I’ve realized that I’ve been overindulging in science fiction, so I’ve decided to take a vacation from the genre. Science fiction has been a life-long addiction that I don’t think I can ever give up, but I do need to go into rehab for a while. I don’t know for how long.
I’ve read about fifteen hundred science fiction short stories in the last five years, and I feel like a kid who has snuck off with a whole bag of Oreos. To continue the comparison, science fiction is mostly dessert, and I need to fill up on some real food for a while.
I’m not sure how much I will be posting here in the coming months. I’ll probably still think about science fiction as a topic, and who knows, I might fall off the wagon from time to time.
I’ve been hoping to find a new kind of science fiction. Science fiction is geared to the young, and I’m getting old enough where I can’t pretend that I’m young anymore. I need to find science fiction aimed at people in their social security years. I’ve even thought about trying to write a science fiction novel that’s age appropriate for myself.
Looking back, I rediscovered science fiction in 2002 when I joined Audible.com. It became all too apparent I was reliving my youth by listening to all my favorite science fiction stories I read growing up. Then about five years ago I got into short science fiction and collecting old science fiction magazines and fanzines. Hell, I was then trying to relive my past.
In my youth, science fiction was about the future. Now in my old age, science fiction is about the past. But I’ve burnt out on nostalgia. Living in the 2020s, the future has become hyper-real. There’s too much going on. Reading old science fiction is like being an ostrich sticking its head in a hole in the ground. For years now I’ve been trying to find new science fiction that was relevant to now, but it’s just not there. Modern science fiction merely recycles old science fiction or recapitulates old science fiction. The genre really needs another New Wave.
I’ve thought about creating a taxonomy of science fiction themes and writing a history about how each theme has been rediscovered many times over the last two centuries. But I need some vacation time even before I consider that project.
I own over a thousand nonfiction and literary novels I haven’t read. That’s where I’m heading for my vacation. I’ll report on them at Auxiliary Memory blog.
Too much is happening in the real world right now. Strangely, life is more science fictional than science fiction. Between AI, a shakeup in cosmology, climate change, robots, space exploration, wars, fascism, sexual revolutions, and many possible apocalyptic scenarios, who needs to read science fiction anymore?
Things are about to get heavy in the next few decades. I’m guessing science fiction and fantasy are so damn popular right now because they are a great hideout from reality.
James Wallace Harris, 6/19/24
Classics of Science Fiction 
Science fiction, for me, is about escapism. I guess there’s a fine line between that and sticking your head in the sand. But that’s why I read it, mainly. I’m a few years younger than you and, probably like you, have worked most of my life (small business owner, high school History and English teacher, and now a cop in a very violent Southwest city who’s ready to call it quits). I’ve recently been reading historical fiction. But I find myself eyeing my bookcases of old Astounding, Galaxy, and Mag of F&SF. I’ll go back to them because I enjoy them. And because until I retire, I’ll keep getting hit in the face with reality on a daily basis. I know you’ve written some fiction. Why not concentrate on that for a change? You’ve got a ready audience. I’ll be looking forward to your next post, whenever that may be.
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I love the old magazines. The covers, the columns, the book reviews, and the stories. To me, science fiction will always be the science fiction magazines from the 1940s through the 1970s.
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I can’t imagine taking a vacation from science fiction, or the other forms of fantastic literature I also enjoy when I’m not reading SF itself. I think I get enough reality with all the news and commentary on Facebook and the various news-and-commentary e-mail lists I’m on. Also, much (not all) SF has a way of dealing, however indirectly, with real-world issues, so it’s hard for me to read it in a purely escapist fashion even if I wanted to.
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Carl, I still love science fiction, I just need a wee bit of a vacation. I need to consume it as a treat rather than consuming it for all my three meals.
I think what I’m really tired of us reading so many average stories. An average story now and then can still be fun. But reading average stories all the time is ruining the flavor of science fiction. I need to cut back and then when I pick a science fiction story to read, I need it to be far above average. Something that stands out.
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Understood, Jim. I must admit that for me science fiction and fantasy (using the latter term in a broad sense) taken together are the main course for me, as far as my diet of fiction (as it were) goes. What I find interesting for me is going back and forth between science fiction and fantasy. I experience different moods in which I prefer now science fiction, now fantasy.
Many thanks for all your commentaries in your blog!
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