# Minor, but surprisingly widespread SF&F themes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 23, 2004, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-but-surprisingly-widespread-sf-f-themes/261102 "2004-08-23T16:09:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2004, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-but-surprisingly-widespread-sf-f-themes/261102/81 "2004-08-26T03:52:29Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > I just can’t wait for the day when city planners actually start having the gaul to put “Neo” or “Mega” in the names of big cities. MegaParis! ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2004, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-but-surprisingly-widespread-sf-f-themes/261102/82 "2004-08-26T04:24:17Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > You forgot the “Blade Runner-style Megacity” future. Anime has raised this vision to a high art. > > I just can’t wait for the day when city planners actually start having the gaul to put “Neo” or “Mega” in the names of big cities. (Not that it’d always work…can you imagine “MegaTopeka”? 😃 ) I always thought _Futurama_ missed the better joke when they went with New New York and not Neo-New York. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2004, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-but-surprisingly-widespread-sf-f-themes/261102/83 "2004-08-26T04:44:32Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > Which stories would these be, exactly? IIRC, in L. Neil Smith’s “Confederacy” books, the alternate Earth (you know, the one where Jefferson added the word “unanimous” to the Declaration of Independence, so the whole country developed Libertarian) had commercial zeppelin flights. Huge suckers. For that matter, Hyper-Athens has **time-travelling zeppelins** in the 3 books of John Barnes’ “Timeline Wars.” ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2004, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-but-surprisingly-widespread-sf-f-themes/261102/84 "2004-08-26T05:26:47Z")
Harry Turtledove’s “The Two Georges” has zeppelins too. I hated that book. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-but-surprisingly-widespread-sf-f-themes/261102/85 "2004-08-27T06:09:36Z")
A few other Zeppelining authors off the top of my head: S.M. Stirling, Michael Moorcock, Fritz Leiber, Howard Waldrop, Philip Jose Farmer, Arthur C. Clarke, Kirk Mitchell, that guy with the Italian name that wrote those Custer novels. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-but-surprisingly-widespread-sf-f-themes/261102/86 "2004-08-27T07:35:39Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I always thought _Futurama_ missed the better joke when they went with New New York and not Neo-New York. They _might_ have been making a reference to Bradbury’s _The Martian Chronicles_, which had a “New New York” colony in it. 'Wouldn’t bet the farm on it, though. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2004, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-but-surprisingly-widespread-sf-f-themes/261102/87 "2004-08-27T14:56:32Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > …can you imagine “MegaTopeka”? 😃 ) I can imagine a local college calling itself “U-Topeka”. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2004, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-but-surprisingly-widespread-sf-f-themes/261102/88 "2004-08-28T00:52:03Z")
The Frank Black (Millenium) tortured psychic cop/profiler character and theme is being recycled in the new film _Suspect Zero_. Ben Kingsley is such a great actor, hope the movie doesn’t suck. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-but-surprisingly-widespread-sf-f-themes/261102.md?page=4)