Oh Boy

I have been reading a blogger who claims he doesn't like Science Fiction.

Says that the benefits of his classical education granted him access to better plots, characters, dialog, etc ad nauseum.

I read his long explanation. I understand now. He's a snob.

He had a classical education and teachers that would explain the impenetrable classics. I imagine that some of those stories are quite good once they had been explained!

Especially fun is his explanation that several works of science fiction aren't science fiction at all. His classical education didn't do a good job and he creates new categories to put sci-fi he does like into. He thinks that sci-fi is ONLY fiction written to demonstrate a novel change in technology, and if there is no such change then it isn't sci-fi. He also states that such fiction is written merely to showcase the nifty tech.

He totally missed the point, I think. Many times the novel tech is inserted to lend a higher contrast to a social or moral position. Sci-Fi is "what-if?" What if there was a time machine and white supremacists gave thousands of AKMs to the Army of Virginia? The novel tech is a time machine, but the story I refer to doesn't center around that device or the people who own it.

Science Fiction is making a change and following the effects of that change to their logical conclusion.

He whines about how all his friends read Heinlein and he had to read it because they did.

My favorite part is where he goes on a tear about the government in "Starship Troopers" isn't any better than ours. It might not be. The only difference between that government and mine seems to be how the voters are selected. There are characters in the book that state that the only reason to continue using this form of government is that it seems to be working.

He then states that the government in Starship Troopers is "unconstitutional". OK, that's as valid as stating that the second amendment is a violation of British law. Again, when confronted with commentary about Starship Troopers I ask, "Did you really read the thing?" A new government was established after the collapse of global civilization after the end of a world war! A new constitution was drafted for the new government with no regard to its legality in states that no longer existed.