What initially inspired you to get into Fantasy or Science fiction??

[Memnoch]

See another classic the original not the film or re made cartoon though (had a crush on She Ra lol)

A new films in the pipe line I hear.

 

[dustinzgirl]

I think it probably started when I was little, during the winter my dad was a drive in security guard so we saw all the cool movies.

I also read a lot, and I read everything from VC Andrews to Margaret Weiss, but the reason I love SFF above all else is that it answers two basic questions:

What if

and

What's the point?

Good SFF reflects and bends reality, with similar characteristics and lines that most people can see in their own reality, more so than a fictional historic romance or some other thing. For example, I could never empathize with the twins in Flowers in the Attic, although I could sympathize with them. But I could empathize with Goldmoon.

 

[Hilarious Joke]

Margaret Weis AND Tracy Hickman. I liked the Dragonlance elves, especially how there were like three branches. Very very cool.

 

[chrispenycate]

I was always the scientific member of the family- chemistry sets and meccano, keeping caterpillars and developing my own photographs, and we were a reading family, so it was just natural that sort of stuff would gravitate my way. I don't think there was a particular point when I said "Hey, I'm not just a fast reader, I'm a science fiction reader", it just became apparent when my local public lbrary had no more of that genre I hadn't read.

 

[Interference]

Torchie the Battery Boy, then Supercar (etc) and finally Doctor Who and Star Trek. Then first "science fiction" book I read was Thunderbirds Are Go, a whole bunch of comics (Marvel particularly, including the formative/formulaic Midnight Monster) and You Only Live Twice when I wondered how they got the camera into space.

 

[Ursa major]

Yes, Gerry Anderson has a lot to answer for.

 

[Interference]

The man was God.

(Exit left whistling theme from Space:1999)

 

[Curt Chiarelli]

Several influences acting separately or in conjunction with each other over the course of my developmental years:

- The Brothers Hildebrandt (their illustrations for the 1976 - 1978 Tolkien Calendars and Urshurak, etc.)

- Ray Harryhausen (his design and special effects animation for The Seventh Voyage of Sindbad, Mysterious Island and The Valley of Gwangi, etc.)

- Willis O'Brien (his animation for King Kong)

- J.R.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, etc.)

- Ray Bradbury (The Martian Chronicles and The October Country, etc.)

- H.P. Lovecraft (The Shadow Over Innsmouth and At the Mountains of Madness, etc.)

- Arthur C. Clarke (Childhood's End)

- The works of composers Bernard Herrmann and Jerry Goldsmith.

 

[quidscribis]

Growing up, we had thousands of books in the house, and a LOT of them were science fiction or fantasy, so that's what I ended up reading. They were more interesting than a lot of other genres to me. And when we had a working television, which wasn't often, we watched ST:TOS. Over and over again. And when we saw movies at the theatre - which wasn't very often as there weren't any in a lot of the places we lived - inevitably the parents took us to see science fiction/fantasy. As my sibs (I'm the youngest) contributed to the book collection, inevitably, they added more science fiction/fantasy than other genres. So, you know, it was inevitable.

 

[Daenerys]

I think there has never been a time I wasnt drawn to science fiction (and fantasy would be a dead give away since I always loved fairy tales: any fairy tales. Not just the girly-princessy ones. I loved Red Riding Hood being eaten up. I loved the 7 brothers being turned into swans. I loved what the stories told me without telling me in words. I understood subtext as.. a... toddler...?)

But my first memory of understanding I liked scifi was when I was 6 and I was reading a comic (in Dutch) called Storm. Storm was set in a not-determined futuristic apocalyptic post/pre-technology setting. I loved the questions it brought up in my mind.

My parents don't get science fiction. They don't get fantasy. I do think my grandfather would have understood Star Trek TOS, but he was more into westerns and history than the future. So it wasn't a family thing. I never thought I'd find a lot of people that understood scifi. Now I know better. But I still think 'we' as scifi/fantasy aficionados are the exception. But I like it that way.

 

[flygin]

No one saw He-Man as a kid ? Maybe you dont wanna admit that you did

I did! I still have Skeletor's castle and a few action figures around here somewhere. I also have Voltron.

My family is pretty awful about the SF&F. For them, it's something to mock. I stopped reading the genres entirely when I was in high school, and it was partly because of that. I didn't get back into it until recently.

 

[DeepThought]

The first movies that I actually felt passionate about: Conan the Barbarian, Dune (not the series but the original David Lynch movie) willow etc. Yeah, yeah I know they are no great films , but hey, I was just a eight year old kid then and the otherworldly and imaginative bits of the films (something I hadn't really discovered then) somehow struck a cord and the rest is history...

 

[Redtail]

When I was about 12 one of my great aunts gave me The Lion witch and wardrobe, and my sister Dragongsong, I read both, and havn't looked back since. I guess its partly her fault Im hooked, and not only of sf & f, generally if its a book, and Im hooked by the first page, I have to read it............ which is very hard when you have other things to do in life, and Ive just rediscovered the local library,hmmmm

 

[Interference]

generally if its a book, and Im hooked by the first page, I have to read it............ which is very hard when you have other things to do in life, and Ive just rediscovered the local library,hmmmm

Please be in my audience demographic. Pretty please??

 

[Redtail]

wot would that be then?????(no Im not blone my sister is)

 

[iratebeaver]

I did! I still have Skeletor's castle and a few action figures around here somewhere. I also have Voltron.

My family is pretty awful about the SF&F. For them, it's something to mock. I stopped reading the genres entirely when I was in high school, and it was partly because of that. I didn't get back into it until recently.

I loved voltron, well to be honest i got the action figures before i found out what the show was. but i loved the action figures!!

 

[thaddeus6th]

Thundercats was (and is) vastly superior to He-man. Plus Mumm-ra was cooler than Skeletor (although Skeletor was pretty good).

I first got into fantasy probably when I read the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for the first time. I didn't realise the rather obvious Christian allegory at the time, but even now as a great big atheist it doesn't bother me.

 

[Talysia]

Ohh, I loved Thundercats! I think it was one of my favourite shows when I was young.

 

[thaddeus6th]

They just released the first season on two DVDs in the PAL regions, though I think they're only available from HMV. Not that I've bought either of them. Obviously, that would be ridiculous for a grown man to do.

*whistles innocently*

 

[Talysia]

I'm tempted to buy them myself. Actually, I think that's why they release these things on dvd now - for nostalgia value to the people who saw it the first time it came out. I can think of loads of cartoons from 'the good old days' that I'd love to see again.