Science Fiction

[waterspyder]

I was going through a list of the top 100 science fiction books of the 20th Century, and realized that I've read many of them, or other works by the authors on the list and I started to wonder.

What is it about Science Fiction that makes it so stigmatized?

All of the books on that list are thought-provoking. Many are written with a finesse that is completely lost on the contemporary serial novelist. Is there a ton of science fiction out there that I haven't read that is abyssmally bad? Is the average reader incapable of fathoming the concepts that are presented? What is it that makes sci-fi so inaccessible?

Comments

[waterspyder.livejournal.com]

We've moved past the point in the 70s and 80s where libraries wouldn't shelve it (which is why my mother owns so much of it despite being a huge fan of the library), but when I talk to people in everyday life or at University, they are really vocal about not reading those kinds of books.
I think this is a real shame as there are some phenomenal ideas presented in these stories. Academics tend to dismiss the ideas as being flighty or invalid. General people seem to associate it with trekkies or something and that makes it wierd.

Even looking at the New York Times Best Sellers list, fantasy may make the list, but sci-fi rarely does. Vonnegut made #1 twice in 60 years, but that's the only sci-fi #1 (aside from The Phantom Menace, because I refuse to acknowledge it).

[twiin.livejournal.com]

What about Jurassic Park, or Prey?

[zenten.livejournal.com]

From what I can tell Jurassic Park peaked at # 6 on the New York Times Best Sellers list, in the week of January 20, 1991. That may however be a local maxima, but I don't think so.

[twiin.livejournal.com]

I was looking at the wrong book. I saw the t-rex skull and assumed it was JP, when it was in fact the sequel:

"The Lost World", #1, October 8, 1995
"Prey", #1, December 15, 2002

...and that's just from a two second look over books in my bookshelf that have NYT blurbs on them. I'm sure there are other bestsellers.

In any case, the NYT bestseller list is less a measure of a book's quality as it is a measure of a book's publisher.