No disrespect to Mr. Brin, but if his article made Slashdot, it would probably be tagged "FUD" by the users, and someone would probably post a snarky comment along the lines of "Netcraft confirms that Sci-Fi" is dead.
The reason why Sci-Fi cons aren't seeing so many younger people has, IMHO, two causes.
Cause The First:
People of my generation don't read that much anymore. And, to shoot down this strawman prematurely, it's not because of TV, or Anime, or VIdeo games. It's because of how English is taught in public school. Kids don't necessarily have the opportunity to find out what they like in their English classes. Instead, they get "Catcher in the Rye", and "Lord of the Flies" dumped on them, and they're expected to read so much every week, and write an essay, or complete a worksheet on their reading. Consequently, they don't have enough time to read on their own. Furthermore, they may end up associating reading with essays and tedious busywork. I remember several conversations with friends in High School about reading, and when I asked them why they didn't read, they specifically mentioned that. They said that reading always made them think they should be writing a book report once they were done.
To help fix this, what needs to be done is simple - allow for some of the assigned reading to be 1) Sci-Fi, and 2) Fun. To be specific, for this to be fun - lay-off the coursework. Often, when I was in High School, much of the homework on the readings seemed to primarily exist to ask "Did you actually read the book or not?". Also, it will help if the reading is less emotionally heavy. The way to encourage reading is not to shove mentally dense books which you need to take some time to contemplate down students' optic nerves. You do it by assigning books which you can sit down and read with engaging characters, an exciting story, and preferably one with some humor. Thus, assigning books that are actually fun to, well, read, is important. This also has an added bonus that, in theory, the book should make up for any lack of enthusiasm from the instructor
Cause The Second:
I blame the Science Fiction "industry". Specifically, the lack of respect some of the more space-opera themed Sci-Fi books get at some of the major awards. None of the books in the Honor Harrington series, for instance, never recieved any awards, and that's the book series which I managed to use to get my mother to start reading Sci-Fi again. But when you look at the rolls of novels nominated for the Hugo and Nebula awards, it appears the general trend must be that they be about Really Important Sh-tuff.
If the major awards would give some recognition to Space Opera and other "fluffy" and fun Sci-Fi novels, (and, for that matter, good licensed Sci-Fi novels), then that too would help bolster the Sci-Fi industry, I would think.
I'd go into more detail on that last point, but I have to leave for work, so I'll try to expand on this point after work (if people ask for it).
Thu, 08/31/2006 - 8:03am
No disrespect to Mr. Brin, but if his article made Slashdot, it would probably be tagged "FUD" by the users, and someone would probably post a snarky comment along the lines of "Netcraft confirms that Sci-Fi" is dead.
The reason why Sci-Fi cons aren't seeing so many younger people has, IMHO, two causes.
Cause The First:
People of my generation don't read that much anymore. And, to shoot down this strawman prematurely, it's not because of TV, or Anime, or VIdeo games. It's because of how English is taught in public school. Kids don't necessarily have the opportunity to find out what they like in their English classes. Instead, they get "Catcher in the Rye", and "Lord of the Flies" dumped on them, and they're expected to read so much every week, and write an essay, or complete a worksheet on their reading. Consequently, they don't have enough time to read on their own. Furthermore, they may end up associating reading with essays and tedious busywork. I remember several conversations with friends in High School about reading, and when I asked them why they didn't read, they specifically mentioned that. They said that reading always made them think they should be writing a book report once they were done.
To help fix this, what needs to be done is simple - allow for some of the assigned reading to be 1) Sci-Fi, and 2) Fun. To be specific, for this to be fun - lay-off the coursework. Often, when I was in High School, much of the homework on the readings seemed to primarily exist to ask "Did you actually read the book or not?". Also, it will help if the reading is less emotionally heavy. The way to encourage reading is not to shove mentally dense books which you need to take some time to contemplate down students' optic nerves. You do it by assigning books which you can sit down and read with engaging characters, an exciting story, and preferably one with some humor. Thus, assigning books that are actually fun to, well, read, is important. This also has an added bonus that, in theory, the book should make up for any lack of enthusiasm from the instructor
Cause The Second:
I blame the Science Fiction "industry". Specifically, the lack of respect some of the more space-opera themed Sci-Fi books get at some of the major awards. None of the books in the Honor Harrington series, for instance, never recieved any awards, and that's the book series which I managed to use to get my mother to start reading Sci-Fi again. But when you look at the rolls of novels nominated for the Hugo and Nebula awards, it appears the general trend must be that they be about Really Important Sh-tuff.
If the major awards would give some recognition to Space Opera and other "fluffy" and fun Sci-Fi novels, (and, for that matter, good licensed Sci-Fi novels), then that too would help bolster the Sci-Fi industry, I would think.
I'd go into more detail on that last point, but I have to leave for work, so I'll try to expand on this point after work (if people ask for it).
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