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Why You Should Never Call Science Fiction "Sci Fi"

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JennaW
12/01/08

In reply to Why You Should Never Call Science Fiction "Sci Fi"
That was too irritating to watch, I'm afraid.

But I certainly think one of the best ways to talk to people who aren't inside the genre about the genre is to correct them right off the bat and then explain the difference between "scifi" and "science fiction" (which is nine letters and a space or a hyphen, depending on how you render "scifi"). That'll earn the genre some respect, 'cause people just *love* to be corrected and bored by self-important pedants!
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Stevil2001
12/01/08

In reply to Why You Should Never Call Science Fiction "Sci Fi"
Why the crap is Yvonne Fern even there?
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JennaW
12/01/08

@Stevil2001: Probably because the real female science fiction authors were above joining in such a circle jerk, so they had to drag in someone's snotty wife.
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Pope John Peeps II
12/01/08

In reply to Why You Should Never Call Science Fiction "Sci Fi"
Okay, so as a graduate student I studied a lot of post-structural philosophy, or deconstructionism. Mostly Derrida himself and the early century conditions of his writing. These brilliant philosophies got misrepresented more and more as the century progressed, and slowly these misrepresentations became subsumed under the joke name "PoMo", for Post-Modernism. So I understand how it can appear that the word itself degrades the philosophy behind it. But the real force behind it is simply the tradition of thought which transmutes something powerful and complex into a societal current. Something simple and easy. People have been complaining about the dumbing down of culture for the length of human history. And it's pretty true. Culture as a whole has a way of making things stupid. But it's not bad. It can't be bad, it's part of what we as human beings do. We build edification, then we build entertainment, then we build culture, then we build the Three Stooges.
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Moff
12/01/08

@Pope John Peeps II: I'm concerned that you're implying the Three Stooges are somehow an example of dumbing down. I mean, maybe some of the episodes with Shemp, but...
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Pope John Peeps II
12/01/08

@Moff: Poor Shemp. Imagine being known as the "stupid stooge". How can you be a bad stooge?
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Pope John Peeps II
12/01/08

In reply to Why You Should Never Call Science Fiction "Sci Fi"
I didn't realize how old and tired Harlan Ellison has become. The Demolish Man is "one of the GREAT books of the 20th century"? Fuuuck. Sure, it's good. But when ranked against all books produced in the entire 20th century, it probably wouldn't even crack the top 500.

I think he's suffering from the sort of myopia you get when you read and study one thing and one thing only for a lifetime. And then become a senile old crotchet.
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FredicvsMaximvs
12/01/08

In reply to Why You Should Never Call Science Fiction "Sci Fi"
I think it's just slightly ridiculous, myself. "Sci-Fi" is just an abbreviation for Science Fiction - nothing more, nothing less. I agree that there is a lot of crap out there masquerading as science fiction, when it really ought to be labeled "breathy romance in outer space" or something similar.

Maybe "Crap Sci-Fi" would be a good alternative.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
12/01/08

@FredicvsMaximvs: That's skiffy, along with cheap monster movies, and stuff.
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OW-Holmes:Bringer of Fear
12/01/08

In reply to Why You Should Never Call Science Fiction "Sci Fi"
So what does that make ECW?

Forget it, Im just going to guy to my local BIMONSCIFICON.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
12/01/08

In reply to Why You Should Never Call Science Fiction "Sci Fi"
THANK YOU!!!

Time was, everyone knew this. There's SF, sci-fi, and then skiffy. The Sci-Fi Channel is skiffy.
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Moff
12/01/08

@Evil Tortie's Mom: What? Are you questioning the hours of diligent research that went into Rock Monster?
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Grey_Area
12/01/08

In reply to Why You Should Never Call Science Fiction "Sci Fi"
I'm leaning toward the name "Melvin".
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bonniegrrl
12/01/08

In reply to Why You Should Never Call Science Fiction "Sci Fi"
Let's start a new name for it then!

Any takers?
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Gann
12/01/08

@bonniegrrl:

I would call it either Future Fantasy or Space Fantasy.
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Gann
12/01/08

@Gann: Although I do like the Science Fiction/SciFi differentiation.
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electricv01
12/01/08

@Gann: I think those work pretty well, though based on the comment in the video that "Sci-fi" requires no thought, I would say that may be a little demeaning to fantasy as a genre as well.
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Moff
12/01/08

@bonniegrrl: ROBOT BOOKS
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Pope John Peeps II
12/01/08

@Moff: Wouldn't that just reduce to RO BO? That's even better/worse
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crashedpc - Haifisch
12/02/08

@bonniegrrl: I call it Literary Heroin. Damnit I'm hooked.
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Gann
12/02/08

@electricv01: It's not that scifi requires no thought, but that its focus is on plot and character instead of science. Science in scifi is like magic in fantasy, a ruse to move the plot in the desired direction. In Science Fiction the plot follows the science, not the other way around.

I don't mean to say that a particular work has to be one or the other. The distinction is not black and white, but scalar. Some of my favorite stories have a science fiction foundation, but are told in a scifi manner.
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Gann
12/01/08

In reply to Why You Should Never Call Science Fiction "Sci Fi"
A good friend and I were just having this conversation over thanksgiving. The problem as I see it is that much of what is called science fiction (scifi in this video) is actually fantasy set in the future or in space. Science fiction is not a time or a place, but a method of storytelling.
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Alexis
12/01/08

In reply to Why You Should Never Call Science Fiction "Sci Fi"
Tomaytoe, Tomahtoe
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