Those of us who write science fiction have heard the groans and prejudices expressed by those who look down upon science fiction as nothing more than trashy literature. I sometimes consider myself a one woman crusade to improve the image of science fiction in mainstream society, but so far I have had little success.
Where does this hostility towards science fiction come from?
Well, like most prejudice it is born of ignorance. Most of the people who believe science fiction is trash have not actually read much or any science fiction. In most cases their assumptions are based on the host of B-movies they viewed as a kid which bear almost no relationship to science fiction. In fact, Hollywood in general tends to damage the credibility of science fiction. I'll admit it when a new science fiction movie comes to the theaters, I am eager to see it, but the vast majority of the time I am disappointed. Movies never seem to be able to deliver the depth and power that I find in science fiction novels or even short stories.
Others who look down on the genre are put off by the unfamiliar. In science fiction stories we have a term for this. It is xenophobia. Some are put off by unusual character names, technology that they cannot understand, or just a locale that is not like any locale they can recognize. For me these are some of the things that I love about science fiction. I know someone who (though he had never read them) summed up Rowling's Harry Potter books as successful because all they were was a bunch of funny words. It's hard to explain to someone with this attitude that there's a lot more to the stories than words like "hogwarts" and "quidditch." The problem is that such close-minded and ridiculous attitudes are fairly common.
I recently picked up a novel that sounded interesting set in a future where global warming was a reality. What a surprise then to read the author's introduction which included this sentence, "I am not a writer of science fiction -- in fact, I've never enjoyed genre writing of any kind because of its predictability and the restrictions of the form -- and instead view this book as a trembling, satiric (and I hope passionate) literary excursion into the near future." Question: When is a literary excursion into the future not science fiction? Answer: When it is written by a "main stream writer." The author of this introduction was T. C. Boyle and the novel was A Friend of the Earth. I am unable to tell you much about the book because I never made it past the introduction.
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