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So, what's the obsession with all things Sci-Fi?

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BeachBaby Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 08:07 PM
Original message
So, what's the obsession with all things Sci-Fi?
I liked Star Wars when I was a little kid, but seeing it again when I'm older? Um, not so much.

All these different series and movies that people are so addicted to - what's the appeal? Because I'm finding NONE.

Flame away!!!!!!!!!!!!11
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Midlodemocrat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 08:08 PM
Response to Original message
1. HAHAHAHA. Oh, this should be good.
:popcorn:

I'm with you. I don't have the attention span to like that stuff as much as others do.

Oh, and your latest hair band post? Weak. Bush league, actually. Nazareth had way better tunes than that crapola.
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BeachBaby Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 08:11 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. Dude. That wasn't hair band material.
You want hair? I'll give ya hair.
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Midlodemocrat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 08:13 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. Oh, dude. Bring it on.
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CreekDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 09:02 PM
Response to Reply #1
23. Like hell you don't have the attention span
Might I remind you of how much you told me about "Supernatural". :rofl: :hide:

Own it, there's no shame in that. :D
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TZ Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 09:18 PM
Response to Reply #23
29. PWNED!
Yeah the fan of a show about demons shouldn't be complaining about people who like shows about aliens!!!:applause:
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Midlodemocrat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 10:46 AM
Response to Reply #23
80. You think that was bad? You should let me tell you about
NCIS and all things Mark Harmon. :rofl:

Oh, and Jared Padalecki got married on Saturday and not to TM.
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CreekDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 03:20 PM
Response to Reply #80
93. If Padalecki had married TM, imagine the Mother-In-Law stories he could tell
:rofl: :hide:
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Midlodemocrat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 03:24 PM
Response to Reply #93
94. I know!!!!
Her boyfriend has some doozies.

:rofl:
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LostInAnomie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 08:19 PM
Response to Original message
4. Admittedly, Star Wars sucked. Only total wankers hold that up as the gold standard of Sci Fi.
I find sci fi interesting because it isn't bound to conventional reality. It allows writers to explore the limits of their creativity, incorporate technological ideas that can only be dreamed of, and explore the morality of circumstances that won't arrive for hundreds or thousands of years possibly. It's a limitless genre.
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arbusto_baboso Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 10:50 AM
Response to Reply #4
81. Star Wars isn't sci fi. It's Arthurian Legend in a space setting.
Now, Babylon 5.... THAT is science fiction.
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flvegan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 08:24 PM
Response to Original message
5. I am going to love every minute of this.
C'mon, Trekkies...slap fight!!! TNG was DS9's bitch!

I don't even know what that means.
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Midlodemocrat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 08:28 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. Me, either, but I wuvs you, so I'm totally in your corner on this.
Unless what you said involves pit bulls, because they're killers.
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flvegan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 08:31 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. My pit bulls are set to "stun"
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Midlodemocrat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 08:39 PM
Response to Reply #8
11. Huh. The boy is set to maximum physical damage.
Must be a Virginia thing.
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Mopar151 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 11:50 AM
Response to Reply #8
82. Our Shi Tzu is set to "Tribble". n/t
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LeftyMom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 08:39 PM
Response to Reply #5
12. .
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kentauros Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 09:05 PM
Response to Reply #5
25. Of course, some Trekkies don't like it when you point out that DS9
was a complete and total ripoff by Paramount of J. Michael Straczynski's Babylon 5 :P
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flvegan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 09:15 PM
Response to Reply #25
26. Ooh, sick burn!
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Orrex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 09:21 PM
Response to Reply #25
31. Seemed more like a ripoff of The Love Boat, if you ask me.
Big fan of Trek, not such a big fan of DS9.
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kentauros Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 09:24 PM
Response to Reply #31
32. I'm just going by what Straczynski said.
Take it up with him, as I'm sure you can still find his presence online :P

Babylon 5 was still the superior show in every way :D
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Orrex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 09:32 PM
Response to Reply #32
33. Well...
I didn't like the cast, the story, the effects, or most of the characters, so the appeal of Babylon 5 is lost on me. :shrug:
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kentauros Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 09:35 PM
Response to Reply #33
35. Luckily that wasn't the case with the rest of us
:)
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Orrex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 09:36 PM
Response to Reply #35
36. I could never convince myself that I wasn't watching Tron & Flounder & that woman from The Hidden.
Edited on Mon Mar-01-10 09:37 PM by Orrex
Of course, The One-Armed Man is always good, may he rest in peace. So I'll give B5 that much.
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kentauros Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 09:44 PM
Response to Reply #36
38. I got over the idea of Furst being Flounder with St. Elsewhere.
As for Boxleitner, I had forgotten he had been in Tron, so no problem there. I don't think I've seen The Hidden, so don't know the reference, and Andreas Katsulas has also been in other movies and shows, so I really don't connect him to The Fugitive.

Now, if you want being unable to accept an actor in a role, how about Jodie Foster in silence of the Lambs. I still can't accept her with a Southern accent; it just doesn't work. Holly Hunter should have been the natural and obvious choice.
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petronius Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 02:05 AM
Response to Reply #33
75. Sure, but aside from those slight deficiencies it was actually pretty good
I always thought the B5 aficionados were the Mac fanboys of the SF world - some smug git told them that the show was better than anything else, and they believed it so deeply that any failure to agree was a personal affront. :)

(Although for all I know B5 could have been good - I dropped it after a half dozen episodes when it failed to grip...)
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Orrex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 08:31 AM
Response to Reply #75
77. If you talk like that, you're going to get us both killed!
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LeftyMom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 10:36 PM
Response to Reply #25
45. B5 was, to use the technical term, fucking boring. DS9, OTOH, was some of the best stuff on TV.
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kentauros Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 10:45 PM
Response to Reply #45
46. Oil well.
I like Star Trek, but B5 was the best of TV-sci-fi for the time and on DVD now :D
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Skip Intro Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 08:27 PM
Response to Original message
6. How much sci fi have you seen? Babylon 5? Alien? Outer Limits? War of the Worlds? Independence Day?
The good Star Trek eps or movies?

Mars Attacks for chrissake?!

So many more....

What sci fi are you familiar with other than Star Wars?
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BeachBaby Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 08:31 PM
Response to Reply #6
9. I was married to a Trekkie.
So, I've been exposed to all the Star Trek series, Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5....the list goes on.
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sarge43 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 08:31 PM
Response to Original message
10. So explain the appeal of the piano.
Have you really thought about why you like it? Many, many people find no appeal in either the instrument or the sound and they are not Philistines nor tone deaf.

I like the genre because it brings back mythic and legendary stories and characters that were more or less abandon since the Age of Reason; only now they're set in future rather than the past.

At its best science fiction asks important questions: War of the Worlds: can imperialism cut both ways. ST: DS9 episode "Far Beyond the Stars": what is the ultimate price of bigotry. Azimov's robotic stories: do human rights apply only to humans. Clarke's The Star: is god truly that indifferent.

And yes, not all science fiction is good; some of it stinks on ice, but then so do a lot of piano music and piano players.
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Midlodemocrat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 08:40 PM
Response to Reply #10
13. Um. Because it's a nice piece of furniture
and sounds good.

Duh.

:rofl:

J/K
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Orrex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 09:17 PM
Response to Reply #13
28. Don't make me come over there.
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Dr. Strange Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 11:25 PM
Response to Reply #13
56. It is kinda hard to have sex on Science Fiction.
Point for the anti-scifi team.
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BeachBaby Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 11:31 PM
Response to Reply #10
61. The appeal of the piano?
While I disagree with your assertion that "many, many people find no appeal" with the piano, or the sound of the piano, I will explain why *I* like the piano (or musical instruments in general):

*I* am actually playing the piano. I'm not watching someone else playing it, or listening to a recording of it. I'm involved with it.

I don't think that someone playing piano is analagous to someone watching Sci-Fi. A better analogy would be watching crime dramas v. watching sci-fi.

JMHO.
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flvegan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 12:41 AM
Response to Reply #10
70. CarelessAir drops them on Morris Marinas with shocking regularity.
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Sky Masterson Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 08:43 PM
Response to Original message
14. I dunno
I can't explain it. It's a nerd thing. :)
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flvegan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 08:44 PM
Response to Reply #14
15. Frodo disapproves of this post.
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Midlodemocrat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 08:46 PM
Response to Reply #15
16. Hairy little hobbits who eat 10,000 times a day don't get an opinion.
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Sky Masterson Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 08:50 PM
Response to Reply #15
18. ..


We'll be nice to them if they'll be nice to us, won't we, precious
:D
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flvegan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 08:53 PM
Response to Reply #18
21. He speaks Elvish. He loves him the King.
Nothing but a hound dog.
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Sky Masterson Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 09:03 PM
Response to Reply #21
24. All he want's is jewelry

And he'll be back!
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proteus_lives Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 10:05 PM
Response to Reply #15
41. He lives to disapprove of this post.
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TZ Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 08:46 PM
Response to Original message
17. Whats the appeal of obnoxious 80's hair bands that scream not sing
And think SPANDEX and bandanas are sexy? Just sayin.:P
BTW, I LOVE science so science fiction is kind of natural for me. Alot of professional scientists are really into Sci-Fi.
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flvegan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 08:51 PM
Response to Reply #17
19. Says the Nationals fan. n/t
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Midlodemocrat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 08:51 PM
Response to Reply #17
20. Three words.
Men In Spandex.

'Nuff said.
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TZ Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 08:54 PM
Response to Reply #20
22. Hey FReeper.
Check your FB wall in a couple of minutes
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kentauros Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 09:17 PM
Response to Original message
27. Before watching much of the science fiction on TV/movies, you need to read it.
Start off with John W. Campbell's "Who Goes There?" following with A.E. van Vogt's "The World of Null-A", then Harry Harrison's "Stainless Steel Rat" series and "Make Room! Make Room!", Larry Niven's "Ringworld", and finally William Gibson's "Neuromancer".

I'm sure there are others that can be added, but those are my recommendations :)
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proteus_lives Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 10:05 PM
Response to Reply #27
42. John Campbell is the man.
I love pre-WWII sci-fi/fantasy.
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Orrex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 09:19 PM
Response to Original message
30. It's because fans of science fiction are terrific in the sack.
True fact.
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TZ Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 09:37 PM
Response to Reply #30
37. WIN!
:rofl:
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proteus_lives Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 10:03 PM
Response to Reply #30
40. Revenge of the Nerds quote:
"All jocks ever think of is sports, all nerds ever think about is sex."

;-)
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Jade Fox Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 09:34 PM
Response to Original message
34. I think it is rooted in.....
as sense of hopelessness about being able to affect the real world, frankly (I'm not a big Sci-fi fan either).
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proteus_lives Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 10:07 PM
Response to Reply #34
43. Not really (Big sci-fi fan)
It's about loving art, stories, myths, creating and learning.

You paint to much of a bleak thing.
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proteus_lives Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 10:02 PM
Response to Original message
39. Different strokes for different folks.
I've a sci-fi fan all my life. I've collected comic books since I was six and I've devoured thousands of sci-fi/fantasy novels and movies. I'm also a horror addict and manga junkie.

It fits for me. Makes me happy and gives me a hobby. Hobbies make life fun! I go to conventions and I've made lots great friends in my sci-fi clubs and online communities. I take pride in the personal and material worth of my comic book/paraheliphia collection and I love introducing people to it. It you give me some your personal interests and history, I could find a graphic novel to fit you.

Star Wars? It's a variation of one of the oldest stories known to humans.

My father is crazy for cars, I don't get that. My best friend loves sewing and craftwork, that boggles me. I dated a woman who lived and died for gymnastics, rather boring in my opinion. (As 99% of sports are.)

It's ok not to get it but don't judge!
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Zomby Woof Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 10:10 PM
Response to Original message
44. I'll beam the answer over to you in a second
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CreekDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 11:02 PM
Response to Original message
47. Q is offering all you haterz the chance to live in a world which never had Star Trek
Any takers?

Wimps. :hide:
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kentauros Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 11:04 PM
Response to Reply #47
48. Sure!
Babylon 5 universe. They even have President Cheney :P
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BeachBaby Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 11:17 PM
Response to Reply #47
51. I can't believe this thread is still going.
Wait. I take that back. :rofl:
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kentauros Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 11:21 PM
Response to Reply #51
53. I can't believe you don't realize just where you are!
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flvegan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 11:19 PM
Response to Reply #47
52. Who?
Q-bert, the video game critter?
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Dr. Strange Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 11:13 PM
Response to Original message
49. You are on Yoda's TMD list.
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kentauros Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 11:16 PM
Response to Reply #49
50. Shouldn't that be "TMDYA"?
"To me, dead you are!" :P
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Dr. Strange Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 11:21 PM
Response to Reply #50
54. Nah, just "To me, dead."
As initiated by Darth Midlo.
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kentauros Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 11:26 PM
Response to Reply #54
57. Alrighty
Is that Darth Midlo of the Seth?
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Dr. Strange Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 11:27 PM
Response to Reply #57
58. Game, seth, and match.
Always six there are: a master and five quints. One to hold the power, and five to get beers for the Bunco players.
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kentauros Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 11:28 PM
Response to Reply #58
59. You mean they don't have boxed beer?
:(
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Dr. Strange Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 11:30 PM
Response to Reply #59
60. Absolutely not.
And only the quints deal in absolutes.
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kentauros Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 11:36 PM
Response to Reply #60
64. I see.
(no I don't)

Here, have some squant to go with the quints.
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BeachBaby Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 11:24 PM
Response to Reply #49
55. Cool!
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Dr. Strange Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 11:32 PM
Response to Reply #55
62. By the way, Anakin was in a hair band before he became a Sith Lord.
Annie and the Fresh Douche, they called themselves.
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Fleshdancer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 11:34 PM
Response to Reply #62
63. that's totally true
I read about that on the internet.
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Dr. Strange Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 11:37 PM
Response to Reply #63
65. So you know what I'm saying!
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BeachBaby Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 11:38 PM
Response to Reply #62
66. You could totally suck me in with factoids like that.
If you find that Brett Michaels or Nikki Six plays some sort of Ferengi (or however the hell you spell it), I'll watch. It's the whole getting horny with their ears thing. Kinda kinky.
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Dr. Strange Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 11:43 PM
Response to Reply #66
67. The lead singer of Spinal Cap once made out with Natalie Portman.
Just before he got to second base, she said, "I've got a bad feeling about this." Trvth.
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Orrex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 11:47 PM
Response to Reply #67
68. Now I must kill you.
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BeachBaby Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-01-10 11:49 PM
Response to Reply #67
69. TRVTH.
:rofl:
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Dr. Strange Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 09:51 AM
Response to Reply #69
79. 'zactly.
:)
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elshiva Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 12:52 AM
Response to Original message
71. Just another addict here.
The stories are fun for me. It's difficult to describe, but I love how gender is always more expansive in sci fi.

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slay Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 02:44 AM
Response to Reply #71
76. Good sci-fi is hard to beat
Like Farscape, Odyssey 5, Firefly, Lost, Battlestar, even Dollhouse. (Hey elshiva! :hi: ) Good sci-fi/fantasy can whisk you away to another world - an alternate reality - which is cool cause our reality is turnin out kinda lame of late. Heh.. doh. But yeah I love some good sci-fi/fantasy/horror uh-huh!

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smalll Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 01:01 AM
Response to Original message
72. I'm with you. I liked some Sci-Fi - when I was a kid. Then I grew up.
Not that I'm the most mature of adults either, but I am an adult. I enjoyed watching "V" when it was first on in the 80s - I was a teenager at the time. The new "V" they did a few months ago? Who cares!

I bet I would have liked "Lost" when I was a kid as well. I'm amazed at the number of adults who've gotten sucked into that trainwreck. So many people are so child-like these days -- and look, as I said, I'm not the most mature of adults. I'm just amazed, therefore, at what seems like a large number of us who are otherwise very solid citizens -- owning half-million dollar houses, working high-powered white-collar jobs for 9, 10 hours a day, constantly responding to their blackberries for work-related emails, etc. --- who seem to love nothing more than to sit in front of the boob tube (when they have a chance) and watch juvenilia while sucking down sodas - usually diet sodas - as they still suffer from the "sweet tooth" of childhood.
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Mopar151 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 01:20 AM
Response to Original message
73. Actually, i'm not into the series/movies that much
But the books! Some of the best writers out there write SF. Many of the best- selling authours (Steven King, Dean Koontz) are pretty lame after you read William Gibson or Bruce Sterling. Arthur C. Clarke and Issac Asimov were prophets - AC invented the synchronus communications satellite! Robert Heinlien wrote some absolutely iconic books - Have Space Suit, Will Travel is a wonderful book about growing up in a hurry.

The Miles Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold is a fine example of how themes similar to Star Trek/Star Wars can be developed into far more compelling carachters and plots in print - it would take years of episodic television to begin to cover the story.

If you want to read one book to "get it" - I'd reccomend "Pattern Recognition" by William Gibson.
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Midwestern Democrat Donating Member (238 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 01:50 AM
Response to Original message
74. I enjoy intelligent, "realistic" science fiction - I have always found credible
efforts to portray what the future might be fascinating. Although, I will admit I'm less fascinated by the future now than when I was young - possibly I've experienced enough technological change in my lifetime that the idea of the future being substantially different from the present has less of an impact on me now. I have never been interested in the sci-fi/fantasy stuff like "Star Wars", though - nor anything really that isn't Earthbound.
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kentauros Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 12:42 PM
Response to Reply #74
87. For "near future" (like a couple of decades away)
I really like the Ghost in the Shell movies and series. That's hard-core science fiction and intrigue. They really make you think :)
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HughBeaumont Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 09:15 AM
Response to Original message
78. I think the question that should be asked . ..
. . . is why does anything so fantastic and imaginative draw SO many goddamned freepers and Libertarians (essentially the same thing economically) to it?

There should be an easy way to identify the suddenly "I hate workers, I love Reaganomics" idiots . . . they should be into something completely lame like Rush Limbaugh or anything starring Ben Stein or that shitty An American Carol movie or something.
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flvegan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 11:58 AM
Response to Original message
83. The Beastie Boys invented the Vulcan Nerve Pinch.
:popcorn:
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Dr. Strange Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 12:36 PM
Response to Reply #83
85. No they didn't.
But their music has precisely the same effect.
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flvegan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 12:43 PM
Response to Reply #85
88. Yes they did.
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Dr. Strange Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 01:50 PM
Response to Reply #88
92. I have that poster on Ignore.
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TZ Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 01:02 PM
Response to Reply #83
90. delete
Edited on Tue Mar-02-10 01:03 PM by TZ
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flvegan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 01:04 PM
Response to Reply #90
91. That's the stupid na-noo na-noo thing he stole from Mork. The pinch
he got from the Beasties.
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PufPuf23 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 12:06 PM
Response to Original message
84. I am a hard core Philip K Dick reader and collector
since high school in the 60s but seldom have read any other scifi for the past 30 years. Reading a PKD novel now but it is a non-scifi published since his death.

Only seen one Star Trek and one Star Wars movies and never was into any scifi TV except Outer Limits (long ago) and X-Files.
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Prisoner_Number_Six Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 12:36 PM
Response to Original message
86. I like science fiction because
it beats the hell outta reality- I mean, c'mon. Have you browsed LBN lately? Sheesh!

The key word is IMAGINATION. Those who have it use it. Those who don't, try to act superior to those who do.

I was BORN with a sci-fi novel in my hand, and throughout my childhood and teen years I often read a novel a day. What's the appeal? Intelligent storytelling with fresh ideas and just-beyond-our-reach concepts, many of which have come true over the years.

My life will be complete the day they rename NASA as Star Fleet.
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Deep13 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 12:59 PM
Response to Original message
89. Have you read Dune? How about Frankenstein?
The whole point of science fiction is to present a "what if" scenario in an imagined world that cannot really exist. In the past, the suspension of disbelief would be effected by magic or divine intervention or through a dream. Now people look to science and technology to explain the inexplicable. Fantastic stories are now told through the vehicle of apparent scientific plausibility. In the past, Superman would have been a god or an angel. Instead he gets his power from Earth's yellow sun. Just how that happens has been left unexplained because it is a modern myth without plausible explanation.

If your idea of a story is an exploration of emotions and relationships, then yeah, science fiction is unnecessary for that. In good science fiction, those kind of things happen within the context of a larger and fantastic story.
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Starbucks Anarchist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 03:27 PM
Response to Original message
95. Star Wars is not pure sci-fi.
It has much more in common with the old Saturday-morning serials than anything else.

"Sci-fi" can also encompass very different, science-heavy films like "2001," which only has its basic setting in common with "Star Wars."

But to answer your question, I think sci-fi is one of the best genres with which to explore humanity. A movie like "Gattaca," about predetermined genetic destiny, is heightened by its sci-fi construct that makes much of it possible.

Sci-fi can also serve as a backdrop for current issues. "Battlestar Galactica" is crammed full of modern-day issues (or parallels to them) but presents them in an entirely new context that also happens to be entertaining.
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WildEyedLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 03:47 PM
Response to Reply #95
96. And frees you to think about the issues THEMSELVES without the emotional baggage of current events
Almost everyone has an emotional investment in the issues of terrorism and war in our current world, whatever your individual take on it is, but examining the underlying issue is much simpler when the antagonists are "Colonials" and "Cylons" as opposed to "Americans" and "al Qaeda" (or Iraqis, or whoever).

I'm quite honestly getting the idea that this thread isn't really about an examination of science fiction as an art form, but that's too bad, because it's an interesting discussion. I always find myself coming back to science fiction because it offers me both entertainment (sorry, space battles are awesome) and philosophical depth in an equal measure that I can't find in many other genres.

:hi: SA!!
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Starbucks Anarchist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 04:14 PM
Response to Reply #96
98. Exactly.
I'm halfway through the final season of Battlestar Galactica right now, which has quickly become one of my all-time favorite shows. In almost every episode, there's a unique take on an issue or issues or a great parallel to those issues.

It's covered everything from abortion, prisoner abuse, stolen elections, racism, religion, philosophy, democracy and everything in between. The only other show I can think of that covered so many issues is "The Wire," another of my all-time favorites.

I think people are turned off by what they perceive sci-fi to be rather than any extensive experience they've had with it. It's not all space battles (though they are awesome, I agree), and in films like "2001," they cover so much philosophical depth, as you said.

:hi:
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WildEyedLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 05:07 PM
Response to Reply #98
100. Battlestar Galactica is the best show I've ever seen
I really envy that you're seeing the final ones for the first time - I wish I could see them again like that. GOD I love that show.

When you're finished - or hell, you could even start now, because there are no "spoilers" - you need to start watching Caprica. It's so very like BSG, and yet so utterly different, but you can absolutely tell it's made by the same producers and set in the same universe. There are no battles or military, and it's much more focused on the individual lives of the characters, but the intelligent dissection of Big Issues - in this case, artificial intelligence, social decay and corruption, terrorism, religion, and even the Meaning of the Soul - is exactly what you'd expect from a BSG-verse show. I can't recommend it enough.
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Starbucks Anarchist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 05:37 PM
Response to Reply #100
103. I've heard some good things about Caprica, too.
I'll definitely check it out, along with "Caprica" (the movie) and "The Plan" once I finish the regular season.

When I saw the third-season finale last week (yet another great episode), I was stunned by the "All Along the Watchtower" montage/revelations. It was one of the best-executed montages I'd ever seen. Fortunately, I only had to wait a day or two for the last season's DVDs instead of many months for the first run. I don't think I would have been able to handle it.
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flvegan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 03:50 PM
Response to Original message
97. I still want to know how those Transformers go from being hundreds of feet tall
to being the size of a Camaro. Ain't no science in that fiction.
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BeachBaby Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 05:12 PM
Response to Reply #97
101. +34 - 3.
:D
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TZ Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 06:57 PM
Response to Reply #101
104. Newsflash: Transformers is NOT sci-fi
Its a live action cartoon..:eyes:
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BeachBaby Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 07:09 PM
Response to Reply #104
105. I think he was trying to change the subject.
Since this one was getting so boring so fast. :hide:
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Withywindle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 04:40 PM
Response to Original message
99. It's all about the imagination.
Reading and watching, to me, is a poor woman's form of travel. It's why I love history: I get to go to 12th-century Central Asia! Time travel! And it's why I love sci-fi and fantasy; there's no limit to the places I can go. And, as other people have pointed out, the people there are still people, so you find yourself wrestling with very relevant issues, just seen through a different lens.

I don't really care for fiction that's too much like my real life...it's not as interesting to me as reading about or watching stories about people who are very much UNlike me (maybe to the point of not even being literally human). Not like I don't like my real life, I don't really want to "escape" it. I just don't see why I should limit myself to it in my imagination.
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BeachBaby Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 05:14 PM
Response to Original message
102. I will fully admit that I think the Tribbles are cute.
That's all I've got. :P
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Odin2005 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 11:15 PM
Response to Original message
106. Meh, I prefer good literary hard sci-fi.
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mzteris Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 08:22 PM
Response to Reply #106
115. of course you do!
:D

No surprise there. :hug:
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RandomThoughts Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 11:48 PM
Response to Original message
107. Sci-Fi Creates worlds with societal rule sets, TV dramas work within interpretation of current rules
When a SciFi show is created they can explore societal questions far easier then a show that has to make sense within the conformity and current social rules that are usually already in place. Also SciFi can explore those topics as metaphors, and look at both the good and the bad allowing for thought.


The TV show 'Friends' explores the dynamic of small groups 5 or 6 people, and how they react and interact within a rule set most people know. Sex in the city, and Housewives, explores a rule set around a few character types within societal norms, but a bit exaggerated, and how they react to those norms. Law and Order looks at a view of enforcement within a view of society. All of those shows spin views also, and give thoughts within the small group interaction, but even if they look at large social issues, they still do it within known social contexts.

SciFi can postulate ideas and concepts that many have not thought on, or that are ideas not spoken of or used in society. And in most cases SciFi encompasses larger groups then a few people, but instead talk about societal issues where a few people have effects on most of society. Good Scifi can also pose many moral questions. Watch the Twilight Zone, by setting it in SciFi worlds they can create situations that pose moral dilemmas and explore the way people act in those situations. Most Twilight Zone episodes, when it is over, you almost have to ask, would I do that? Would I not do that? How would I act in that situation. That kind of questioning and thought is not as common in the other types of shows where there are clear good and bad types.



If you look at SciFi you don't just see relationships between a few people, but also how those few peoples concepts of society, effects different views of what society can be. And postulations of the questions such things create.




What shows, other then SciFi or Fantasy, explore the large issues of good and bad outside of the scale of a few people within a set of rules people are already asked to accept? Even a show like West Wing is confined to set rules, what people think politics is like.

Occasionally a show like Law and Order will pose some question like use of force or fourth amendment issues in an episode, and how that relates to desire to prosecute versus concepts of citizens rights, but it is formed within a single perspective and furthers the conformity to that perspective.

While Star Trek, Farscape, Star Wars, can look at large ideas of society, religion, spirituality, conformity, justice and many other social concepts, while still being subtle, because it can be seen from many directions, and has to be seen as a metaphor, since the rule system and environment SciFi is created in is fictional to begin with. And since it is fictional, and metaphor, much of the viewers thoughts add to the metaphors and create thoughts on many topics.

Basically SciFi, if well written, seems to make a person think more on many issues. Although if you look at it as metaphors, you can tell the authors are telling stories about many issues in the real world, that if said without SciFi would freak some people out. It does not mean those ideas are correct, but that some people think about them, and many times you can see two sides to an issue better, even if you do not agree with everything in a show, or its conclusions.

Seems to make a person think more.
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Tikki Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-02-10 11:53 PM
Response to Original message
108. My grandson and I love to watch a Sci Fi movie or TV show together...
It is so much fun to hear his take on what's happening...


Tikki
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Withywindle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 02:09 AM
Response to Original message
109. Also SF is where I find the best characters.
I've sat through my share of literary fiction and crime-drama TV shows and Oscar-nominated drama flicks.

I go for where the people I can most relate to are. And frankly, I find them in shows like Star Trek, BSG, Lost, Firefly, Supernatural, etcetera. Realism is just another genre, just like romance, mystery, western, SF, etcetera...and it's no more (or less) worthy than any of those.

But jesus fuck, I would SO take endless repeats of "Bonanza" or "Three's Company" over all those tedious crime/medicine drama/soap operas. SUV/RapeRapeRape, CSI: Brigadoon, etcetera.
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Blue_Tires Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 12:04 PM
Response to Original message
110. You are SO going to the front of the line for 'Soylent Green processing'
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MrCoffee Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 12:08 PM
Response to Original message
111. MrsCoffee calls it "nerd porn"
MrsCoffee speaks from ignorance.
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flvegan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 08:01 PM
Response to Original message
112. Stargate brings this thread back!
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BeachBaby Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 08:03 PM
Response to Reply #112
113. Troublemaker!!!!
I KNEW it was you!!!! :spank:
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mzteris Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 08:21 PM
Response to Original message
114. people who read SF&F
are better prepared for the unexpected than people who do not.

I can't remember the study I read that explained this - it was some years (okay decades!) ago - but it makes sense.

People who read SF&F must constantly (and instantly) be able to comprehend new and different modes of thinking, science, interaction, "magic", characters, a-typical scenarios, etc... - people who only read non-fiction or "real-life fiction" do not have that experience. Therefore, when confronted with the unexpected in real life, SF&F'rs are able to more quickly comprehend, come-to-terms-with, and cope.

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tigereye Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 09:01 PM
Response to Original message
116. love sci-fi! Novels. Films. Series, You name it.
Have seen em all, many times - Dr. Who, Babylon 5, Star Wars, all the ST movies and series.


Often sci fi is thoughtful and intriguing. :shrug:

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