Fantasy vs Science Fiction: A Poll

[RX-79G]

If one has to be this brainy to enjoy science fiction then I'm not sure if I even want to try reading SF.

Strange I don't remember Dune or Ender's Game being difficult to understand and I enjoyed both.

I don't think you need to be brainy to accept what the author is telling you is "true".

 

[psikeyhackr]

If one has to be this brainy to enjoy science fiction then I'm not sure if I even want to try reading SF.

Enjoying and appreciating are not quite the same thing. Some people enjoy beer. I am into Black Russians.

The trouble is there are very different things called science fiction and usually you have to read 50 pages to get a clue. Spending $8 on a 300 page book to learn I don't want to read passed 50 kind of pisses me off.

psik

 

[psikeyhackr]

20 to 50 to catch a lead bullet, not a lightweight pen.

The author called it a "stylo" and it did things pens do not. Some pens are heavy, the author said nothing about the weight.

psik

 

[Lafayette]

Enjoying and appreciating are not quite the same thing. Some people enjoy beer. I am into Black Russians.
Spending $8 on a 300 page book to learn I don't want to read passed 50 kind of pisses me off.
psik

Point taken. I can appreciate the skill and dedication of jazz musicians, but as a rule I don't like jazz. The same thing goes for opera singers. I don't like beer, however I like wine and brandy.

You may want to try e-books. I gotten them from 99 cents to 9 dollars.

 

[RX-79G]

The author called it a "stylo" and it did things pens do not. Some pens are heavy, the author said nothing about the weight.

psik

So you're presuming that it is as dense as lead?

Look, there is no sensible reason to assume that a small object is going to fall faster than a person trying to catch it. I don't know where you got this idea, but it is wrong. There is nothing wrong with the science of that Banks book as it is written.

 

[psikeyhackr]

So you're presuming that it is as dense as lead?

I don't need to presume anything. If the character had turned on the propellers immediately he should have caught the object before either of them had reached terminal velocity.

But the whole point of the incident was to find this sick creature that was kilometers below. Admittedly all stories are contrived but some contrivances are less believable than others. And like I said, the author should have done something to account for the low grav environment and not force the reader to figure it out from a scene that doesn't make sense.

psik

 

[hopewrites]

I don't think you need to be brainy to accept what the author is telling you is "true".

Which is the case with ether genre.

Fantasy writers tell you what does / doesn't exist in their creations... SF writers tell you how they do or don't bend know scientific laws...

 

[Marvin]

Just looked at the results, almost exactly half & half at this point - thats fair for a forum that calls itself a science fiction & fantasy community. Well done everybody!

 

[althea]

It strikes me,that if it is "truth" you want in books,read factual books not fiction(science or otherwise.)
You probably can't rely on Factual books to be completely true anyway.

 

[Randy M.]

Depends on what "truth" you're looking for. Ursula Le Guin, both fantasist and s.f. writer like so many of the older generations, has said her profession is lying to tell the truth (paraphrase), and she's not the first to make that assertion.

If you're looking for facts, fiction is not useful. If you're looking for more insight into the workings of the human mind, of how various people act and think, and what it means to be human, then fiction is one of the places to search, lies and all.


Randy M.

 

[Cathbad]

I really do enjoy science fiction... until it gets too... "sciency".

 

[Danny McG]

Don't analyse, just enjoy the stories

Bruce Lee said "Don't think, feel....it is like a finger pointing a way to the moon"

 

[Ronald T.]

The key to good Science Fiction is simple -- just as it is with Fantasy and all the other genres -- it must make you feel something emotional or it's just a text book.

 

[Cathbad]

That's why /i didn't enjoy Niven. He spent pages and pages explaining the science behind an effect. I think it's important he understands the science behind his effects - just like I understand the specifics behind the magic in my fantasy world: But as a reader, I'm interested in the story - not the specifics.

 

[psikeyhackr]

Don't analyse, just enjoy the stories

But I enjoy A Fall of Moondust. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was just mostly dumb.

We just have to be scientific about it. There are at least two different types of science fiction fans.

psik

 

[Cathbad]

But Hitchhiker's was supposed to be dumb!

 

[BAYLOR]

But Hitchhiker's was supposed to be dumb!

Hitchhiker Guide was laugh out loud absurd .

 

[Lafayette]

Hitchhiker Guide was laugh out loud absurd .

One of my favorite lines "I should have listened to my mother."

"What did she say?"

"I don't know. I wasn't listening."

 

[Ihe]

God how I wish I could wipe my memories to read "Hitchhiker's" for the first time again...(and to watch the first Matrix movie too).

 

[psikeyhackr]

God how I wish I could wipe my memories ...(and to watch the first Matrix movie too).

I agree with that.

psik