sci-fi fantasy lit column!

[rm]

So I'm going to be doing a column for Gather on the world of sci-fi and fantasy literature. My introductory piece is going on be on the ascendancy of this genre and why it's not what the people who aren't immersed in it generally denigrate it as. If any of you want to talk to me about why you enjoy this work and what it means to you and how the reception your interest in it as a consumer has evolved over the years, please leave comments and let me know if I can quote you if you provide this info in your comments. I am excited about this!

But, they want a catchy title to help brand it. What the hell should I call it?

Also exciting: a big check for some writing I did will be here exactly when I need it.

Comments

[shayguevara.livejournal.com]

I have some trouble with commenting as I feel the fantasy/sci-fi genre has really grown in the past 2 decades.

Although I am usually too hung up on the fact that this is one of the things about me that makes me a huge geekgirl (though I am becoming more proud of it by the moment), my interest stems back to reading Madeleine L'Engle books starting in the 2nd grade. Yes, 2nd grade. I was a bit advanced for an 8 year old. I think that is why I dug her books - I was into her Time Quartet (A Wrinkle in Time, etc.) and very much identified with Meg. In a college children's literature lecture it was pointed out to me that I probably liked her (and thus the books) because she was also an intellectual with "friend issues". Indeed.

I loved the way L'Engle wrote without "dumbing down" to children. If I didn't know what mitochondria were, I would have to find out. I would have to look at the scientific explanations of the space/time continuum. As the youngest child in my family (with the "oldest" mind),it made me feel big.

My father kicked off my Chronicles of Narnia phase - they had been his favorite as a child. I didn't read Tolkien until I was an adult and I think I enjoy Harry Potter more as an adult than I would have as a child. I could be wrong, but my imagination really runs wild with the story and I enjoy comparing it to other literature that may have influenced J.K. Rowling.

Some of my fantasy reading these days is escapism (Gregory Maguire books and the like) and some of it is based in nostalgia (such as the fact that I will be reading the Eragon series). Reading Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain series (my husband insisted as they were his favorite as a child) gave me the thrill that reading had given me as a child while having the perspective to look at the series abstractly. I also thoroughly enjoy some of the female heroes in these books.

In some ways I enjoy children's sci-fi/fantasy best (Philip Pullman , et al.), but I have read quite a bit of adult s-f/f (mostly on recommendations from friends). Marion Zimmer Bradley (I am all about Arthurian fantasy, but I also enjoy her other books), Ray Bradbury and Guy Gavriel Kay are all authors that I started reading in adolescence and have continued to enjoy in adulthood.

Is this a decent start? I kind of feel like rambling...