Did you know any non stereotypical sci fi fans in the 1990s?

[Greg Cox]

How did that work out for you Greg ?

Funny story: I ran into some folks from the old neighborhood a few years ago. They confessed, rather sheepishly, that they always figured I'd never amount to anything because I spent all my time reading comic books and sci-fi novels and such.

 

[Relayer1]

Funny story: I ran into some folks from the old neighborhood a few years ago. They confessed, rather sheepishly, that they always figured I'd never amount to anything because I spent all my time reading comic books and sci-fi novels and such.

Vindicated !

 

[theenglish]

More the 80s, but I had a couple of teachers that were very much into it.

Sticking people into lockers wasn't a thing (though we didn't have lockers so....)

I remember my high school Physics teacher was very much into Tolkien. I learned a lot from him. One day at lunch we wrote all over his boards in Cirth. He walked in, took a look around--erased part of the board and then wrote in Cirth--"You are runing the boards."

 

[John Clark]

I remember my high school Physics teacher was very much into Tolkien. I learned a lot from him. One day at lunch we wrote all over his boards in Cirth. He walked in, took a look around--erased part of the board and then wrote in Cirth--"You are runing the boards."

- One of the teachers I was referring to was our Physics teacher. (The other, English lit)

 

[Kor]

J.R.R. Tolkien and Michael Crichton were respected in my middle school class, which was some kind of advanced/honors program. TV and movie sci-fi as well as comic books were seen as lowbrow nerd stuff. One day, one of the popular kids who was big on Clancy and Crichton novels confessed to me that he also liked Star Wars. I acted very happy to find a fellow sci-fi movie fan and, and grinned and asked, "Can I tell everybody else??" He pleaded with me not to.

In high school, nobody really cared what other people liked. It was more "live and let live," and you could always find a group of people with similar interests. Since Shakespeare has been brought up, I always liked it precisely because it was so far removed from the crass modern world. A friend of mine from outside the honors program complained about having to read this old stuff, since "people don't talk like that anymore." I didn't understand that thinking at all.

Kor

 

[Mudd]

When I was in college we called sf, fantasy and pop literature courses "easy As" - no real work or research required.

 

[Greg Cox]

When I was in college we called sf, fantasy and pop literature courses "easy As" - no real work or research required.

I actually got a B in my college SF course, which was absolutely mortifying. Good class, though: we read The Man in the High Castle by Dick, We by Zamyatin, The Space Merchants by Pohl & Kornbluth, etc. Good, challenging stuff, which we had to write thoughtful essays on.

My high school SF class on the other hand . . . I made the mistake of signing up for it, not realizing that it was the "easy A" English class for folks who don't like English classes. Found myself the only nerd in a class full of stoners and such, and suspecting that I knew more about sci-fi than the actual teacher.

 

[RandyS]

I heard sci fi and DnD got people shoved into lockers in the 80s and 90s. Did you know any non stereotypical sci fi fans back then? In the 2000s a very physically fit and intelligent US Army ranger told me he was a fan of Babylon 5 and BSG.

What makes Babylon 5 and BSG such good recommendations for military officers?

Back in the 90s I was too old to be shoved into lockers. High School ended in 1989 for me. But my Dad and my brother used to take great delight in telling me how stupid I was for liking sci-fi, despite my brother also being a religious TNG watcher.

 

[Qonundrum]

Yet they were still required to teach Shakespeare. Honestly, I don't understand the whole Shakespeare thing and why that is required. For one, those plays are old, but more than that, no one talks that way anymore. When was the last time you were in a conversation with someone and asked "Wherefore art thou Romeo".

I'm going to try that out some time and relay what the responses are...

Also, in 400 years' time, people will probably not speak in the same ways that we do now... I just hope that between now and then there's a renaissance and return of multisyllabic words or else I fear we'll devolve back to knowing just "ug", "um", and "grunt" for anything that has more than one syllable, what with many multisyllabic words being supplanted by solely their first syllable as abbreviations regardless of how many more structured words stem from said first abbreviation exist...

 

[theenglish]

I'm going to try that out some time and relay what the responses are...

Also, in 400 years' time, people will probably not speak in the same ways that we do now... I just hope that between now and then there's a renaissance and return of multisyllabic words or else I fear we'll devolve back to knowing just "ug", "um", and "grunt" for anything that has more than one syllable, what with many multisyllabic words being supplanted by solely their first syllable as abbreviations regardless of how many more structured words stem from said first abbreviation exist...

Hmm, there are a few reasons why we study Shakespeare not the least of which is his historical importance to daily language. There are phrases and ways we use words today that are found in his work. One of the original uses of the the word "blow" as in to blow up with explosives comes from Macbeth.

He was in great part responsible for popularizing the loosened definitions of tragedy and comedy that we still use today. He experimented with the traditional form in ways that still held to some standard requirements/definitions while introducing new elements--something we still do today.

Many romantic comedies still follow the similar formula of two couples (one comedic relief to the main couple) and ending with a wedding (or the modern equivilant). Many dramatic movies ending with the death or the fall of the protagonist still follow the elements of tragedy (Gladiator and The Departed come to mind).

Finally, the actual plots of many of the stories we tell today come from Shakespearean plays. Shakespeare did not create many original stories but he framed the stories he adapted in ways that we still use in story telling today.

 

[Silvercrest]

I just hope that between now and then there's a renaissance and return of multisyllabic words or else I fear we'll devolve back to knowing just "ug", "um", and "grunt" for anything that has more than one syllable, what with many multisyllabic words being supplanted by solely their first syllable as abbreviations regardless of how many more structured words stem from said first abbreviation exist...

Lol.

ROTFL, in fact.

But YMMV.