Please post here if you are NOT interested in science fiction or fantasy

Cafe Society
21

I assume the OP is primarily about pulp SF/fantasy, which for the most part is throwaway shlock of the highest degree.

The thing is, most self-respecting SF/fantasy readers wouldn’t touch a D&D short stories anthology with a ten-foot pole. It’s the fantasy equivalent of a Harlequin romance, what with the formulaic plots, total lack of character development, and awkward prose. That said, there’s also a whole lot of garbage in the general fiction section, but since it’s not a niche genre, it’s easier to disassociate the crap from the good.

Unfortunately, what’s happening now is that many legitimately good SF/fantasy books will be marketed as anything but SF/fantasy, just so that they’ll be taken seriously.

Just take Yiddish Policemen’s Union. By virtue of being set in an alternate universe where the events of 1948 took a spectacular left turn, it should formally be considered SF (and in fact, was carried by my local SF-geek bookstore based on this premise). However, it’s been filed in the general fiction section of every other bookstore I’ve been in, lest it catch cooties from the latest thinly-veiled LOTR rip-off.

22

The author Dick Francis once had a character say “All extremists are nutters”.

The Princess Bride is one of my favorite movies…but I can’t (and won’t) get into a stupid fucking quote war over it. I got hooked on Doctor Who when I was a kid because PBS ran the episodes with the guy with the long scarf and I thought he was neat, but I don’t know (nor do I care) which doctor he was, the actor’s name, or obsess over the minutae of continuity or plot holes. The original Star Wars was a Western set in space; the rest of the movies forgot about that and some Star Wars geeks actually take offense to both notions.

Oh, and I like Lost a lot (that could be construed as fantasy, yes?), mostly because the guys in charge are promising an end and they’re meandering their way towards it in an acceptably mysterious (and occasionally frustrating) way. I’m just enjoying the ride, and I don’t care about “But last season they xxxxx!!!” Similarly, I had to watch all three LOTR flicks because I was a guest in someone’s home and watched the first one on DVD, not realizing that it…just…ended…there…so then I had to watch the other two.

It’s not that I dislike SF/fantasy; I just dislike the nutters who not only find the trivia more entertaining than the entertainment itself, but also drag me into it.

23

Here I am.

I have no complaints about it—i.e., I’m not one of the people who’ll say, “Well, it should be done <this way> or <that way>…” That’s becasue I just don’t read it or watch it or listen to it.

I don’t need the genre to disappear, not at all. I’ll just be in a different section of the library. More for everybody.

24

I also have no interest in the genres. I’ve never seen anything Joss Whedon and I loathe star wars and ye olden fantasy type stuff. Unicorns, pegicorns, unitards, etc.

25

I used to like SF more when I was younger, or at least I thought I liked it better. Now, I really can’t read it at all. I forget the book, but the last “real” SF book I read took me through about 500 pages before I finally figured out what the story was, and then 20 pages from the end, I realized I still didn’t have a clue. And I never finished it. I just put it down and cut my already large losses.

When I was a kid, I used to go through the Tom Swift books like they were water. I’ve since heard them described as more of an “adventure” genre than SF, so maybe that’s why I liked them.

I can sort of handle futuristic stuff, but only if it still seems like it’s believeable based on our current scientific knowledge. The fantasy stuff, wizards, Harry Potter, LOTR, nope, never happen.

Give me a police procedural any day :slight_smile:

26

Why the vehemence?

27

I don’t care for either. I gave up science fiction at 14 and never cared for fantasy at all. Just hearing the words “Dungeons and Dragons” makes my hair hurt, and not because of the game, I just don’t care about stories involving dungeons or dragons.

I really don’t care for any genre fiction at all - romance, religious, historical, horse racing, etc.

I’ll agree with some posters upthread who have said that you shouldn’t write off something purely because it involves science fiction or fantasy elements - Dostoyevski and Graham Greene explored issues of Christianity deeply in their novels, but they don’t have anything in common with, say, the “Left Behind” series.

28

I like some sci-fi and fantasy, but not all of it, and really not a lot of what is popular here. What I do enjoy, I don’t obsess over.

29

I’ve never liked these genres either, unless you count the Superman movies as science fiction. I saw the first Lord of the Rings movie in the theater, and it was three hours of pure boredom. (I couldn’t just walk out because I was with a friend.)

30

I read a bit of everything but in general I am not into SF/Fantasy. I have read LOTR and Harry Potter and the Narnia books, because they are pretty much ‘classics’ and I enjoyed them, but I didn’t get super into them the way it seems like the real fans do. I don’t buy any of the extra merchandising stuff that goes along with them, or read fan fic (I stay far, far away from that in any form.)

I read a lot of non fiction. I read a lot of fiction too though. I guess I just read a lot. I try not to stick to one genre and I generally enjoy many different types of books. Usually though, having a unicorn or a wizard on the cover is not going to make me pick up a book.

I am a Lost fan though, so it’s not like I subscribe to “everything must be real-life situations!” I am sure there are other books out there that are considered sci-fi / fantasy that I might like, but there’s this whole…subculture built around it that just doesn’t appeal to me so I tend to stay away from it.

It is kind of odd to me. No other genre seems to be typecast the way that sci-fi/fantasy is. I mean, usually, if the first thing someone says to me is that they love science fiction, I can make a prediction that our personality types are not going to be similar. Not that we couldn’t be friendly or whatever, just that we are not likely to enjoy similar things, if that makes sense. But no other genre seems to have that. If you meet someone for the first time and they say they like to read biographies, for example, I don’t get the same ‘sense’ about them as if they say “I love science fiction.” Maybe because it is the die-hard fans that are the ones to publicize it the most, but there you go. It also seems like, the people I know who like science fiction / fantasy, is that is pretty much all they ever read. Sometimes I am like, branch out a little!

The role-playing games just pretty much baffle me. I studied theatre and acting, and even some improv in college so it’s not like I can’t get behind the ‘create a character and make up a story’ thing, but it’s different somehow. I don’t think I am doing a good job of explaining myself, here. It just seems like there is a whole other worldview that goes along with sci-fi / fantasy that I just don’t get or am not interested in, I guess.

(I realize there are exeptions to everything I said, I am just talking about my experience in general with the people I know.)

31

I can like it, but generally don’t.

I had a feeling that was the case. I like horror, and find it has much the same problem.

32

As the originator of the “Crowning Moments of Awesome” thread, can I encourage you to bring all the non-scifi/fantasy moments of awesome you can think of to the thread.

It wasn’t intended to be only or even primarily scifi/fantasy. It may just be that the genre lends itself to the dramatic, and many of the people in this forum (including myself) are fans, and that is what we primarily watch.

I would love to read about other stories that don’t fall into the regular scope of scifi/fantasy. I’m omnivorous that way.

33

Stephen King’s Gunslinger series was the last gasp of my interest in either genre as it contained elements of both.
I ditched fantasy when I was in my 20’s and gave up on science fiction in my 30’s. I’ve never seen any of Whedon’s work and nothing his fans have said here make me inclined to do so. Unless you count this summer’s Batman movie as science fiction, I haven’t watched a movie from either genre in years, either.

34

Not a fan.

My ex was waaay into fantasy/scifi stuff and tried to get me into it. I had no interest. I did finally read Ender’s Game at his request…thought it was incredibly boring and stupid. I just have no interest in dragons, fairies, aliens, magic, unrealistic at this point in time technology, monsters, etc. “Real life” stuff is interesting enough to me without having to read/watch about “unreal” stuff.

35

I read - a little of everything. In general I’m not a genre reader however. I read the occasional Romance. I read a Mystery once in a while. I read some Fantasy and some SF. And if this board were heavily weighted to Romance Novels, I’d probably say the same thing - I wish the board were better rounded.

TV - I did watch Buffy for a few seasons fairly religiously - then they lost me and I was done with it.

When I do read SF/Fantasy, I like popcorn - I don’t want Mary Doria Russell in my SF/Fantasy (can I slash my wrists now, please) - though I’ll take that in my general fiction.

36

Don’t read/watch/care about:
Star Wars (any of them- old, new, animated, whatever)
Star Trek (or any of the derivitaves)
Joss Whedon/Serenity/Firefly
D&D
Harry Potter (And The blah blah blah)
Lost
Buffy
Doctor Who
Lord of the Rings
Tolkein
Heroes
Fringe
(I’m sure there are more, these are the best examples off the top of my head)

…and I can at least say I tried at least one book/episode/session of nearly everything on the list before determining it didn’t interest me in the least. Some I just didn’t care for, some I really seriously disliked.

Do/did like:
Alien/Aliens
The Matrix (OK, only really the first one, and mainly for the then-groundbreaking special effects)
The Abyss (not sure if it makes sense to mention it in this thread or not)
Bladerunner

I must say that the love on these boards for those things in my first list can at times be somewhat… overwhelming.

37

I like George R. R. Martin but that’s about it. The nearly religious figure status accorded to Joss Whedon annoys me, especially when his fans assume that “everyone” knows what they’re talking about or are equally as obsessed with his stuff.

Right now I’ve really gotten into Truman Capote (a local boy! Well, okay, he was from NOLA and I live on the MS Gulf Coast but that’s close enough, damnit) and am completely enchanted with his works. House of Flowers, In Cold Blood, it’s all fantastic. His interviews are wonderful, and I want to see that documentary he did about life on death row, I believe it was called Death Row, USA.

38

Wouldn’t it be simpler to adopt my attitude toward romance novels and simply not read them?

39

It sounds like you guys feel about sci-fi/fantasy the way I feel about sports. I sympathize - reading Cafe Society must feel a lot like living in Alabama and not caring what football teams are playing this weekend.

40

I think it’s because many, maybe even most, SF fans are quiet about it in real life. I read a ton of SF (my personal preference can best be described as “weird fiction” or “fantasy without elves”), but I don’t talk about it at work or when I’m meeting new people for the first time. I don’t want to get hit with the “socially awkward SF nerd” stereotype.

I feel the same way about folks who only read contemporary mimetic fiction. Get interstitial, people! I read a lot of mysteries, historical fiction and non-fiction in addition to SF.