At io9.com, Annalee Newitz considers five ways that 9/11 changed science fiction, with categories like “The Surveillance State is Watching You” and “The Terrorists Are Everywhere!”:
Australian Max Barry published Jennifer Government in 2003, a novel where corporations stage fake terrorist attacks to get publicity for their new shoes. But other tales were less satirical. Mark Millar’s Civil War comic book series (2006-7) dealt with what happens to the superheroes of the Marvel universe when Congress passes the “superhero registration act” and forces all heroes to be tracked in the name of fighting terror. Hero fights hero in this response to the Bush Administration’s efforts to track Muslims and other “undesirables.” Battlestar Galactica dug deep into politically incendiary terroritory in 2006 when some of the humans become suicide bombers in order to fight the Cylon in occupied New Caprica. Even Star Trek: Enterprise had a terrorist plot arc with the Xindi in 2003. In books, Ken MacLeod’s The Execution Channel (2007) dealt with high-tech terrorists in a surveillance state.
There’s some interesting discussion in the comments section, too.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Jeez! With Bush talking about the Muslim religion being hijacked and really a religion of peace in so many of his speeches, I’m shocked that he’s trying to track people for being Muslim and referring to them as “undesirables.”