Sci-Friday: Introduction to Genre

In my world, the s in sf is generally speculative, not science. I was introduced to it, as well as horror, extremely early. I’ve talked about this before, but this is thanks to my parents’ policy: I could read and watch what I liked, as long as they knew about it, and as long as I went to them with my questions about my media, and not to my grab-ass friends.

So my first entry in Sci-Friday is my earliest introductions to sf, thanks to Mom and Dad’s policy:

1. The Neverending Story, both the movie and the novel by Michael Ende: the movie is only about the first twenty percent of the novel, treat yourself and read it.

2. The Twilight Zone Magazine: it was my first magazine subscription, and it started in elementary school, I believe in third grade. It was my introduction to some of my first horror and sf authors, as well to such artists as Gahan Wilson.

3. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. This was also my introduction to audiobooks. My Talented and Gifted teacher in elementary school taught us how to deep listen by closing our eyes and putting our heads down while she played it. I was also able to meet her around the same age, and it was a wonderful experience. She spoke at a local church, and afterwards I was able to speak to her…and I babbled, all about how my little brother was like Charles Wallace, and how I wanted to be a writer because of her, and God knows what else I said to her. I poured out my tiny heart. At the end, she was holding both my hands between hers. I left my copy of Wrinkle overnight with the church for her to autograph, and they were clear that there would be no further personalization beyond your name, because there would be so many books to sign. When Mom picked up my book, the church employee told her she remembered my name because I was the only one that received a special message. My book reads “For my Carla, Tesser well. Love, Madeleine.” I’m grabbing it in case of a fire.

4. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, both the movie and the novel by Robert. C. O’Brien

5. The most traditional sci-fi item on the list: I saw Star Wars in the theater as a tiny thing. I became immersed in the movie experience when I was little and (hopefully) amused people around me. I told some of these stories in the episode Let’s Go to the Movies. I vividly remember Mom grabbing me and covering my eyes during the cantina scene, when the wookie’s arm was severed, and waving my arm violently and squawking “No! I’m a big girl! I wanna see it!”

Check out the other participants:

@Andrew Smith—thank you for including me!

@Rudy Fischmann

@Dré Labre

@Ross Bingham

@Kathryn Vercillo

@Kevin Alexander

@Scoot

@Michael S. Atkinson

@Alex S. Garcia

@Ben Kerschberg