Space Opera Fans discussion

Greetings Space Opera Fans!

Have y'all read the article over on the Daily Dot entitled How the Generation Gap is Changing the Face of Fandom?

http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/growi...

In a nutshell, the article argues that science fiction conventions (especially WorldCon), quote:

"...the core demographic remained the same: older fans who came up through pre-Internet fandom and often considered themselves superior to the newcomers...

As some of you know, I decided to chip in and boss Ward around help out with this community after attending my local BOSKONE science fiction convention and growing despondent to see there were:

1) Almost no young people or children despite their concerted efforts to roll out the welcome mat;

2) Very few women;

3) Not a heck of a lot of people of color;

4) The general fandom had, for the most part, turned grey.

As someone who volunteers on the staff of it's sci-fi/fantasy sister, ARISIA, and watched it outgrow two convention centers (weekend passes usually sell out three months in advance), I know first-hand that's not the way things need to be. What really got me though was attending the Young Adult science fiction panel, where I had to listen to several tone-deaf panelists and a room full of even more tone-deaf older people amongst the few younger people who attended spout hogwash such as "young people no longer have a sense of self-sacrifice...

Hello ... McFly? And they wonder why the young people leave and never come back? As a mother of three daughters and a son, it upsets me that I can't get my kids to read a science fiction novel because they consider it uncool, and yet there are thousands of young women who read and write fanfiction about Tony Stark piecing together robotic battle armor in his basement before going to battle an alien invasion, but if they call this science fiction, they'll get shouted down by a bunch of people who tell them that's not 'real' because it comes with a hefty side-helping of romance?

Anyways, food for thought... Read the article and maybe y'all can brainstorm about ways to fix the problem in the thread below? As for me ... at some point I'll be starting a My Dream Science Fiction Boyfriend thread to try to lure those disenfranchised young, female Pepperony fans in. :-)

First off, we need parents, teachers, librarians etc. to stop looking down their noses at sci-fi as if it's not "proper" writing.

That'd be helpful.

From reading that article and based on my own experiences, it seems like it was just that particular con (WorldCon) that seemed that way. My experiences from my neck of the geek world have been positive and inclusive (in the most part, there are always individual assholes). And I also know many people in older generations who are really awesome. My mom and I do local cons together, I'm 30 now and we've been going for years.

But one thing I agree with that article is that this new generation of sci-fi fans will eventually take over because there will just be more and more of us. I think the point is that there are a lot of changes within the community and some people can't let go of what it used to be. Are they really relevant anymore?

Great article Anna. I've never been a big con person, but I'd certainly love to go to something like Comicon, which seems comparative to Nine Worlds in London. That being said, I'd also still go to WorldCon, to meet some authors and perhaps get some signed copies of their books. Am I surprised about elitism in the geekosphere? Not really. But WorldCon sounds exactly what I've already imagined it to be. I'd be the person that just want the autographs and perhaps attend some of the book forums. That being said, It'd be better if more women and people of different ethnicity were included. The old white guys still have their worth, but they shouldn't try to shove their opinions or work down anyone's throat by heckling others. It must have been ugly to see people old enough to understand what manners are disregard their own maturity and act like overgrown children.

For the most part, my experience with the vast majority of con-going fans (even older, white men with PhD's) has been decidedly positive. But it only takes a couple of jerks paired with the silence of the remaining con-goers to allow these types of problems to persist.

I, myself, have been guilty of rolling my eyes and remaining silent when some overbearing person voices the kinds of biases that were addressed in this article. But ... the past year I've decided to start speaking up. All we can do as sci-fi loving fans (especially Space Opera, which has always been the red-headed stepsister) is speak up and say, YES, movies and gaming and fanfiction and comics and queer fiction and racial difference and sex-in-space are all real science fiction, too.

Anna wrote: "FYES, movies and gaming and fanfiction and comics and queer fiction and racial difference and sex-in-space are all real science fiction, too."

And someone could enjoy one, all of them, or some combination of and they are still geeks.

John wrote: "I guess that's why I'm not so keen to read the older stuff again because the world has moved on and it all feels really dated..."

In that vein, I just finished up setting up a Young Adult Space Opera Listopia :-) Ender's Game was cool in its day, but the science fiction community really needs to entice young people into its fold.

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7...

Sci-fi does have serious NOT REAL SCI-FI problems. Like at least with fantasy I never get told THAT'S NOT REAL FANTASY, sure there are different kinds epic fantasy and urban fantasy are pretty distance cousins but they are still fantasy. Yet when I call Starwars Sci-fi I have friends flip out and call it science-fantasy like it's an insult or something. When honestly I feel like science-fantasy is an underwritten genre.

Young Adult Space Opera suggestions all animes in the real mecha genre, hey look a pretty good one airing right now. http://www.crunchyroll.com/aldnoah-ze...

Aaron wrote: "Young Adult Space Opera suggestions all animes in the real mecha genre, hey look a pretty good one airing right now..."

Instead of sniping NOT SCIENCE FICTION, I think what we, as science fiction fans, need to do is demand the publishing houses/distribution platforms provide the kind of sub-genre labeling that occurs in the fantasy, mystery and romance fields. Nobody thinks twice at calling Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood) fantasy in the same breath as Game of Thrones. Nor would one get ruffled at someone calling a homey 'cozy mystery' like the Murder She Wrote series a 'mystery' in the same breath as the Inspector Daglish series. They're just different sub-genres, that's all.

As for your anime suggestion, Aaron, could you please start a discussion folder for Aldnoah Zero in our Anime/Manga/Comic section? It is, after watching it, quite clearly a space opera show. Our YA / anime / gamer community is miniscule, but I wish to roll out the welcome mat for our disenfranchised sci-fi fans and declare 'we are all one.'

Anime folder is HERE: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

I read this article. Love the Daily Dot. I have definitely found that some entrenched mindsets have limited the potential of science fiction/fantasy to grow. It feels like the internet is opening up the genre.

Tricia wrote: "I have definitely found that some entrenched mindsets have limited the potential of science fiction/fantasy to grow. It feels like the internet is opening up the genre..."

Ultimately, Tricia, there are thousands of people who love and consume sci-fi every day, but because it doesn't come in a slender paperback with a test tube or a space ship on the front, they don't call it that. It comes in comics/manga, video games, movies, sub-sub-genres and twists never contemplated during the first 'pulp golden age.'

Any good product looks at what people WANT and then find a way to provide it for them. If we go back to Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek during the Civil Rights movement, they didn't argue about what was 'right' ... they simply built a spaceship with a white guy, an alien, a black woman, an Asian and a Russian on the ship (all of these were people who supposedly didn't get along in the late 1960's/cold war) and had them all go explore space together. Boom. Problem solved.

I think Space Opera as a genre has the most potential to do that again today, simply say 'this is what we want' and just do it. The old fuddyduds can go argue in the corner ... we'll be too busy exploring brave new sub-genres :-)