I asked her why she liked science fiction. She looked at me with some surprise.
"I think it's cool," she said. She waved toward the titles along the wall. Many of them were novelizations of film, several were novels written for a franchise such as "Star Trek" or "Star Wars". She had the Harry Potter novels, of course. There, too, were some of the mega-fantasies, the ones that are unneccesarily thick, like the Robert Jordan books, or the works of George R.R. Martin. Here, too, were works some fashionable urban fantasies.
"Did you ever read Vonnegut?" I ask. "Bradbury? Asimov? Dick? Card? Herbert?"
"I think I read 'The Illustrated Man' back in high school."
"A lot of this stuff you have isn't really science fiction. It's more fantasy. I mean, look at the Jordan books."
"Fantasy, science fiction. What's the difference? It's all really the same. I just want to read and escape. I like the 'cool' factor. I don't want to think."
"No, of course not. What's that hanging on the wall?"
"Those are my ribbons from the last convention I went to. You go from event to event and you collect ribbons. It's cool isn't it? You know who they had at the last convention? They had one of the guys who made 'Buffy'. Sweet."
Sweet.
10 comments:
At least she's reading. That's a lot more than one could say for the majority of the American population. And -- bonus 'sweet' points -- she's not reading something just because The Oprah says so.
I said it before and I'll say it again. I'm not a literary snob. I've read Asimov, Bradbury, Dick as well as Jordan and Martin. Some I like, some I don't. But I don't really care what others think, I just buy what I like.
I haven't done any conventions though. So I probably don't qualify as a hard core fan anyway.
Are you meaning to imply that she hadn't read Vonnegut?
I say we euthanize.
"unecessarily long"???
Oh, Stewart... No such thing, dude!
You know Avery, you are the most optimistic guy I know. I think I want to marry you.
Actually, I'm not going to comment on or clarify anything...I'll let people draw their own conclusions. Hey, at least it gets people thinking...or not. Maybe.
I remember being at a convention and someone putting an arm around my shoulder: "Quit, frowning, Stu...those are your readers."
"Quit, frowning, Stu...those are your readers."
Yeah, just write some "Buffy" clone and you'll be rich.
Hmmm, I just gave myself an idea.
Stewart, you'd just be opening a big honkin' can o' worms. It's a near certainty you're better off where you are.
If Avery and Stewart want to get married, then I'd like to proffer my services as an ordained minister of the Church of Goddamit.
I'm an ordained minister of the Third Church of Pacman.
(If you don't believe me, Google it. It exists.)
I'm with you, sqt in that I tend to know what I like reading and what I don't like. Have read some stuff by Heinlein, Asimov and Dick, even some L.Ron Hubbard during my misspent youth! I enjoy Jordan and Goodkind as well as Martin (never unnecessarily long!) and have just delved into Steven Erikson - it's looking good so far!
As for conventions, I went to quite a few Babylon 5 ones during its heyday and a couple of Buffy ones too. James Marsters - he's shorter in real life!
Post a Comment