Well, I don’t hate sci-fi, but I do hate a sub genre of it: anything involving space travel. I won’t read anything that takes place on a space ship, and will rarely watch movies or tv shows on the theme(though I did watch Next Gen. I’m not sure why it was one of the sole exceptions.) The thing is though, I like aliens. Roswell, the X-Files, Men in Black, those are fine, because the aliens are here, and, for the most part, not in space. Come to think of it, robots and androids aren’t much better… I like my sci-fi to have magic in it, yeah, that’s it.
I find myself in a slightly different position. It’s not that I don’t like Sci-Fi literature. I just can’t get into it, generally. I really liked Dune. And back in high school I think I read one or two Star Trek novels.
Now when I go into a book store, I always browse the Sci-Fi section, and I’ll spend eons there, reading synopses and what-not, but I can never seem to pull the trigger and buy one. I just don’t trust that it won’t be stupid.
But I can say that I have virtually no interest in the Fantasy genre - orcs and wizards and magic and mystical lands and all that hoo-ha – no thanks.
I have had limited but bad expierences with RPGs. I know it is really who you play with that makes or breaks the expierence but it is difficult to get a group that plays the game on the same level. Skill level and seriousness level.
I don’t hate SciFi, but I don’t love it. I choose not to watch it or read it. I’ve never liked Star Trek. At the suggestion of another poster, I checked out Ursula LeGuin. Again, it was alright, just not my style. I dislike having to constantly refer to a map. I’d rather check a map of Africa than one of Seril, Land of the Lost Arpanians.
I am an English major, so I do love to read. I read nearly everything I can get my hands on. My favorite books are stories about regular people, like I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb, These Granite Islands by Sarah Stonich, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith. I like stories about children growing up, normal people facing incredible hardships, women deciding to divorce their husbands, a girl being forced to become geisha, or the brother of a paranoid schitzophrenic dealing with his anger and fear. I learn so much from books like these.
It’s been said that people who don’t like sci-fi have inferior imaginations. I’d have to disagree. I just find the happenings on this world, with regular people in places with names I recognize, to be so infinitely fascinating that I’m not interested in going to other worlds or planets. I have a constantly expanding, mile-long list of books I still desperately want to read, all about this world, these people.
My idea of a fantasy involves me, George Clooney and a hot tub full of jello, and I have no idea what an RPG is. But that’s MHO on sci-fi, and why I dislike it.
I forgot to add that sometimes I get pissed when there are seven threads about sci-fi in Cafe Society over three pages long and only 20 people reply to my thread about John Irving, who I believe is one of the definitive writers of the 20th Century. Threads about non-sci-fi writers, even the cream of the crop, seem to sink like dead weight. I doubt a thread about Willa Cather would do well, but I could easily post three pages myself about her gender portrayals and voice of nostalgia and depictions of class struggles. And why doesn’t anyone want to discuss Congreve’s The Way of the World, the definitive 18th Century comedy of manners, or Pope’s The Rape of the Lock? Shakespeare does tend to do pretty well, but what about Jonson? Milton? Anyone read any Tolstoy lately?
But whatever floats your boat. At least people are reading.
Sara, I thought “Son of the Circus” was a great book.
Better?
I like sci-fi.
Fantasy is ok if it’s done well.
But RPGs make me think of nothing more than the Comic Book Store Guy from “The Simpsons.” If any of you reading this dig them, that’s cool by me, but…I’m going to fall back on the old “if you can’t say anything nice” maxim.
Hard core gamers generate the same reaction in me. Again, if you dig 'em, cool by me.
An acquaintance of mine, who was involved in running a gaming/comic store… (aside: he himself did not resemble the Comic Store Guy; rather a young Monty Burns) …stated that the majority of his customers fell into one of four categories: Dweebs, Nerds, White Slugs and Armchair Princes of Darkness.
I rather felt he might be in the wrong industry.
…but even as a hard-core (20+ years) roleplayer I have a hard time disagreeing with him.
I have to say that I have no patience for fantasy/sci-fi/RPG. I have no problem with outher people enjoying this stuff, but I just can’t stomach it. I had to read Neuromancer in university, and thought that I was going to have to remove my own eyeball with my newly sharpened pencil whenever we discussed it in class. Books like this seem so absurd to me. Similarly, I have never been a big fan of Star Trek or even Buffy.
The absolute worst though, is the type of fantasy that has wizards and unicorns and silly damsels in long flowy dresses traipsing about in some vague time period. These are usually supposed to be romantic, but I think they are quite cheesy and horrible.
And…I hated The Princess Bride, which is always the first movie I think of in this category. Go ahead, say what you will.
I like Sci-Fi as much as the next guy, Star Trek TNG, Flash Gordon and stuff like that, but I don’t get the whole fantasy and RPG scene. Even back when I was into comic books I mostly stuck to the standards like Batman and Superman. It’s OK on a Dio album but I’m not going to sit around reading a 300 page book about knights fighting dragons and ogres.
My biggest beef would be with books/films/games that seem to forget that sci-fi comes from two words, science and fiction. If the book is well-written, I have an unending ability to suspend my disbelief and enjoy almost any story, space travel, magic, whatever. Writers like Harlan Ellison, Pratchett, Dan Simmons, Asimov all fit this category.
However if the author spends so much time on the science aspect that they forget to follow some basic writing/story guidelines, I get bored (I’ll get slammed for this, but I hated Ringworld. Yes, Niven spent pages describing in minute detail how such a world could exist, its rotational speed, gravity, climate. But he got so bogged down in the details that the characters seemed to be living inside some giant tech manual).
I like SF, but hardly anybody seems to be writing it anymore. I like it rooted in some sort of reality. Fantasy sucks beyond all imagining. RPGs have a rep for attracting the losingest losers in Loservile and the people I’ve known IRL who play them make no effort to change that impression. Not “uncool,” as in “not like the popular people who are in the homecoming court,” but rude, antisocial, and obnoxious losers. Comic Book Guy is an archetype, not a cliche, and I have some trouble putting aside that impression when dealing with players I’ve met here. I want to shake them and say, “You are a nice and interesting person! Don’t do this to yourself!” as if they were drug addicts or something.
I like a good sci-fi movie, but I find the majority of sci-fi and fantasy writing is just indescribably awful. I ripped David Eddings in an earlier thread, but I think many of the same things about all of them. I don’t think they have editors. God knows I’ve tried. Tolkien has his moments and I’ve always like Ray Bradbury and that’s about it. Even Isaac Asimov bored me to tears, although I can appreciate what he tries to say.
And I’ll pitch in; I didn’t like The Princess Bride, either. I LOVED the book, but the movie looked as if it had been slapped together on a budget of eighty bucks, and it was directed with all the skill and flair of a Super 8 wedding video. None of the feel of the book made it through to the movie, IMHO. And I’m sorry, but Cary Elwes is one of the worst movie actors in modern history. I was cheesed off they’d blown it so badly, and I’d almost like to see it redone by a competent team.
I don’t know if I like sci-fi and fantasy at all. I like Star Wars, I liked the book Dune, I enjoy William Gibson’s writing, and I like Aliens. On the other hand, I too have browsed the bookshelves and come up with nothing. I’ve read Ringworld and agree that while it was probably very technically accurate, it was incredibly dull and left me thinking “so what?”. I’ve been told if I like Gibson I should read Vernor Vinge, but none of the blurbs on the back covers of his books have ever sounded remotely interesting. I also have a hard time coming up with a really well done science fiction movie since 1986, though there are one or two candidates. I’ve never liked Star Trek in any incarnation that much, and didn’t really dig Babylon 5 either.
Similarly, I play D&D, enjoy reading R.A.Salvatore for sheer silly fun, and I like playing computer role-playing games, most of which are fantasy based. I read The Sword of Shannara and liked it okay. I read the Lord of the Rings and - gentlemen, prepare your ropes - found it incredibly tedious. I’ve been told to read Guy Gavriel Kay but again, I must have picked up Tigana and replaced it on the shelf a billion times because it just sounds dull. I never made it past page 50 of the first Wheel of Time book and am incredibly thankful for that.
So I don’t know. People who don’t like sci-fi or fantasy would certainly count me as a fan of the genres, but people who do probably would disown me in a second.
Who dislikes science fiction, fantasy, RPGs, etc.?
Yep. Count me in too. I don’t mind sci-fi movies, they’re all right, many of them, but you won’t catch me reading any books of that type. There’s so much strange, amazing, mystifying real stuff in the world, who needs it? Ditto for fantasy and RPGs; not at all interesting to me.
because, generally, they all seem to be more interested in their novelties and gadgets than working on things like literary technique etc.
the majority of thess genres seem to have generic plots and characters and shallowly explored themes. (what… star trek’s saying how we should all live together peacefully… hey, brilliant insight!)
in my opinion, anything with elements of these genres that will be remembered will be done so because it’s a great piece of literature, for instance, brave new world will be remembered because of it’s comments on human nature etc. not because it constructed some amazing future world with wacky drugs and gadgets.
