Quote:
Originally Posted by QuantumIguana
Seriously though, there are creatures like parasitic wasps that lay their eggs inside a catepillar. The catepillar just lays there, unable to move as wasps consume it from the inside. That's as horrifying a thought as any monster from science fiction.
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(Face-hugger, anyone?)
Nature has all kinds of frightening aspects, and sheer luck (it seems) keeps us insulated from the worst of its effects. Some of those protective effects--the Van Allen Belts, the ozone layer, Earth's magnetic field, the asteroid-sucking gravitational fields of Saturn and Jupiter--sound on the face like science fiction, when they are, in fact, cold reality.
In that light, science fiction doesn't sound so far-fetched.
But as (I think) Carl Sagan said, "We live in a world dominated by science, in which most of the population knows nothing about science." (The quote is an approximation.) And that predominate attitude seems to be wholly intentional. So why not just remove the word "science" from SF, and stop scaring people off?
SF needs marketers to create a consumer-friendly re-invention of the concept. We already have examples, to wit:
Alien,
Event Horizon = Horror;
Star Wars,
Star Trek = Adventure;
Hunger Games = Young Adult; etc.
The only thing about SF that's withering is the old label.