POLL FOR ALL

[d_aulnoy]

A quick, open question for everyone: as f&sf, and, specifically, the hybridization of genre, is one of my minor fields, and as one of my advisors is interested in having me explain my positioning of it in such a crucial place in the orals, and, as I'm a psychotic anal-retentive who can't just give him a pithy two minute response but needs must write a frikkin' paper on it ... why are f&sf important? My *basic* response is, simply, that one can't understand a society until one comprehends their views of the future, be they utopic or dystopic, and that one sees the values of a society represented in their visions of the timeless struggles analogized in their fantasies. Also, one - or, I, more properly - can't help but think that the changing forms of those visions represent an enormous shift in how we view the world - not in compartmentalized little sections, but as part of a whole (I think that this ties in to Postmodernism, personally, but more on that later, as I'm going to be writing up an ICFA abstract tonight). Blah, blah, blah - I've got more, don't worry, but not time enought to write a nice long entry here. (If we had but world anough and time ...) But I'm curious - most of y'all are also f&sf readers, so tell me why *you* read it, live it, love it, lump it, variety being the spice of life and all ... escapism is a valid argument, but why turn to *this* for your brand of it? Why not horror, or Western, or romance? C'mon people, help to satisfy a sistah's curiousity.