
Growing Up with Science Fiction (1978) - Hooke
https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/28/archives/growing-up-with.html
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KineticLensman
The 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.

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ConfusedDog
I 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. ;-)

~~~
massafaka
I always thought Doraemon was a cat robot. I doubt it's a racoon, because
those don't exist in Japan. And I also don't think it's a Tanuki.

~~~
coldtea
It is a cat, but as for racoons:

[https://www.tofugu.com/japan/raccoons-in-
japan/](https://www.tofugu.com/japan/raccoons-in-japan/)

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projectramo
1\. 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.

~~~
coldtea
> _A perfectly gentle person suddenly becomes a killer_

Hasn't that happened numerous times in history?

Perfectly common and nice everyday people have become killers under
stress/passion/etc.

~~~
projectramo
The purpose of the fiction is to show how it happens so we believe it, even
expect it. The "suddenly" part is what makes it bad fiction. Even if it
happens in real life, in fiction we want to see the mechanism and have it
convince us.

~~~
coldtea
> _The "suddenly" part is what makes it bad fiction. Even if it happens in
> real life, in fiction we want to see the mechanism and have it convince us._

If something happens in real life, and especially as often, it should be
convincing enough when presented in a story without a contrived mechanism to
"explain" it pulp-novel style.

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TimMeade
As 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.

~~~
merpnderp
I still reread Stranger in a Strange land and think I learn something new
every time.

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gambler
I seriously doubt that reading modern science fiction would have the same
effect on anyone. Unfortunately. Unfortunately.

~~~
ecpottinger
There are still lots of good science fiction written today. Unfortunately in
the past many of the writers did it because they in turn loved science
fiction.

Many (most?) writers in the past barely made a living off their writing and
many had to have a second source of income to continue. In other words they
did write thinking it would make them rich.

Today with science fiction movies like Blade Runner, Star Wars and Star Trek,
and TV shows like West World and Doctor Who and successful books on the Best
Seller list writers think there is big money to be made.

This has us ending up with a lot bad writing from people hoping to break in
without learning even the basics of science fiction much less learn real
science itself.

~~~
tsukikage
All media contains a mix of good things and bad things.

The good things survive the test of time and, years on, are remembered and
much loved; the bad things are quietly forgotten.

So, when we look back at the past, it feels like the good we have now is much
more dilute and harder to pick out than what we remember; but this impression
is not an accurate reflection of reality.

(The effect is even stronger with old foreign media, since only the better
things crossed borders especially pre-internet but with each year we are
exposed to more and more of the firehose).

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madengr
Star Trek definitely influenced me into electrical engineering, along with
much SciFi of the 70’s.

~~~
jhbadger
And to be fair, the episode Sagan criticizes (presumably "The Omega Glory" in
which the Enterprise visits a post-apocalyptic planet where there was a
nuclear war between countries exactly like the US and USSR, down to the US
side having an exact copy of the Constitution), is widely viewed as one of the
worst episodes and most of the show wasn't like that.

