now.


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