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Why and How Do I Think Sci-Fi and Fantasy Appeal to Us?
Why does anything appeal to us? I’m sharing my thoughts on the appeal of sci-fi and fantasy.
I was not quite five years old. My mom and dad took me to see a movie.
The opening music blared, the words crawled up the screen, and then a starship soared in — being fired on by another, bigger ship.
To say I was immediately hooked I think is an understatement. Though I don’t recall any other details about that experience — I remember seeing Star Wars ( Episode IV — A New Hope) for the first time thrilled me.
I have very few childhood memories for many reasons. But that one is there. That one snippet of time remains.
Now, 40+ years later, I still love all things Star Wars. Other works of sci-fi joined that along the way, too.
Somewhere in my teens, I got into fantasy. Swords and sorcery, fantastical past times and myths were just as cool an escape as sci-fi futures. In my late teens, I began to learn medieval rapier — and have been working forms and playing with different weapons along those lines for over 30 years.
Yes, sci-fi and fantasy are something of a niche market. Less so than they used to be, given the increasing success of streaming…
