SciFi and Fantasy are the genera that I read and watch on TV, when I watch. I don't like sitcoms. Seinfeld made me feel immensely uncomfortable. Friends, Threes Company, Happy Days and everything like them the same. I felt like I was on trial when I watched those shows. Each character was put into a situation where they were exaggerating a social misunderstanding or foible. To me, they were spotlighting an aspect of my life, something that I have difficulty with or they were saying that this character is an idiot because he does this thing and that thing was something that I did. Why would I watch/read something that makes me feel ridiculed?
SciFi and Fantasy are genera that deal with the fantastic. They are mysteries, they are horrors, they are love stories; they are every type of story that there is, but they are in some fantastic setting. Because of this fantastic setting the troubles that the main characters are often environment based or have other characters that are coming into conflict with the main character, just like every other story, but what they do not do as much is feature flawed social characters.; they do not spotlight me, generally.
Characters in a fantastic setting are heroic. They are more perfect than reality. They do not suffer from indecision about whether to kiss the girl or not, because when you are trying to survive a hostile environment, social conflict is easy, or better yet not a topic. I can relax when I watch Star Wars, Babylon 5, Farscape, Merlin, or other similar shows. When I read books relationships are simple and easily formed, they can deep and they can be for-filling, they are rarely angst filled. I find the ones that are blow chunks, Star Trek Next Generation and Robin Hobbs' "Soldier Son" are such failures.
I also like SciFi and Fantasy, because I am very much into those aspects of life.
No comments:
Post a Comment