Sarah Xu: "Dear Michael Damian and Lynne Thomas: Shower Thoughts, Exclusive Ideas, and Gossip"

Dear Michael Damian & Lynne Thomas: Shower Thoughts, Exclusive Ideas, and Gossip

By

Sarah Xu

As a high school student, let alone an IMSA student, I rarely have time for activities other than browsing Facebook, Buzzfeed, legally streaming movies with no copyright laws, and occasionally, homework. However, when I do find myself with extra time, I often delve into short science fiction and fantasy (SFF) works. Why read, you ask? Two reasons that pop out of my mind are knowledge and escape. While science fiction can give details about the laws of physics, if I was really trying to become more knowledgeable, reading a textbook on the same topic would increase the process exponentially, and if I was trying to detach myself from reality, historical romance novels would do the same trick. Why then, short SFF? Tolkien would argue that fantasy offers a particular type of escape flanked with recovery and consolation. Hartwell would argue that once exposed to SF as a child through the various media plots, the reader is addicted and must continually receive their dosage. Although those are both reasons I read SFF, I would argue that the main reason I read SFF is due to my curiosity.

One of my favorite times of my day-to-day life is when I am showering and pondering. I often ask questions like what if our futures had infinite possibilities and we only eliminate a possibility when we die, or what if sentient robots existed. Luckily, my questions are frequently already answered in SFF works in some form. Although I know that I could live my entire life without knowing someone else’s thoughts about aliens, curiosity forces me to search and read for answers. I believe that this curiosity isn’t solely related to me. These questions existed before I was born and most likely come from human nature. In fact, human progression and advancement is a testament to the inherent characteristic of curiosity, and SFF is a natural response to such a creative thirst.

My love for SFF does not only stem from pre-formed internal questions, but also from the questions the intriguing and peculiar stories raise. Not only does SFF offer an escape from reality, but they usually also have genuinely interesting and unique plotlines. In most of the realistic dramatic novels throughout history, the actions are largely the same although the characterization is different. Falling in love, betrayal, murder, being given a second chance, cheating after the second chance, and murdering once more, are all actions present in non-SFF work. Although SFF novels do use some of these actions, they can also throw in something new. SFF can deal with invention, the loss of control of your own free will, and even time travel. Not only that, but often times the genres also play with human emotion by extrapolation. For example, we’ve all experienced the pain of a loved one’s cry, but no human has heard the extended cry, happening in real-time, for the rest of their life. These unordinary, exclusive plotlines and dilemmas easily pique my curiosity just from reading summary on the back cover.

Then, if I love SFF, why read short works instead of long drawn-out works that I can really immerse myself in and get, in a sense, more bang (content) for the buck (idea)? I believe that short works are especially precious commodities in these genres. The short length allows accessibility to even the busiest of readers. Like a vacation, sometimes shorter is better. A vacation offers you a sense of the new culture, a chance to unwind a relax, as well as an introduction to new foods or sustenance. However, once you stay there for too long, you may experience homesickness, or even worse, become fed up by the strange customs such as no restrictions for infants defecating in public streets. A short work can offer you a sense of the new invention or magic and a well-deserved break, but if the novel is drawn out far too long for its breadth, you risk becoming uninterested and perhaps even annoyed with the author.

The moral of the blog post is, if I were to compare myself to a lowly peasant serving a tyrant king, short SFF would be my gossip- brief, catchy, relatable, mind-opening, a necessary relief from the boredom of reality, but most importantly, satisfying my curiosity.