I'm a cold italian pizza, I could use a lemon squeezer

[matthew]

My favourite all time sci-fi writer is still ole H.G. Wells.  But I love Phil Dick and Lem.  I also like Ursula Le Guin a lot. 

Ursala! I came to the attention of my English teacher in grade ten because of my ravenous consumption of The Beginning Place, which he had assigned us. I wrote these lengthy interpretations of each chapter that apparently blew my teacher away. He loved me for being so into it, and it suppose it was kind of special because I really ran with it, analyzing each page down to the most minute details, whereas most of the class was bored stiff. We were expected to write 250-750 words on each assignment and kids were padding the hell out of their papers, whereas I was 5,000-8,000 words or so crammed both sides of numerous (six or more) single spaced sheets, my tiny cursive 25 words per line writing eventually in disarray by the end as I was often not finished when I had to force myself to wind down and go to bed. He would often tell other students to read my analysis if they didn't understand the chapter, but they more often than not did not understand my handwriting on the last pages. As much of a geek that I felt like, I was proud of the marks I was taking home at the time, and best of all: I was enjoying what I was doing (the only requisite for me to do things well, usually - except drumming. I enjoy drumming more than I am good at it). That said, I felt like a marked man when my teacher singled me out one day in grade eleven. He had some news about a NASA development and he said, "I don't know if you will be interested, but I...Oh, I know Matthew will be interested, he really enjoys Science Fiction." and everyone turned and looked at me. It felt the same as if he said, Hey, I just want to bring this to the attention of all the girls the class: Matthew is not only overweight, but he is also a big nerd!" I suppose they knew that I was a nerd, but at the time I was terrified of the label and even ended up telling my teacher later that I wasn't really that into sci-fi.   

[matthew]

I am actually very interested in science fiction, whereas you could not pay me enough to get me to read fantasy. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH... I never finished any Tolkein as a kid. Swords & sandals shit never interested me. Goblins, faeries, hobbits, dwarves, dragons, wizards, etc. do absolutely nothing for me. I have difficulty enough containing my laughter when I find myself swimming in the psychobabble deluges of some Star Trek episodes. I need to be interested in the philosophical arguments, the character, the motivations, the existential ramifications for the human individual, etc. because all the silly made up words in the world are not going to keep me 'entertained'. I like to think about and feel what I immerse myself in and I find finicky detail and goofy, meaningless technical jargon very distracting. I could not even bear to watch the Lord of the Rings movies. I just don't give a shit about the predicament thes characters are in.   

I read Lord of The Rings, which I thought was thought was kind of boring.  Middle-brow stuff.  I actually enjoyed the movies way more than the books.  Yes, I like the Lord of the Rings movies.   

There's two fantasy cycles that I like quite a lot: the Earthsea cycle, by Ursula Le Guyn, and the Discworld cycle, by Terry Pratchet.  The Earthsea stories are really well written: unlike the Harry Potter shit, the magic in Earthsea has a logic to it, and you can actually suspend disbelief quite easily. The Discworld stories are actually a parody of fantasy stories and the conventions of the genre.  I think that anyone that hates fantasy will enjoy the Discworld stories. 

What is your take on High vs. Low Fantasy? Again, I know very little about this other than the former is more cerebral (or endeavors to be) and the latter is more straight fantasy.

Unless I have them confused.

[matthew]

oh yeah, the other person bidding against me in that ebay thing pulled out and I got it, after all.

[Bizarro]

oh yeah, the other person bidding against me in that ebay thing pulled out and I got it, after all.

 

[Sabamah]

btw, even though it was hard for me to find this board as i am not used to this setup:


NERD PATROL!!!!!!!!!! HELL-OOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!