What The Heck is Science Fiction?
I think watching Star Wars as a child ruined me. And by ruined I, of course, mean spoiled.
Star Wars: A New Hope was my first introduction to science fiction. My mother watched it in theaters when it came out in 1977 (4 times while on a roadtrip with her cousin, something I'm infinitely jealous of), and loved it enough that we had it on VHS growing up1. I love the Original Trilogy, and the Prequel Trilogy, and there have been bits and pieces of the Disney era stuff that I've enjoyed2. Star Wars, the good stuff, is a vital part of my core personality.
But I've noticed as an adult that the phrase "science fiction" doesn't mean the same thing to me that it does to a lot of other people, and it causes a lot of friction when I'm reading something labeled science fiction. Because to me, science fiction is space ships. It's galaxy-spanning civilizations in the far future, where technology is indistinguishable from magic. It's stories of danger and heroism, where good is pitted against evil, and good wins. Science Fiction is Star Wars, and Star Trek, and Battlestar: Galactica (1978).
But what I see a lot of, in print media especially, is science fiction that is not that. I'm not saying the other kind of scifi isn't good. There's still a lot of really great stuff that is modern or near-future scifi, like the movie (and novella it's based on) Arrival, or The Martian. But it feels like a lot of "award-winning" science fiction is actually literary fiction sneaking into the nerd club wearing a barely-there scifi costume. Stuff praised for things like "an examination of what it means to be human" or "a look at the human condition". I'm sure there are people who like that, but not me. Give me the Big Damn Heroes and the epic struggles against evil and keep your quiet or subversive stories to yourself (respectively).
I suppose what I think of when I think about science fiction is actually a sub-genre (or two) under the umbrella. Star Wars and BS:G especially are more Space Opera or Science Fantasy. But they occupy such a large and important space in my head that when I say "I want to read science fiction", that's the kind of thing I want to read, and if I then start reading something that is... not that3, I get frustrated or disappointed. Reading about a boring coral alien being escorted on a roadtrip across the USA to experience human culture at the end of their life addicted to seeing the world through their abducted slave human who has stockholm syndrome4 is not at all what I want to read when I'm craving space travel and heroes.
The mostly unaltered version without all the goofy special effects, where Han Shot First, and where an interview with George Lucas was split in three across the three VHS before getting to the actual movie.↩
Season 1 and 2 of the Mandalorian was was just about perfect, and season 1 of Andor was very well done.↩
See The Art of DNF↩
This was the second story in the anthology I DNF'd, and I Did Not Care so much I didn't even finish it.↩