-----Original Message-----
From: Barbara Benesch <BJBenesch@AOL.COM>
To: FEMINISTSF@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU <FEMINISTSF@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU>
Date: Sunday, November 30, 1997 11:17 PM
Subject: Re: [*FSFFU*] SF/Sci-Fi
>> At 06:29 PM 11/25/97 -0500, Barbara Benesch <BJBenesch@AOL.COM> wrote:
>> >Okay, seriously. I'm very glad you posted this, Lindy, because I'd been
>> >becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the SF/Sci-Fi distinctions,
just
>> >like I've always been uncomfortable with the "hard"/"soft" science
>> >distinctions. Personally, I think it's all a lot of hooey.
>>
>In a message dated 97-11-26 12:01:05 EST, Neil Rest wrote:
>> Barbara, if you were talking about Tepper, LeGuin and, say, _Looking
>> Backward_, and someone chimed in wanting to know which Terminator movie
>you
>> thought was better, you might well consider them off-topic, and perhaps
>> even of less discriminating taste. Amplify that sort of thing by a
couple
>> of orders of magnitude.
>
>Neil, I can understand how when people were trying to pass "Attack of the
>Rutabega That Ate Albequerque" as comparable to Tolkien in the science
>fiction world, the distinction between "real" science fiction and
"not-real"
>science fiction was important. However, as a 24-year-old, I've never
thought
>of science fiction as *not* being a viable and legitimate form of
literature.
> Perhaps that's the difficulty here.
>
>Otherwise, I guess you'd have to classify me as one of the people "of less
>discriminating taste" because as well as enjoying Tepper, et al., I enjoyed
>_both_ Terminator movies, and further I enjoy other (what I presume you
would
>call) "less real" science fiction books, movies, and television shows.
>
>Barbara Benesch
>BJBenesch@aol.com
>
As an 18 year old college student, I would have to agree. While Godzilla is
certainly not science fiction, I think that Tolkein, C.S. Lewis, Atwood, and
yes, even those damn Ghost buster movies are. I think the whole sci-fi vs.
SF debate is ridiculous. Why divide ourselves up? We are what we are,
fantasy with some sort of basis in science, be it current, futuristic, or
otherwise. This science does not even need to be "hard science" i.e.
Chemistry, Biology, etc. Sociology and Anthropology are legitimate sciences
as well. Sorry to blather like this, but I needed to get this off my chest.
Becca
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