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Which is better, a Hollywood sf blockbuster that isn’t very smart but looks good, or a clever sf short story?

Hollywood has it in the bag if only for the medium they own – film. Film is music, actors, colour, spoken dialogue, action, and a whole lot more combined. These are tools that short stories simply cannot have. The latter relies mostly, if not solely, on words. And words are tedious, to many at least. It is a medium far less accessible than film or television. This is why I believe that a Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster is better.
But, what does better even mean?
Hollywood is clearly better on both economic and social fronts. The Hollywood industry is far bigger than the sci-fi-short-story one. The former saw global revenues reach 38 billion dollars[1]. The latter is only a tiny fraction of that amount. Hollywood sci-fi blockbusters that aren’t “very smart” like ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ and ‘Jurassic World’ combined for over 3 billion dollars in revenue. These movies saw worldwide releases, and are thus very well-known in most countries. Sci-fi short stories on the other hand, are clearly not as popular. Therefore, one can easily surmise that Hollywood will always win if ‘better’ is judged based on economic and social barometers.
We should therefore answer this question based on what Hollywood blockbusters and short sci-fi stories mean to people on an individual level.
Both options are modes of entertainment – they were made with the primary intention of entertaining human beings. When someone purchases a movie ticket or a storybook, that person is making an economic transaction because he/she believes that that act will bring him/her pleasure. So which mode delivers more pleasure? Which mode holds a greater entertainment value? This question is entirely subjective of course, so the answer will vary from person to person. If the person prefers mindless entertainment that features visual explosions, car chases, and violent fight sequences, he would probably select sci-fi blockbusters. Alternatively, if an individual prefers words over visual effects, and perhaps a story that offers more content, then the choice should be a sci-fi short story.
But we need to look beyond pure entertainment value because of its certain subjectivity: judging who is ‘better’ also has to come down to its lasting effect it has on individuals. Which medium, then, is better at doing so? It is perhaps subjective once again, but clever sci-fi short stories have had more of a lasting impact on me.
Ted Chiang’s Story of Your Life revolves around the arrival of an alien species on earth, and how their arrival affects the life of one particular woman. After learning from them, she manages to adopt their mode of communication – this allows her to perceive time in a different manner. She is able to know at once every moment in her future, which includes, poignantly, the death of her child. Reading that book gave me shudders of frisson. I remember that after reading the novel, I had to spend 15 minutes or so just sitting by my neighborhood’s playground, contemplating my life with regards to a determinist universe, the universe posited by Ted Chiang’s short story. Understanding a world void of all freewill is a tough ask, but this story forced me to do so. Would I be able to manage living a life that is already pre-determined from the very start? Could I even survive? Would I not break down immediately? Could I escape from that existence, having known a life with free will?
Other clever sci-fi short stories that have had this effect on me include Asimov’s ‘The Last Question’, Chiang’s ‘Understand’, and Andy Weir’s ‘The Egg’.
All of this is anecdotal of course, but these questions and emotions that overcame me after reading that clever short story were very real. I spent the following days dwelling on that very topic; it truly changed that segment of my life.
Movies have also made me feel this way, of course – Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, ‘Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl’ are some of the movies that have had a profound effect on my life. Some of them made me question the way I lived, and others have pushed me into existential crises. But I have yet to experience a Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster “that isn’t very smart” in this manner. Movies that I would classify as such include Star Wars and Hunger Games, both of which were decent, but never having any lasting impact on my psyche.
As such, I would have to conclude that clever sci-fi stories are better in this specific aspect. Naturally, I cannot speak for others, but I believe that most people would logically share this sentiment. After all, not-so-smart blockbusters do not aim to get audiences to think or even change the way they think, but clever short stories are usually written with the intent to change the beliefs, or at least cause the reader to question their own beliefs.
To conclude, I would still have to say that the answer to this question is entirely subjective. It depends on what people want out of their sources of entertainment. If they wish to be challenged, clever sci-fi short stories would probably be better than the generic blockbuster. However, if they would just like to see some pretty colors flash on a large screen so that they can forget about the doldrums of life for just a few hours, not-so-smart blockbusters would be better in that respect.
And I don’t think most people would subscribe to just a single form anyway: sometimes I like to be mentally stimulated, and other times, I just want popcorn in my hand, a blockbuster in my face, and my existential questions to fade into the abyss…


But just for a couple of hours of course.


[1] Global 2015 Box Office: Revenue Hits Record $38 Billion-Plus. (2016). The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 7 November 2016, from http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/global-2015-box-office-revenue-851749

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