Sometimes Your Experience is What You Bring

There's genuine man-feelings with genuine reasons for being, and then there's Kylo Ren

There's been another dust-up as it were in SFF circles. File 770 does a better job of reporting the mess than I could. (Well, better in that I'm not interested in wasting the time typing it all out.) That said, one of the things that stuck with me was, once again, this statement that "We feel it is time to return to SFF stories, films, shows and games that allow the reader/viewer/player to escape the real world - as it used to be." Alexandra Rowland had an excellent response to those last five words. She used one of the best examples possible to make her point: maybe the reason you're not experiencing the "wonder" in SF any longer is because you've grown up?

Reading is an interactive experience. This is a big part of what makes literature an art form. Writers don't get to dictate your experience of their work. We've never had that level of control--even if sometimes we wish we did.[1] A literary work is always one part what the reader brings to the piece. Readers aren't passive. Reading engages the imagination. If the piece you're reading doesn't do this, the piece in question has failed in its job. That's the definition of interactive. So, if you're missing a sense of wonder from all modern SFF, then maybe it's time for some self-examination? As a therapist once told me: "If every relationship is a failed relationship, maybe it's time to have a look at the common denominator in all those relationships." Hint: the biggest common factor is yourself. So, maybe it's time to admit that maybe the lack of wonder isn't the author's fault? Because no author, no matter how talented or how powerful the work, can give you back your childhood.

And that's what pops to mind every single time I see a white man (and let's face it, it's always white men) say they miss the sense of wonder in the original [fill in the blank media property]. Every. Time.

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[1] Trust me. That's honestly a thing.