Calling sf types

[pozorvlak]

steerpikelet can use your help! She's writing her special topic paper on the internet and the like in fiction (and especially science fiction, AFAICT), and needs booklisting. She describes it thusly:

Under the general bracket of 'fiction in English,' I'm doing an extended essay all about how 20th/21st century literature uses t'internet as a narrative hook, and I'm going to go on a bit about narratology and post-structuralism and probably end up talking about fanfiction. I intend to use the words 'semiotic' and 'schema' a great deal.

Knowing that a lot of you a) know loads about sf, b) don't read her journal, I thought I'd post the message here - her original cry for help can be found here. Thanks in advance!

When I was little, I always assumed that science fiction would be the default reading matter of the intelligentsia - after all, it's SCIENCE fiction. I had a bit of a shock when I went away to Big School and found that it was not only much less popular than I'd thought, it was actually looked down on by many intelligent-seeming people. It's good to have so many intelligent sf readers on my friends list, as it suggests my earlier belief might not be so much wrong as twenty years too early :-)

Comments

[liminereid.livejournal.com]

I think the problem is that SF gets lumped in with fantasy and that, though they can be good, when they are bad, they are so mindnumbling derivative, unimaginative badly written drivel that the good bits get tainted with the reputation.

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

I invoke Sturgeon's Law (http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/S/Sturgeons-Law.html).