She Blinded Me with Sci-Fi primer

Science-Fiction is the realm of "possible". Whatever we dream can be, even our nightmares. In this magic genre fiction becomes reality but so too does reality become fiction. Gravity, time's linear movement, property, sex, all of this and more becomes optional and open for distortion. And when life imitates art we can invent cellphones, e-readers, webcams, and robots.

I am something of a Janie-come-lately to the science fiction world. Growing up, I had a healthy exposure to Star Trek (original and The Next Generation) and, aside from my crush on Data, it did not really seep into my life. It was not until middle-school when I found Earth Abides on my mother's bookshelf that I began to read any science fiction. I slowly gained momentum, not considering science-fiction any more than any other kind of fiction, until this summer.

I have been a little fed up with the assumed and accepted reality. I like to remember that I am an animal, part of the enormous ecosystem we call Earth. I tend to wonder how a given situation would translate into an uncivilized human mind. No, I am not making archaic and blatantly racist romantic stories about the "savage". I like to strip away our fake environments, our learned social responses, and remember that I am only a human. I am a naked, utterly defenseless animal in an "untamed" and "undeveloped" natural world. It allows me to let go of the stress that builds up when worrying about things like a good credit score, a collapsing economy, how much I pay for health insurance, how much I pay for my graduate studies, etc. I suppose, in many ways, it rids me of the burden of money.

So while I am on school break, I plan to take a break for the pettiness of graduate school studies and engage in some healthy fantasy and escape this reality for a little while. I cannot afford a vacation or even a soma holiday so escapism is here as a cheap substitute.