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Originally Posted by HamsterRage
I'm pretty much in the same boat. Although I've never felt the urge to go hang out at conventions, SF has been the mainstay of my reading for the past 30 years or so and I would consider myself an avid fan. On top of my cabinets in my office here at work I've got a Dalek and a Darth Vader bobblehead proudly displayed for anyone to see (I've also got a stuffed Y2K Bug, and one of those Intel Pentium "Bunny" men up there). So I'm certainly not in the closet.
During all that time I've never even once experienced any condescension from anyone about my choice of reading material. I've never had anyone sneer, "SciFi" at me. As a matter of fact, I doubt anyone that I've ever met in person would even know to use "SciFi" as an insult.
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my mother thought I was a complete and total freak for reading scifi. I think she thought there was something rather scurilous about it as well. I kind of had the geek label in high school. I would have been thrown into the lockers if I hadn't have been a jock as well. weird times those
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Originally Posted by RDaneel54
I enjoy the old Science Fiction, even with its errors in prediction. Isaac Asimov mentioned how quickly one of his early stories, written when the scientists thought Mercury was tidally locked to the Sun, was overcome by the discovery of Mercury's rotation. Science is built on errors, and so is SF.
But there are a ton of spot on predictions, too. Some actually defining the future themselves. Two Robert Heinlein examples: Waldoes from "Waldo, Inc." and the waterbed from "Stranger in a Strange Land."
I remember the pre-SciFi days, too. I grew up on Heinlein, Asimov, Del Rey, etc. There was a lot of scorn for those who read SF. Pseudo-intellectuals, who never read SF, looked down on anyone who did. I heard the snearing in grade school! It was funny when schools started including Ray Bradbury in their literature books.
I've learned not to cringe (physically) when someone innocently says, "The SciFi books are over here."
Dean
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it was my understanding that Heinlein invented the water bed, both figuratively and literally for his wife who was very ill for a time. he (I think) came up with the "vid phone". what would skype be?
I always rely on the classic Heinlein description of "what is science fiction" according to him the following conditions apply; "if you conceive of an egg beater and one does not exist, that is science fiction."
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Originally Posted by kacir
*snip
I have read lots of the ... Aehm ... stuff, from Hard SF (is that correct?), even hard military "Baen-style", through milder stuff to space opera. From Verne, Wells, Heinlein, Asimov to the contemporary authors, including obscure (and wonderful) books by Russian and eastern European authors written in 1960s.
*snip* I was VERY snottily informed by someone here that Baen is soft scifi.
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