You ever get a hard time for reading Sci Fi?

c0y0te

Not really sci-fi, but still, similar experience. I was 12 or so (long long time ago) and we had been told to go off for the weekend, and write some pointless short story thingy for the Monday, with the usual 'The long and winding road...' beginning.

So - being me, I decided to do something different. I spent the weekend with my grandparents and asked them about 1916, because I knew they had been on opposite sides of the civil war (they still argued about it until they passed away actually).. and then I wrote this short story about love, betrayal, black and tans, rape, revenge and then some.

It was simplistic, and gory, and everything a 12 year old would want from a story, but when my english teacher reviewed it he marked it down, citing that 'this child should not be writing about things he has no business knowing at this age'. He also cited too much use of 'american cliches' - which of course I didn't even understand at that age.

I was always pissed off at that, becuase I'd spent the time learning about the subject matter (and a great weekend with my grandparents to boot) and really put the effort in, but the teachers snobbery put the boot in. Everyone else in the class had written about escaped lions from the zoo and lost pets etc. I was the only one to turn in something a little different.. but I guess it was a little too different

Amazing really - that was nearly 30 odd years ago and I can still remember the sodding teachers comments . Twas undergods post above which brought it back!

c0y0te

monkeyfudge

I got marked down once for having an alien that came from Tau Ceti.

The teacher said no one has heard of Tau Ceti and that I should have said Mars.... sheesh... aliens from Mars... now THAT'S a cliché!

I once wrote a story about the Cthulhu. Sufficent to say it didnt go down too well and when I protested that I was inspired by H P Lovecraft my teacher said, who?

The narrow mindedness of some people. Why they cant except that more thought goes into sci fi and fantasy than any other genre.

David Stewart

My own English teacher at Inter cert level, professed not to care that I read SF. He just wanted me to broaden my horizons. Well I tried. But after reading 2001: A Space Odyssey and the concepts of alien intervention in human evolution, Hemingway's Old Man and The Sea was simply boring. Or it was when I was 14 years old. That being said though, he did teach me some basics, the foremost of which is the primacy of the story. There's no point in having esoteric scientific concepts, well drawn characters or anything else unless you have a good story to tell.
And as for reading outside the genre, every successful SF writer I have ever met insists that you if you want to be a good SF writer, you have to read outside the genre. You have to read history, historical novels, biographies and so on.

Woden

used to get hassle for star trek in school but i the sci-fi stuff these days doesn't really get mentioned.

most comments are along the lines of "the size of that book you're reading dave" more so then the content (reading the neutronium alchemist atm)

with regards to books i consider myself someone who has read loads but i'm not well read. i rarely pick up anything other then sci-fi/fantasy and i usually have a stack of em that i'm wading through slowly but surely

with regards to the poster the close mindedness of some sci-fi fans to non sci-fi i'd have to put myself in this category sometimes. i find books like political thrillers and the three muskateers wouldn't interest me at all but at the same time i'm open to suggestions on new books that aren't sci-fi i just don't go actively seeking them out.

i find it rare in the people i meet that they are interested in sci fi. i was away during the summer and was packing my books away in a hostel when someone asked "what are you reading" (happeend to be george r.r. martin at the time).

she commented on one of her friends giving her a book with something called "the shrike" in it.

i was all like oooh that dan simmons hyperion cantos its great which lead onto a great conversation about the cantos and then on to philip k dick and such

anyway

/end waffle

data

Karl Hungus

This thread boggles me completely... I can't say I've ever gotten any hassle, or even any comments at all because of my chosen reading material.

Capt'n Midnight

simu wrote:

Nah, I've never really gotten a hard time for that. People might think it's a bit strange seeing me with sci-fi because at other times they've seen me reading so-called high brow stuff or books in other languages - I don't really care.

pfff.. - get some foreign language Sci Fi and see what they say then..

There is a lot of pulp fiction out there, and when someone like Dan Brown gets that sorta treatment well the thing about SciFi or good fantasy is even if you don't like the plot or characters you can enjoy the scenery. Most fiction has to be done in a framework of reality that matches everyday life. It's is so nice to escape to somewhere else, (though I do tire of feist and tolkein clones, more bleedin elves and we'll fix everything with a spell and I've already forgotten the authors name).

Still a lot of invention is used on one hand to build up a coherent world (something some fantasy writers fail to realise) and by others research to depict one that is as accurate as it can be. Whereas normal fiction most of this is skimmed over or done badly.. any way we used to swap books in secondary and that's where lots of Asimovs got borrowed

Undergod

...I really hate all elves...

nesf

I hate all elves too....

To be honest I've never had any hassle about what I read. I like my sci-fi and fantasy, and own alot of both genres but i also read more "serious" books concerning history, politics and philosophy. But on the other hand I have had rasied eyebrows when people see my collection of physics and maths textbooks, I study/studied it in college so I have an excuse, but people seem to find it strange to see such dry books being used for entertainment.

I'd love to say that I'm not snobby when it comes to books, but i have to admit to a feeling of pity whenever I see someone with a large collection of Mill's and Boon, or the like