Is Sci-Fi going mainstream?

**cunninghamair** · April 3rd, 2009

I just got back from my local bookstore, and it looked more like Halloween than Easter. Sci-fi and horror have prominent displays, along with various ghost/vampire displays around the store. Since reading "On Writing," I've added a few sci-fi writers to my reading list, but haven't gotten to them yet. I'm guessing the Harry Potter/Twilight people are looking for something else along these lines to read.

Heck, even Kim Harrison's latest book is 12th on the NY Times bestseller list! What do you think? First country music, now this?!

**Dani~** · April 3rd, 2009

I don't read much sci-fi but I absolutely love anything by Isaac Asimov. For me he is the "Stephen King"

of sci-fi.

**tillyn** · April 3rd, 2009

Well the Twilight thing is hot right now. I guess people need the good feel thing (romance, even if it is with a vamp.) Makes money and sells books. It's what the masses want. (by the way country isn't that bad. What do you first music put out there was?)

**smooth operator** · April 5th, 2009

I am a huge fan of sci-fi, but I haven't read anything published recently. I am a big fan of Heinlein, Herbert, and McCaffrey and a few others. I like the fact that good sci-fi assumes you are intelligent. I also like some fantasy and works that are considered both sci-fi and fantasy. I do not believe that sci-fi will really become mainstream - it often requires work from the reader.
I am also a horror fan, but I am much more particular about this genre, because I am not easily scared. I do believe that there are novels considered to be "horror" novels, which are not really even scary. I include Anne Rice's earlier works (not her erotica or her born-again stuff.) The subject matter might be something that the average person would consider frightening, but I would not. I am a fan of Anne Rice - her works are more fantasy in my opinion. I thought that horror had already become mainstream.
Maybe my head has been buried in the sand on this issue.

**Mr Nobody** · April 6th, 2009

Welll...some sci-fi will go mainstream. I think it was part of the reason why cyberpunk came along and then when that became 'mainstream' there was post-cyberpunk, which inverted some of the themes.
It all depends on which sub-genres are going mainstream, though. Some have been mainstream before and have drifted back to the edges. What will be interesting, though, is to see if any new sub-genres come out of it all.

**LadyHitchhiker** · April 8th, 2009

I am a HUGE fan of sci-fi but I agree with Mr. Nobody. SOME sci-fi WILL go mainstream. I can only hope that Star Trek will make it big again and so we will continue to have more movies and maybe another tv series.

**JRLauer** · April 8th, 2009

Originally Posted by LadyHitchhiker

I am a HUGE fan of sci-fi but I agree with Mr. Nobody. SOME sci-fi WILL go mainstream. I can only hope that Star Trek will make it big again and so we will continue to have more movies and maybe another tv series.

I'm a huge sci-fi fan as well, and I love Star Trek too. It's odd that they haven't started another series yet. Enterprise has been off the air for a few years now. But I wouldn't doubt that a good portion of the prime time schedule will consist of sci-fi shows in the near future.

**BlackThorn** · April 8th, 2009

One, there's no such thing. Sci-Fi is about exploring aspects of reality we might never get a chance to see. It's just a way to poke at what's real, and what we see and deal with every day. There's no such thing as mainstreaming sci-fi. It was mainstream already when 'The Fifth Element' came out.

Two, I friggin hope so! LOL. I was told by one of my hyper-intelligent friends that he'd read more King, if King actually wrote sci-fi, because he liked the way King wrote, he just wasn't into his 'scary' content. I think this was when I explained that short story King wrote, of the captain with tank treads for legs, that got stuck in the 'sandworld' in the salvage operation they were part of.

I swear, if a woman I'm talking to states that she hates sci-fi, my brain immediately red flags that having children with her would be fruitless. I use sci-fi discussions to determine how open someones mind is. If they have bars locking off specific sections, they're nothing I want to take home, no matter how much allure they have otherwise.

Soooo, you are not interested in the implications of time travel? You don't care if Kyle survived the Aliens? That's cool. I was only thinking of hitting that pretty pony you were so interested in with a sword anyways. Why don't you just stop talking for a little bit, so we can both enjoy whatever moment is left, k...?

I swear, if a girl doesn't laugh at least a fourth of what I laugh when watching a new Venture Brothers episode, she's freakin OUT! LOL. Sorry, but I want candy that turns me on... That natural defense you have of talking like you're interested in everything I might like, at least at first, means nothing to me. I was over feigned intelligent back when I turned 19.

**Mr Nobody** · April 8th, 2009

Snippet of a true conversation I had:

She: 'Sci-fi is for nerds and idiots. Truly intelligent people take no notice of it.'
Me: 'I have a measured IQ of 156. Technically I'm a genius. How intellingent, then, is "truly intelligent"?'

Didn't help it was a first (and needless to say, only) date.