h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

this is interesting-read it all..no really it is interesting-I promise.
why do some people have something against sci-fi and its fans?I was seriously (that spelled right?) annoyed ,to put it politely,with my English teacher today.He does this thing every year where he gives people a lend of books.When I told him I didn't need a book as I was reading a sci-fi he said, "you really should try to get out of that sorta thing..". I nearly smacked him in the head wth my book for that one

Just had a cunning idea- I'm gonna bring in a copy of Homers "the Odessy"-he was writing sci-fi hundereds of years ago and if you resd him your a scholor.Anyone else have ideas?

Mary Shelly's "Frankenstien" qualifies as both sci-fi and literature. So does "Flowers for Algernon", but I can't remember the author.
Does that help any?

It pisses me off too when sf is sneered at. But then, a lot of it is actually crap.

Try reading Phillip K. Dicks. He's blatant sf, but he's also acceptable to literary people. So your teacher can't complain then. If he does, then whack him with the book. He deserves it.

Oooh, that sort of small-mindedness makes my blood boil too.

Try talking about Jules Verne, or Edgar Allen Poe.
Or for acceptably literate sci-fi try Kurt Vonnegut or Ursula Le Guin.

LOTS of respected authors have written novels with a sci-fi or fantasy slant. Done well, it's a great opportunity to explore ideas outside of existing ways of life. Done badly it's admittedly dreadful, but you could say that of any type of fiction.

BTW, Daniel Keyes wrote "Flowers for Algernon".

MC

Thanks everyone.I think i'm going to bring in all of those books and have a public stoning with the books.That'll learn 'em