Maybe I'm remembering it wrong, but I don't recall the sexual mores of the The World Inside being "free love" as much as "men chose who to have sex with and women aren't allowed to say no." In particular I remember the women being expected to stay in their apartments while the men roamed around at night visiting their chosen sex partner. Between that and conformity enforced by putting dissenters down the recycling chute, I found the future society it depicted really horrifying.
That's not to say it couldn't make a good TV series in the right hands.
@PeggyK:
If you know any people old enough to have been actual hippies, that's pretty much the way it worked then, too. Plus, the women tended to do all the work, while the men laid around all day getting high.
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I've always found it kind of hilarious the way most hippie communes quickly began to resemble fringe Mormon extremist compounds, only w/o any firepower.
-Kle.
[cache.gawker.com]" rel="lytebox" class="commentImageDamn I was hoping that the Silverberg novel gettng the HBO treatment was DYING INSIDE. I've always thought that it would be a great movie
The complete physical impossibility of having a vastely larger human population is too much of a suspension of disbelieve imho.
(unless its, like, Trentor, has half a dozen other fertal worlds supplying its resources...even Asimovs world though was just a logical extrapolation of our society though...not one where sex and reproduction is continiously actively encouraged)
That and, well, the whole rest of the description sounds horribly cliche.
"with no privacy or individuality, and deviation from the social norms can be punished by death"
Should be banned from all scifi, its just getting so boring -_-
How about a radical story...where privacy is lost yet the world actualy improves? Where people become more accepting of differences because everyone can see everyone is unique and with flaws anyway.
Lets try some different angles to look at!
@twDarkflame: When The World Inside was published it was 1971 and the ideas it is based on were still pretty new. It was nominated for a Hugo Award. Robert Silverberg has been nominated for and won several of the major science fiction awards including the Hugo, the Locus, and the Nebula. How many do you have?
@Bill-Lee: That proves it, then. If the book's been nominated for a Hugo Award, it can't be criticized. Also, we can't call something old and boring if it wasn't old and boring thirty-eight years ago when it was new and not boring.
I personally loved "The World Inside", but it is a very short and finite work, intimate in scope and effective because of that quality, in my opinion. If the plan is to expand on the world created by Silverberg, it would hold as much interest for me. Mostly because I found the book, and the three tales contained, superbly crafted. I do not see an elaboration on that, even with Silverberg's blessing, to be adding to that craft.
@Lassus: I don't mean this to sound offensive, but: too bad, man. All art is generally an elaboration on previous art, whether it's extending a story in the same world, or just exploring themes and ideas brought up in a book.
And whether you like something or not isn't a justification for it simply NOT to be created.
@Pope John Peeps II: "Good composers borrow, great composers steal". Yes, I knew that already, thanks.
I probably didn't express myself well enough if you found some kind of levelling of a justification charge. I guess I simply meant that as a direct adaptation and THEN continuation, I would be suspicious of the level of quality being maintained, as the stories worked so well in that wonderfully sparse 70's style, as already mentioned. If a continual tale of this kind of world can be maintained - YES I'LL SAY IT - ala BSG, I'd be thrilled.
I think cable networks in general make for better programing. I would like to see FX spend a little money in the scifi realm instead of just playing the comic book action movies consistently.
With groundbreaking television such as The Shield, It's Always Sunny, etc. it seems like the one place they really haven't gone has been scifi.
I agree though, it seems like Virtuality/Defying Gravity with their very sexual premise would do much better on FX where it would be racier and better written.
I'm starting to love HBO's line up. I'll love them even more if they green light the George R.R. Martin Song of Ice and Fire series beyond the pilot, which is in production now. If that happens, I'll become a HBO subscriber.
@J_Frank_Parnell: I haven't read this one, so I don't know for sure, but I did read his books Dying Inside and Book of Skulls, which are both fantastic. Although neither is as straight up scifi as World Inside sounds like.
@wanion: I like Silverberg. Many of his books like Dying Inside, Shadrach in the Furnace, or The World Inside really read with a voice of the time the were written-- hip, intellectual in the 1970s. It can seem very dated but a smart adaptation should fix all that.
08/15/09
.
So, pretty much like the current day, then?
-Kle.
08/14/09
That's not to say it couldn't make a good TV series in the right hands.
08/14/09
I don't see how it could be an ongoing series, though. Seems more suited to a limited series with a finite number of episodes.
08/15/09
If you know any people old enough to have been actual hippies, that's pretty much the way it worked then, too. Plus, the women tended to do all the work, while the men laid around all day getting high.
.
I've always found it kind of hilarious the way most hippie communes quickly began to resemble fringe Mormon extremist compounds, only w/o any firepower.
-Kle.
08/14/09
[cache.gawker.com]" rel="lytebox" class="commentImageDamn I was hoping that the Silverberg novel gettng the HBO treatment was DYING INSIDE. I've always thought that it would be a great movie
Nice picture from the era
08/14/09
08/14/09
The complete physical impossibility of having a vastely larger human population is too much of a suspension of disbelieve imho.
(unless its, like, Trentor, has half a dozen other fertal worlds supplying its resources...even Asimovs world though was just a logical extrapolation of our society though...not one where sex and reproduction is continiously actively encouraged)
That and, well, the whole rest of the description sounds horribly cliche.
"with no privacy or individuality, and deviation from the social norms can be punished by death"
Should be banned from all scifi, its just getting so boring -_-
How about a radical story...where privacy is lost yet the world actualy improves? Where people become more accepting of differences because everyone can see everyone is unique and with flaws anyway.
Lets try some different angles to look at!
08/14/09
08/14/09
08/14/09
where doctors are able to manipulate genes and create viruses = quantum flux
08/14/09
The sets should be cheap to produce at least
08/14/09
08/14/09
08/14/09
And whether you like something or not isn't a justification for it simply NOT to be created.
08/14/09
I probably didn't express myself well enough if you found some kind of levelling of a justification charge. I guess I simply meant that as a direct adaptation and THEN continuation, I would be suspicious of the level of quality being maintained, as the stories worked so well in that wonderfully sparse 70's style, as already mentioned. If a continual tale of this kind of world can be maintained - YES I'LL SAY IT - ala BSG, I'd be thrilled.
08/14/09
With groundbreaking television such as The Shield, It's Always Sunny, etc. it seems like the one place they really haven't gone has been scifi.
08/14/09
I agree though, it seems like Virtuality/Defying Gravity with their very sexual premise would do much better on FX where it would be racier and better written.
08/14/09
08/14/09
no wait, I got that wrong...
08/14/09
08/14/09
08/14/09
08/14/09