We've planned too many wonders for one little star

January 6, 2014 8:34 AM

"In 'Somebody Will' I wanted to get across why I see sci-fi and fantasy fandom as a more positive, productive world than many of the hobbies and communities common in our culture. [...] The hardest part of the piece is singing it to the end without crying."

Sassafrass is an a capella filk group that performs ambitious, nerdy choral music.

posted by Sokka shot first (5 comments total)

Those are my people and this is the attitude C.S. Lewis warned against in That Hideous Strength because his grubby little provincial mind could not understand it, other than as blasphemy born out of hubris. It's the attitude that led generations of fans to set up slan shacks or Ozark breeding camps, led us to try out every kook idea that offered a shortcut to the stars, from the Dean drive to Velikovskism, but it's also what drives hundreds upon thousands of scientists and engineers to dedicate their lives to building, guiding and following unmanned probes to the far reaches of our Solar System, on missions that seem to mock our own aspirations to ever get there ourselves as they reveal how hostile even our benign corner of the universe is and how big.
posted by MartinWisse at 9:51 AM on January 6, 2014 [3 favorites]

Ah fandom. We have been apart for far too long.
posted by Splunge at 10:33 AM on January 6, 2014

Three months ago there were these writing seminars all across this end of North Dakota where all the oil activity is. The hope of the state Humanities Council was to encourage folks to chronicle the historical change happening to the state. I decided that despite the fact that I am writing epic fantasy I'd check this out.

When I was discussing what I was writing with one of the seminar leaders I said that I had gone back and forth online with a few science fiction and fantasy writers. She shook her head. "I envy that world. Literary writers and poets are all paranoid wolves turning on each other and fandom is nonexistent. Not only do you get other authors who are willing to talk to you, but you have all these fans who throw massive conventions to celebrate their world. It makes me wish I had read Tolkien when I was young."
posted by Ber at 11:47 AM on January 6, 2014 [8 favorites]

Those are my people and this is the attitude C.S. Lewis warned against in That Hideous Strength because his grubby little provincial mind could not understand it, other than as blasphemy born out of hubris.

I think you're thinking of Out of the Silent Planet and/or Perelandra. And I don't think it's provincial to point out that human beings will remain human even if we go to Mars. Quite the opposite.
posted by straight at 1:47 PM on January 6, 2014

Ok, well, ya got me. I'm a little misty now listening to that.
posted by newdaddy at 6:35 AM on January 7, 2014