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From: wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: a comment on the sf as literature discussion
Message-ID: <285@rti-sel.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 10-Jul-85 09:20:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: rti-sel.285
Posted: Wed Jul 10 09:20:53 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Jul-85 10:35:45 EDT
References: <2620@topaz.ARPA>
Reply-To: wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly)
Organization: Research Triangle Institute, NC
Lines: 27

In article <2620@topaz.ARPA> ops@ncsc writes:

>Listening to you all arguing among yourselves over what is good
>literature, or how much more realistic the explosions in one movie
>are over the explosions in another, or which author is more godlike
>than another, or whether fantasy is as valid as hard science fiction,
>or any of the other subjects you bicker over had me wondering if any
>of you remember the wonder and the awe of realizing that the things
>you read about in your treehouses and under your covers by flashlight
>could actually be true and that one day you could have a part in
>making them be true. I wonder how many of you were as influenced in
>your lives by science fiction as I have been in mine.

We probably wouldn't be reading this newsgroup if we hadn't been
strongly influenced by SF. But people are influenced by literature,
music, and the other arts in different ways, and people approach their
enjoyment of these things from different backgrounds and perspectives.
What seems to be 'bickering' or 'arguing' to you is our approach to
the enjoyment and understanding of SF; it's just as valid and
enjoyable an approach to the genre as reading in a treehouse under
covers by flashlight. Wonder and awe was enough for me when I was a
teenager. Now that I'm an adult, I demand more from the literature I
read. It's a matter of personal taste and experience, and my way of 
enjoying SF doesn't diminish yours or anyone else's in this group.
If you don't care for criticism, skip over the critical discussions
when you read the news.
                            -- Cheers, Bill Ingogly