Implausible SF Trope:  Freedom in Space

Earth (which sometimes only consists of the United States) is under a tyrannous tyranny.  But our heroes escape!  They now live in a space habitat/starship/the one habitable part of an extrasolar planet.  They have all the freedoms and liberties the author believes all sane people want and deserve.

Really?  They're in a fragile environment, which must be protected from damage.  There are rules:  Smoking (tobacco, marijuana, whatever) is allowed in certain areas, when your name rises to the top of the waiting list.  (The atmosphere must be conserved!)  Firearms must be kept and used in places where they're not likely to damage the hull/dome. 

Of course, your preferred form of government will only infringe on individual or group freedoms when absolutely necessary.  Or your preferred form of anarchism, theocracy, or whatever.  But are you certain everyone else in your settlement is clear on the concept?

You can leave, if things turn out badly.  But it's more difficult than it would be on Earth.  You can't walk or sail across the border; you'll need large amounts of money for your fare.  And, of course, you'll need permission to migrate -- back to Earth, or onward to a new off-Earth colony.

SCIENCE FICTION,Today and Tomorrow. Ed. Reginald Bretnor.  Harper & Row, 1974.  Note that I'm only commenting on the essays which interested me on this rereading. 

First section is SCIENCE FICTION TODAY:  Ben Bova, Frederik Pohl, and George Zebrowski.

Fred Pohl "The Publishing of Science Fiction" gives a good picture of sf publishing as it was at the time. 

His predictions of sf publishing's future?  He gives two tentative predictions.  The one he considers less likely is people printing out books with their home computers.  More likely, he thinks, is microfiche.  No mention of reading on a screen.

And no anticipation of fantasy publishing's rise.  Fantasy used to be the redhaired stepchild; now it outsells science fiction.

George Zebrowski's contribution should have been rejected.  "Science Fiction and the Visual Media" with no mention of television sf?  Years after Star Trek came along?

Second section SCIENCE FICTION, SCIENCE, AND MODERN MAN:  Frank Herbert, Theodore Sturgeon, Alan E. Nourse, Thomas N. Scortia, and Reginald Bretnor.

Third section THE ART AND SCIENCE OF SCIENCE FICTION.  James Gunn, Alexei & Cory Panshin, Poul Anderson, Hal Clement, Anne McCaffrey, Gordon R. Dickson, and Jack Williamson.

Poul Anderson's "The Creation of Imaginary Worlds" and Hal Clement's "The Creation of Imaginary Beings" are both useful for writers. 

Anne McCaffrey, "Romance and Glamour in Science Fiction" -- the only contribution by a woman.  Much intelligent discussion of female sf writers, and of men writing female characters -- well or badly. But also this passage:

"One top-flight writer of sf has been chided for using only one type of heroine:  the sort of earnest, if attractive, females who joined the Communist party in the '30s, the Army in the '40s, did social work in the '50s, and started communes in the '60s.  A girl who would 'die' for a principle.  Great, but girls don't 'die for principles.  Men do.  A girl marries the clunk and converts him to her way of thinking later.  In bed."