Why Do You Read This Crazy Stuff?

[sleigh]

I'm teaching a Lit class looking at SF & Fantasy. How would you explain to those students (most of whom don't actually seem to read the genre) why you read this weird stuff? What is it about sf&f that you love? (Warning: I'm likely to relay your answers to the class -- anonymously, of course!)

Comments

[maiac.livejournal.com]

A while back I realized that I read SF/fantasy for the same reason I read history and travel books: I get enough real life in, y'know, real life; I want to read about things that I would never actually experience.

What SF and fantasy have in common is the "what if": This (faster-than-light space travel, telepathy, magic, living side-by-side with other sentient species...) isn't real, but what if it were? How would it affect us? How do we live with it? What can we do with it? I enjoy stories that show me what life could be like, or might be like if it were different, much more than stories that merely show me what is.

As Death said in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather: "You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?"

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

Like that!

[parsleigh.livejournal.com]

That is a great explanation. I find it hard to articulate why I love the genre and this sums it up nicely.

[maiac.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

I had to sit and think about it, because my visceral reaction was simply, "Because stories about real life can be really boring." That might not be very useful for Steve's lecture. :-)