Perhaps I should keep up on this some more. Ever since I released myself from nightly postings, I've pretty much slacked on this here blog. But tonight I've had a couple of whiskeys and I don't even know what randomness is in store.
I've been delving back into my sci-fi roots lately. At some point in my early years I devoured juvenile science fiction. My guess is that sci-fi takes place in worlds that don't exist was the perfect escapism for a kid like me. To this day I enjoy stories that take place in worlds that are not of the one we inhabit. Whether those worlds are just slightly off from this one or completely alien doesn't matter. Even music that has a sci-fi bent intrigues me, which would explain my Man or Astroman? collection. There probably are some psychological reasons for why I was attracted to sci-fi in the first place. It did offer me a world that was beyond the reality I was experiencing as a kid. And it's pretty easy for a kid to imagine that he is some kind of Han Solo like hero when the world around him has turned to utter shit (and Han Solo knew what it was like to be in the shit which is why he will always be cooler than Luke Skywalker (the Force, my ass)).
Strangely I never really got into the sword and sorcery type fantasy as a youth. I chalk most of that of it up to my parents declaring at some point that Dungeons & Dragons was of the devil and I was forbidden to play it. Which now I sort of thank them (although I suspect I would be a bit more imaginative but that's neither here or there). I did however read the monster books and created characters that I'd never be able to play.
In the long run I suspect that this love of sci-fi tempered the cynicsm that I should have truly inherited. Even in the most dystopian of sci-fi stories there is some element of hope for us puny humans. I still cling to the idea that sometime in the future (which I most likely won't be around for) humanity will come to it's senses and join the universe.
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