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General Discussion => The Speakeasy: OOG/Off-topic Discussion => Topic started by: Jace on 26 Dec 2014, 22:53
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This is one of those questions to which answers are always interesting to me. What is it about science fiction and/or fantasy that interests you?
Since I'm not playing EVE at the moment, I may or may not begin to stalk Off-topic Discussion. You have been warned.
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This is probably a stock answer but:
I like how they allow you to explore strange new worlds and new civilizations, and thus provoking certain lines of thought you might otherwise not have.
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I like trying to guess the fetishes of the authors and how they work into the world they've built.
No, but seriously, it's probably the ability to explore social issues in unorthodox ways.
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Exploring worlds and places that are different from our own. Worlds and places that have more options, more variety, more capability than ours. The ability to experience things we can't experience in our own world.
Ultimately, that one word: Experience. What interests me is the ability to experience things I can't experience in reality.
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This is kinda an interesting question for me, in that I'm not really sure.
I grew up in a SciFi household. I got drug to star trek conventions as a kid. I learned to read on sci-fi/fantasy books. It's a wonder I ever got to 2nd base at all really.
I guess I like exploring the nature of humanity separate from our existing reality, highlighting what makes us human by changing the base assumptions of our world.
Or something like that.
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Xenophilia.
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Living out of your spaceship. Like a space Winnebago.
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I have memories of being 6 and watching Star Trek with my parents. I saw Star Wars (the real Star Wars where Han shoots first Mos Eisley was desolate) for my birthday.
It captured my imagination and opened up a world of wonder and possibilities. And watching/reading science fiction now gives me a.chance to recapture that moment of the snap-hiss-hum as a nine-year-old boy watched another older boy, a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, turn on his father's lightsaber for the first time.
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I'm really not one-hundred percent certain, but a few of the above answers are close.
Some of it, like what Samira and Jennifer mentioned, is pure escapism - a desire to explore situations that are well beyond anything that I will ever see in my lifetime, or ever at all.
Some of it is just using the setting as a means to explore certain themes, which can be more easily done in a fantasy setting.
Some of it is, well, because it's just plain fun.
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My reasons are similar to what people mentioned. I grew up with science fiction around. On my own, it was primarily the cyberpunk era. Fantasy on the other hand is a recent interest for me. I hated it while growing up and generally hated anyone who liked it - that has changed as I've aged and I enjoy it now.
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I like them because they are interesting. I don't know why they are interesting. Something just click!
Then again that's why I like reading in general.
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I find the fantasy genre to be mostly harmless escapism, but also mostly quite disappointing. I sometimes think that it should be the best of genres: a place for the flight of ideas unbound by setting or period. What we actually seem to get is mostly sub par retreading of territory already owned by Tolkien, who did it first and did it better.
Science Fiction, though, well... It is the most important literature of our age. While perhaps dressed up in futurism, or couched in terms of space opera fantasy, it is often about right now. Or if not right now, then maybe tomorrow at the least. Science Fiction considers and dissects the moral dilemmas of the day while the mainstream of literature frets over relationships and fiddles while Rome burns.
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What the gentleman said above.
I also happen to have had a huge delusion over the years of the fantasy genre, but I'm rediscovering it through a few very different settings (games, books...) that make it genuinely (almost) as good as the day I discovered Tolkien. Those are pretty hard to find though. :/
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I like trying to guess the fetishes of the authors and how they work into the world they've built.
I do this too. :ugh:
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I have to admit I do that to unconsciously sometimes, because it's too damn obvious, especially in rubbish trite fantasy settings that sometimes look like fan fics full of Mary Sues.
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Guess what Terry Goodkind's is :lol:
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ikr
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Others have probably summed up my feelings here:
I like how they allow you to explore strange new worlds and new civilizations, and thus provoking certain lines of thought you might otherwise not have.
No, but seriously, it's probably the ability to explore social issues in unorthodox ways.
Exploring worlds and places that are different from our own. Worlds and places that have more options, more variety, more capability than ours. The ability to experience things we can't experience in our own world.
I guess with social issues in unorthodox ways it's more specific to sci-fi, or the 'speculative' (scuse the term) with utopian and dystopian fiction; but there's definitely the imagination/escapism aspect of exploring new ideas and worlds as well.
...I'd agree with Wan that it's a shame that a lot of modern fantasy is turgid and/or derivative, but there's plenty I enjoy reading as well.
(Incidentally, the ability to explore and interact with new environments is what draws me to video games in general as well, though I'd love to see more social experiment stuff going on in MMOs).
...Though I guess in all honesty, that fascination started as a child, with reading The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and Dune and watching Star Wars - as it all seemed profoundly more exciting and interesting than real life :P that still holds. :mad:
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Heh, I had the exact same holy graal repertory when I grew up, starting with Star Wars at 6 and reading LotR and Dune at 12. :D