How many SF fans do you know in person?

[GrantG]

I think you're right Teresa. I've been trying to remember cons to go to, but I always forget, despite keeping the websites in my bookmarks for years. The last one I tried to go to had Jack McDevitt as the guest of honor, but I forgot about it and he didn't even show up anyway.

 

[clovis-man]

I am a pipe smoker (tobacco, not the other stuff). Pipe smokers are a rare and dwindling breed. But I know more pipe smokers in my local area than I do SF fans. And I'm not considering movie fans. That doesn't count in my book.

The only one I can bring to mind right now is Littlemissattitude, who I met because of the Chrons. She lives in our fair city.

I have to say that my possibilities for finding kindred SF souls might be aided by goodreads.com. They have a search function that can ID members in your local area. Haven't used it yet.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

So you're in the valley, I take it, clovis-man? Which means you are not enormously far from the Bay Area, where you can hardly throw a rock without hitting an SFF fan.

Well, OK, I exaggerate, but you're not too far away to visit the occasional convention like BayCon or plan a pilgrimage to specialty bookstores like The Other Change of Hobbit in Berkeley, or ... I forget the name ... in San Francisco.

GrantG, even if the GOH doesn't show up, a con is a good place to meet kindred spirits.

 

[Connavar]

I recently successfully converted a friend to a Vonnegut fan but she's not convinced that Kurt Vonnegut can be called a SF writer. Honestly I'm not sure either.

I know very few SF/F readers but we don't often talk much about books. It seems most people prefer to discuss these things online. The public's misconception about the genre doesn't really bother me because I believe like listening to music, reading is a personal thing.

That kind of friend you must settle things with show SF can be quality writing too. Dont let them think Vonnequt is mainstream non-genre just because he is mainstream critically acclaimed too.

There are many SF authors who write non-genre books. PKD has many non-genre books and is loved by the mainstream critics who are full of acclaim,hyperbole comparing him Borges,Orwell and i dont know what.

Kurt Vonnegut writing Slaughterhouse 5 doesnt make him Joseph Heller in the field he belongs to.

You know Jack Vance ? He doesnt like Science Fiction name either like many others. Thats the same with most social SF writer.

 

[Allegra]

It's not easy to change the public's perception about the genre, Conn. But at least SF/F books are getting more popular. Only when a reader gets into it, he/she will realize how many literary gems among it. There are craps in every genre, I just don't understand why some people who rarely read SF/F books look down on them as if they are 'low brow' read.

As for Kurt Vonnegut, some feel 'uncomfortable' to label his books as SF because despite the time/space travelling, aliens, spaceships in his books, his writing is, after all, all about earthlings and humanity.

 

[clovis-man]

So you're in the valley, I take it, clovis-man? Which means you are not enormously far from the Bay Area, where you can hardly throw a rock without hitting an SFF fan.

Well, OK, I exaggerate, but you're not too far away to visit the occasional convention like BayCon or plan a pilgrimage to specialty bookstores like The Other Change of Hobbit in Berkeley, or ... I forget the name ... in San Francisco.

Yes. LMA has made similar suggestions to me.

 

[Anne Lyle]

I'm honestly not sure how many SF fans I know personally... Certainly well in excess of 100, most likely double that... Hmm... guess I just know lots of 'unconventional' folk.

Surely you mean you know a lot of "convention-al" folk? At least, that's where I first saw you in person...

I know lots of people who watch SF on TV (I work in IT, it's unavoidable!) and a fair few read SF. Someone on my bus to work is reading "Fahrenheit 451" at the moment...

 

[Connavar]

It's not easy to change the public's perception about the genre, Conn. But at least SF/F books are getting more popular. Only when a reader gets into it, he/she will realize how many literary gems among it. There are craps in every genre, I just don't understand why some people who rarely read SF/F books look down on them as if they are 'low brow' read.

As for Kurt Vonnegut, some feel 'uncomfortable' to label his books as SF because despite the time/space travelling, aliens, spaceships in his books, his writing is, after all, all about earthlings and humanity.

I dont care at all about mainstream perception of genre, the literary mags of non-genre,people who dont read genres. But when i talk to a friend who reads a classic genre author you have to explain its all good lit mundane or if its SF or other genre. There are as many crap non-genre as there are bad genre books as we all know.

Earthlings,humanity ? That is 99% of the 100s SF i have read, the ones that isnt hard SF.

 

[CyBeR]

I have a very good friend (all my friends are basically good friends since I have few and I'm a selective bitch about friends) who enjoys reading but won't touch Sci-Fi or Fantasy with a ten foot pole. She always complains that it's too unrealistic for her and that she can't connect in any way with it. I've started an annoyance campaign against that since I know quite a few books she'd enjoy...like with games or music, you really have to ease people in.

I know about 3 or 4 people interested in Sci-Fi and Fantasy. One of them is my girlfriend that started reading a lot of the stuff I have in my bookcase, and she enjoyed it before she knew me...so that's good.
Another is a buddy who's gotten into literature since he found Terry Pratchett. I'm not entirely sure he wasn't reading before, but he often borrows from my bookcase now.
Another is my roommate who's already read all of my sci-fi books. He was a great 'Dune' fan before, and still is.
And the last that I really know of is someone I met on a forum whom is really collecting this stuff. She reads a lot of it.

But these are all the people I know who have an interest in Sci-Fi or Fantasy. Saddest part is that most other people I know aren't even into reading, let alone this genre.
I've had the preconception about Sci-Fi before that it was pretty much blasters and spaceships and stuff. The more I read, the more I find that it's far from that...and the more curious I am as to when I'll actually find a book like that hehe.

 

[Interference]

Possibly E.E.Doc Smith's Lensmen series, Cyber - I mean if you're looking ...

 

[Fried Egg]

As for Kurt Vonnegut, some feel 'uncomfortable' to label his books as SF because despite the time/space travelling, aliens, spaceships in his books, his writing is, after all, all about earthlings and humanity.

I agree with what Conn said in response to this. Most SF is about humanity. Even when it features aliens, it is about humanity because by looking at how aliens might be different, we see how that difference contributes to what defines us. SF is looking at humanity from the outside in. Change something about our society or psycology and explore the implications.

 

[bluespider100]

SF Fans that I know of personally? No one, here in my place (possibly the country) a "science" related books are shunned upon, maybe branding it as boring and nerdish (psh stereotypes). we even don't have scifi Cons not like the western countries. I go to this forum for a bit of SF conversation and reviews.

 

[Rand]

That would be none.

I know some people who think they're SF fans because they like certain movies or television shows, but since the visual media presentations are usually just mindless action, I consider most of them to be closer to Die Hard in space (or with robots) than to real SF.

 

[Parson]

People like me who specialize in the genre? Sorry, nobody.

I know some who like "Ender's Game" or "Flowers for Algernon" but not much more than that.

 

[gully_foyle]

Not many and certainly no close friends. I get excited when I discover someone I know has read some SF books, particularly if it is Banks or Reynolds, but the conversation never seems to get very deep. For some strange reason there is a sense of uncomfortableness about it. I tend to be shy on the subject if people come over and quiz me on the contents of my bookcase, especially if it is in front of my wife, who has no interest in it whatsoever.

 

[Xelebes]

A few. Mostly my male friends.

 

[Taltos]

Strange - we seem to have a lot tighter group of SFF fans here - I know about 100+ who like SFF movies and/or books (about 10-20 of them are also writers). We have monthly meetings - where we mostly don't talk about SFF that much but it's still good to know you can talk there with someone about the latest and greatest book you've just finished - and mostly they won't be really shocked about your book selection.
So it seems I have a really good life

 

[GrantG]

Saddest part is that most other people I know aren't even into reading, let alone this genre.

I hear that.

 

[Connavar]

That is sad and true because most of my male friends act like im different because i read for my own pleasure and not because i have to for something like school. Most of the people i know that read are my siblings,cousins and not many friends outside family.

The plus side of having 7 siblings and 5 of them are regular readers is that we can talk about books in fantasy,other genres but no SF talk except one of my brothers who is a Richard Morgan,Takeshi Kovacs fan like me.

 

[iansales]

I have a great many friends who are sf fans - some of them are published sf authors - who I see at irregular intervals at sf cons and the like. For those friends I see in person more often, some read sf or fantasy but many don't. And those that don't... well, I've not had anybody tell me I'm weird because I read sf since I left school twenty-something years ago... Any stigma that might have attached to it has long since gone.