To write SF or not to write SF

At Lyda's suggestion, I'm going to post this as a blog on its own.

It's taken me days to respond to her on the "Why SF?" question because, honestly, I think it's a hard question to answer. When Kelly first talked about it a ways back, I gave it some thought, but couldn't find a lot to say. Now, again, I find it hard to break down. Part of me wants to just say "Because, damn it!" and leave it at that.

But it's worth more than than. I can see several different ways that I personally repond to this question. First, intellectually, I think that SF/F is about exploration--whether that be of ideas, alternate societies, ethics, mythologies, etc. Now, I know that all fiction, to some degree or another, includes exploration of some sort or another--Catcher in the Rye has at least thrice its fair share of self-exploration--but I'm talking about scope and scale here. SF/F is about turning the world topsy turvy--sometimes in huge ways, sometimes in quiet, subtle ways--and saying "What would this world look like? How would it work? How would it impact people?" And working through the detials of that to explore, and to show, that some changes are worth making, or at least considering.

There is definately the emotional component as well, both the "Cool!" response to the scaly/shiny bits, and the more background reponse of feeling that this place is other, which can be a key to letting your mind relax while reading; this is NOT your own world, so let go of that stress for a while. Conversely, this can be a world which is other in a way that discomforts you, either in order to kick your ass into changing something about the world we do live in, or to keep you from wishing for something that is far more dangerous that it may appear from the outside.

You know, it's not the difficulty of the subject that kept me from responding, it's the enormity of it. It woukd require an enite book to adequately respond to the question. Both things are correct: we write it because we can write things in it that are best said in this medium, and we write it because it's cool. We write SF/F because we read SF/F. We write to promote certain futures, and to caution people from following certain paths. We write to reinterpret the world.