November 17, 2008
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The Sci-Fi Stigma
I am doing a presentation for class about sci-fi and speculative fiction and why there is such a stigma attached to it as a genre. I conducted an online survey. I thought I would share my findings......
Why people don’t take science-fiction seriously? Why is the genre regarded as inferior to reality-based literature? I asked. People answered:
(Typed exactly as received)This is simple really:
1) Nerds love science fiction;
2) Nerds are competitive about intelligence and tend to be extremely insecure about it;
3) Science fiction is generally poorly written and silly and not taken seriously as literature;Therefore: A freelance writer who wants to be published in Wired strikes gold if he re-makes the world so that the nerds are right and the literature folks are wrong (making them look empirically wrong, nerd-style) about something (aesthetics) that the nerds are extremely insecure about.
I stopped reading Sci-Fi when I grew up and finally got a job, at 34. Generally, it’s bad at predicting the future, so it’s rubbish.
Science fiction is for speed readers. That way, you can ignore the pedestrian or worse writing and just focus on the ideas. Too often it is an endurance contest between wanting to see how it comes out and not wanting to endure bad prose one minute longer.
I hate fans seeing only cliches instead of the bad writing that under rides it.
I hate the search of originality without sense or purpose.
I hate fans claiming originality where none actually exists.
I hate info dumps.
I hate "catch up" writing, especially eight or so novels into a series.
I like novels that assume their readers are smart.
I like writers that use strong themes.
I like novels that put characters before plot.
I like novels that throw the reader into a world without aforementioned info dumps.
I like action scenes that are about the characters, not just Hero vs 5 goblins for the sake of action.
A sci-fi story is harder to relate to. As interesting as it may be to read about the war for water on another planet, no one is ever going to literally experience that.
There's some sort of "geek stigma" attached to all things sci fi/fantasy, including books like Lord of the Rings/Dune, TV shows like Star Trek, and even Mass Multiplayer Online games. There used to be the same stigma for online dating, but not so much any more. Any teenage girl could answer your question and tell you how much of a loser you are for reading Dune or watching Star Trek - geek girls excluded of course.
It's painful for me to read this crap. It's also painful that this stuff is labeled 'science fiction'. Better possible names for the genre: stunted imaginations, unscientific-barely-educated-conjecture, laser-licious, nerd alert, books that will make fools of their authors about 30 minutes after they're published. God I hate science fiction.
I HATE SCIENCE FICTION!!! THAT KIND OF FUCKING WRITING SHOULD BURN IN HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY!
I try to keep an open mind, I really do, but the first sentence that goes a little something like "and then we ate some freeze-dried meatloaf," or "you walk through this portal to get to the next planet," and my mind just slams firmly shut in a stunning display of superiority and snobbery. Science-fiction writers appear to be even less able to imagine the future than the average cat. In the eighteenth century, science fiction consisted of: we travel to places quite quickly with our new hover-horses, and we wear hoop skirts with many pockets in them, convenient for storing our super-cool gadgets, like the combination garlic presscandle stick that comes in handy ever so often and we have no idea how people used to live without them, and a loaf of bread costs a whole 90 cents these days!
Fuck that. I watch Grey’s Anatomy. Sci-fi is for idoits.
Comments (6)
"empirically wrong, nerd style" - hilarious.
does this apply to tv? can i apply your theories to tell me why Heroes was so sucky in the second season?
@macgillicuddy - Just wait for the 3rd. The suckiness has reached a new level! (Though it's getting better now.)
I pretend the 2nd season doesn't exist.
do you watch the third one? i don't - they just killed it for me.
@macgillicuddy - It's getting better. Writers have been fired. They're trying to return to season 1 goodness. It's slow, but improving.
Sylar rocks.
Man if I ever met one of those poozers I'd decapitate them with my bat'leth.
Well, I suppose this answered your question. People's close-minded views keep them from really giving genre fiction a chance. Many of the responses seem to argue that sci-fi and fantasy books are poorly written. This is a cop out arguement. Sure there is poorly written genre fiction, but there is far more poorly written general fiction. For everyone who said that sci-fi fantasy writers can't write, I challenge them to read George R.R. Martin. He's probably a better writer then anyone that they've ever read.
As for it's failure to predict the future, this is also false. Sure there are a lot of failed predictions, but what's more impressive is how much of our world to day was predicted (or in some cases inspired) by sci-fi writers. Not just H.G. Wells or Jules Verne, but more recently with people like Robert Heinlein, Carl Sagan, and Phillip K. Dick.
The argument that it is hard to relate to is fairly hard to make as well if you are truly knowledgeable about science fiction. Science fiction isn't really about "a war over water" on a distant planet. Science fiction is often allegorical and used to represent current social issues that it is harder to talk about without the trappings afforded you with genre fiction. Heinlein especially wrote about important social issues, focusing on environmental issues and the dangers posed by the possiblity of more attacks with atomic weapons. Star Trek in the sixties was about the possibility that a world embroiled in the cold war could one day be united in peace. The current Battlestar Galactica is able to talk about the insurgency in Iraq and a President that had never been truly elected by the people and who makes decisions based on a fundamentalist religious view point in a way that comments on and analyzes those situations without directly talking about Iraq or President Bush.
Someday I hope that sci-fi gets the respect that it deserves, but until then I can only hope to correct those with the extremely wrong viewpoints that your respondents have.
Interesting post.
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