I will start this again. I had 'help' typing in the form of a fluffy foot. Anyhow, I think you are right in the state of society affecting reading tastes. I would also go a tad further on that score. To attract interest SF needs to be as mind blowing as Fantasy. The object for the reader is to lose oneself in a totally different world/environment that might be possible in the future with a stretch of the imagination,if the science presented is up to suspending the ability to disbelieve.
The problem facing SF is the huge advances in science made over the last fifty years. H.G Wells wrote of man going to the moon and in the sixties, man did. Lots of innovations have started out in the minds of the SF writers, only to be made fact by scientists. What this has done is remove the potential of believing they are about to read wonder from the minds of the reader.
I think a turnaround is possible with something totally different and off the present radar. I also think it would have to be something not straight SF but cross genre to gradually wean readers into a wider reading range. Perhaps I am totally wrong. Who can tell?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2008-05-19 03:49 pm (UTC)The problem facing SF is the huge advances in science made over the last fifty years. H.G Wells wrote of man going to the moon and in the sixties, man did. Lots of innovations have started out in the minds of the SF writers, only to be made fact by scientists. What this has done is remove the potential of believing they are about to read wonder from the minds of the reader.
I think a turnaround is possible with something totally different and off the present radar. I also think it would have to be something not straight SF but cross genre to gradually wean readers into a wider reading range. Perhaps I am totally wrong. Who can tell?