Growing Up with Science Fiction (1978)
nytimes.com
Growing Up with Science Fiction (1978)
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Re: Growing Up with Science Fiction (1978)
#2The article is Carl Sagan's perspective, and a lot of it is his current views of the SF he read when younger, as well as a general discussion about the value of SF to young enquiring minds.
For a very different take, I really enjoyed the novel "Among Others" by Jo Walton which is a coming of age story about a young girl who is avid reader of SF/fantasy. It really puts you in the mindset of someone who is growing up with SF while they are in fact growing up, rather than thinking about it as an older person.
Re: Growing Up with Science Fiction (1978)
#3Star Trek definitely influenced me into electrical engineering, along with much SciFi of the 70’s.
Re: Growing Up with Science Fiction (1978)
#4I grew up with Doraemon comics. It's a robotic raccoon from 22nd century travel back in time to 1980s to help babysit a stupid boy - well, that's mean, but with future tech helped, he got off pretty well and married the prettiest girl, etc. The future tech that raccoon has really got me into engineering. I think that series is a precious. ;-)
Re: Growing Up with Science Fiction (1978)
#5I seriously doubt that reading modern science fiction would have the same effect on anyone. Unfortunately. Unfortunately.
Re: Growing Up with Science Fiction (1978)
#6I seriously doubt that reading modern science fiction would have the same effect on anyone. Unfortunately. Unfortunately.
Fortunately there are plenty of old books to read if you prefer. Anything from Appendix N for example.
Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp is a personal favorite.
Re: Growing Up with Science Fiction (1978)
#7As someone who grew up in the 70's I completely agree with Dr. Sagan. I believe I have read everyone of these stories mentioned. I found it astounding he continually mentions Heinlein as he is my favorite author to this day. He taught a young moldable mind (mine) to think outside of societal norms and to believe that things can be done. His stories no longer seem to fit what the PC world we live in. The one book I was surprised to not see mentioned was Stranger in a Strange Land. Maybe Dr Sagan never groked it. I have read it more than 10 times and still wonder if I grok.
Re: Growing Up with Science Fiction (1978)
#81. I don't mind if the science is not perfect. If the science conformed 100% with what we know it would not be science fiction, it would simply be fiction.
I have heard people say that hard science fiction has to simply not contradict something we know. And that is a whole genre of course.
2. But what does bother me is when books, or movies, violate laws of human behavior. A perfectly gentle person suddenly becomes a killer, or an immoral law breaker sees the error of her ways and suddenly starts doing something to make amends.
3. What fascinates me about the books that Sagan grew up -- the classic age -- is the weird direction people thought science would go in. Radiation changes genes? Okay, instead of cancer it might give us super powers. There is current in your nervous tissue? Maybe you can "harness" it to produce currents etc.
Re: Growing Up with Science Fiction (1978)
#9I seriously doubt that reading modern science fiction would have the same effect on anyone. Unfortunately. Unfortunately.
I can't read the article right now, but I did click on the article. In the very first paragraph, Sagan is quoted to have said ‘Science fiction has led me to science.’ Now I am not sure if this is what the article about. But if it is, I can offer my own anecdote. I read "Blindsight" by Peter Watts (relatively modern) not so long ago and it did leave some big impression on me. Had I read it when I was very young, I can see myself getting interested in artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, neuroscience, cosmology etc.
Re: Growing Up with Science Fiction (1978)
#10As someone who grew up in the 70's I completely agree with Dr. Sagan. I believe I have read everyone of these stories mentioned. I found it astounding he continually mentions Heinlein as he is my favorite author to this day. He taught a young moldable mind (mine) to think outside of societal norms and to believe that things can be done. His stories no longer seem to fit what the PC world we live in. The one book I wa…
I still reread Stranger in a Strange land and think I learn something new every time.