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Because Neil Gaiman said so, and I spent an hour filling it out, and it's so in context right now,
juvy SF survey
To the books. Comics count. Fantasy does not (if it's borderline, that's up to you).
Fill in as much as you can. Don't worry if the answer is "don't remember".
8. When did you start reading science fiction?
Really hard to judge, since I didn't think in terms of adult genres for the longest time, and I would probably class most of Dr. Seuss as SF, come to think on it, not to mention the Magic School Bus... I do know that by third grade, I had realized that the volumes I re-read from the girl-fiction series I liked (Baby-Sitters Club, American Girl, Nancy Drew, etc.) were the ones with sf/supernatural elements in the stories. And I was *writing* stories with friendly aliens, and getting Lucky Starr for Easter (and winning the library Halloween contest with a pumpkin shaped like Bix from Dinotopia,) so I must have been fairly well into it. I can exactly date when I gave in to the fact that I was irretrievably an SF geek-- it was 1993, the January I was ten, when we had two weeks off for an ice storm and I spent the whole time watching old Star Trek episodes when I wasn't playing outside. I then spent the entire sixth grade sitting at the Freaks and Dorks table trading homemade SF trivia quizzes with my best friend, in an attempt to prove I was geekier. I think that part of the reason I was so slow to make it part of my identity is that my parents used to watch Star Trek when I was *really* little-- it was the only grown-up TV that was ever on, and it was freaking *scary*, and as my parents love to relate, I used to hide in my sister's closet as soon as I heard the theme music. So SF meant scary and grown-up and *not* my cup of tea, and it wasn't until I came back to Trek and liked it that I was able to go *looking* for SF, as opposed to just reading what looked interesting despite the fact that often happened to have SF elements.
9. Did you read sf written specifically for children? (ie. age 0-16yrs) Yes.
10. Name up to five authors of sf for children you liked. Bruce Coville, Isaac Asimov, Annette Curtis Klause (I have only read one book by her-- _Alien Secrets_-- but it still gets reread constantly), Madelaine L'engle, Jane Yolen. But similarly to the previous question, I did not think in terms of *authors* I liked until I was old enough to be reading from the adult section; I chose books based on title and summary and series, but I didn't really see what the *authors* had to do with the story, I wasn't interested in reading about *them*. And Coville, who was probably my very favorite SF/F fantasy author in the days before I started reading the adult section, only had two SF series I really liked, _Aliens Ate My Homework_ and _The A.I. Gang_; I was was fairly apathetic about his others. (If I was naming children's SF I like now, btw, that list would be different.)
11. Name up to five authors of sf for children you did not like. Can't remember. On the *very* rare occasions I found a book I didn't like, I stopped reading it and forgot about it. But considering that _Matthew Looney and the Space Pirates_, _The Swiss Family Robinson_, and _Tom Swift and the Cosmic Astronauts_ were favorites, I think my standards were pretty broad.
12. Name up to five authors of sf for children with the same nationality as the country in which you experienced the bulk of your reading childhood. Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Virginia Hamilton, Louis Sachar, Lois Lowry, James Blish
13. If you started reading sf meant for the adult audience before the age of 16, who were your favourite sf writers at that time? (Name up to five).
Probably the last five I'd read at any given time. But Alan Dean Foster, Anne McCaffrey, Robert A. Heinlein, Larry Niven, and Orson Scott Card were consistent favorites. I was also reading vast numbers of Star Wars and Star Trek tie-in novels, in the time before Voyager and the Special Editions.
14. List up to five qualities that you think you looked for in science fiction when you read it as a child (under 13).
No icky romance, some attempt at teaching but without intrusive preachiness, interesting, internally logical (even if patently silly) science and concepts, similarly believable child *and adult* characters, and not taking itself too seriously.
15. List up to five qualities that you think you looked for in science fiction when you read it as a teenager (13 and over).
Depth of emotion (i.e. angst and melodrama); exploration of issues like identity, spirituality, and free will; non-icky romance; new takes on old cliches and new ways of looking at my world; not taking itself too seriously.
16. List up to five qualities that you look for in science fiction now.(NB: these can be negative qualities in the sense of what sf doesn't do, that other forms of fiction do).
A certain delicate sensibility of genre and a book's place as a part of the SF tradition, effective and efficient storytelling, worldbuilding and use of worldbuilding, good management of character and romance, not taking itself too seriously (*particularly* if it's meant to be humor).
17. Do you define yourself as a genre reader?
Yes, although I read across and outside genres, I define myself as an SF (and slash) fan.
18. What proportion of your reading as a teenager was outside of the genre? Strictly Science Fiction as the genre, probably at least 75%; but SF as the whole undifferentiated mass of spec-fic, and I have never really made a distinction between the different sorts, somewhere between 25% and 10% was outside.
19. What proportion of your reading as a teenager was non-fiction? (what subjects or genres?)
I have no idea, probably 75%-90% of my non-Spec-Fic reading. And it was broadly across subjects, but mostly history, language and bibliology (I, um, actually read the dictionary in middle school), and biological and physical science, often prompted by SF that I was reading or writing. Also anything that happened to be nearby if I was trapped without a book, up to and including tags on clothing and sugar packets. And by the time I was sixteen, a fair amount of my non-fiction reading was done online.
20. How much of your reading outside of the genre was set by others? (and who were they?).
Only that set by teachers, but it's hard to say exactly; much of the fiction we read in class I had already come to on my own, and I read entire textbooks just because I wanted too. So, very little, proportionally. And a fair amount of the set readings in English classes *were* sf. My parents were both readers who had given up most of their free reading in order to raise a family; but they were also SF fans and their influence was as much *toward* SF as against it (when I was about thirteen I took to hiding my more adult sf, not because my Mom would disapprove, but because she'd *read* them, and Mom reading my favorite sexy bits was just too *ick*.)
21. Did science fiction influence your political views? In what ways? What books were most important to you?
22. Did science fiction influence your religious views? In what ways? What books were most important to you?
Yes, in many, many ways, to the extent that I have difficulty articulating my views without referencing SF books I read in high school. In terms of particularly strong influences, Heinlein and L. Neil Smith are almost entirely responsible for my being simultaneously far-left and far-right in my political views. SF in general taught me that the country and culture I live in are not the only right way, and probably not even the best way, and that *life goes on* even under the worst conditions, but The American Way, for all its arrogance and unsustainability, is still a great deal better than most of the other options-- and could get a great deal worse, and would *still* be better than most of the other options. In terms of religion, SF was one of the only places I could find discussions of religious topics in an environment which wasn't highly fraught and ringed with traps. The greatest influences on my religious beliefs have been the Bible, Diane Duane's Star Trek tie-in _The Wounded Sky_ and Heinlein's _The Number of the Beast_, with a fair amount of pre-prequel Jedi learning thrown in, and a mixed-up grab bag from other places.
I have a tendency, when among fellow fen, to give my religious philosophy as Pantheistic Multiperson Solipsism and political faith as Rational Anarchy, if that gives you a hint as to how much SF, and one author in particular, have influenced me.
23. Taking no more than 100 words, describe briefly how you chose books between the ages of 13 and 18, and how those books were acquired (ie libraries, friends, second hand books, new books).
My books were primarily second-hand and from libraries; much of my reading was based on buying *all* the SF I could find at flea markets for less than fifty cents a pop, which gave me an eclectic taste to say the least. At the library, I chose based on author, series, and summary. The rare times I had a gift certificate or other excuse to buy new, I filled in gaps in series I was collecting. Also when I was sixteen I discovered webcomics and online stories and Google and recs lists became an important source for that.
This is a random additional comment, after having read some of the original discussion in your blog, but I've been thinking about this anyway because my mom has forced^H^H^H ah, gently suggested that I help out at a middle school library over winter break. Last week I go the job of putting 'genre' stickers on the new books, and I had been idly wondering about the process ever since I attended there. Because I learned very quickly to completely ignore them, because they didn't make sense; books would have the wrong genre label or the none at all when they obviously *were* genre by any standard. (I got to take home withdrawn copies of Artemis Fowl and Have Spacesuit, Will Travel, for example, both of which lack genre stickers, when The Giver is marked Utopia and The City of Ember, inexplicably, fantasy.) Since I knew the librarians were both SF lovers and should *know* this stuff, it made even less sense... until I discovered that the stickers were put on based only on what's in the countywide catalog, and who knows where the county gets it. So, having grown up in that school system (and to a large part, in its libraries), I never let anyone else dictate to me what was in a genre, or picked up a book based on its label.
Go to http://sfquestions.blogspot.com/ if you want to participate in the survey. I know ya'll are SF and comic readers from way back. (And the rest of her blog is really interesting too, if you like kidlit and SF, and don't mind that she despises Harry Potter. That and Hopelessly Lost are why I haven't accomplished anything today).
juvy SF survey
To the books. Comics count. Fantasy does not (if it's borderline, that's up to you).
Fill in as much as you can. Don't worry if the answer is "don't remember".
8. When did you start reading science fiction?
Really hard to judge, since I didn't think in terms of adult genres for the longest time, and I would probably class most of Dr. Seuss as SF, come to think on it, not to mention the Magic School Bus... I do know that by third grade, I had realized that the volumes I re-read from the girl-fiction series I liked (Baby-Sitters Club, American Girl, Nancy Drew, etc.) were the ones with sf/supernatural elements in the stories. And I was *writing* stories with friendly aliens, and getting Lucky Starr for Easter (and winning the library Halloween contest with a pumpkin shaped like Bix from Dinotopia,) so I must have been fairly well into it. I can exactly date when I gave in to the fact that I was irretrievably an SF geek-- it was 1993, the January I was ten, when we had two weeks off for an ice storm and I spent the whole time watching old Star Trek episodes when I wasn't playing outside. I then spent the entire sixth grade sitting at the Freaks and Dorks table trading homemade SF trivia quizzes with my best friend, in an attempt to prove I was geekier. I think that part of the reason I was so slow to make it part of my identity is that my parents used to watch Star Trek when I was *really* little-- it was the only grown-up TV that was ever on, and it was freaking *scary*, and as my parents love to relate, I used to hide in my sister's closet as soon as I heard the theme music. So SF meant scary and grown-up and *not* my cup of tea, and it wasn't until I came back to Trek and liked it that I was able to go *looking* for SF, as opposed to just reading what looked interesting despite the fact that often happened to have SF elements.
9. Did you read sf written specifically for children? (ie. age 0-16yrs) Yes.
10. Name up to five authors of sf for children you liked. Bruce Coville, Isaac Asimov, Annette Curtis Klause (I have only read one book by her-- _Alien Secrets_-- but it still gets reread constantly), Madelaine L'engle, Jane Yolen. But similarly to the previous question, I did not think in terms of *authors* I liked until I was old enough to be reading from the adult section; I chose books based on title and summary and series, but I didn't really see what the *authors* had to do with the story, I wasn't interested in reading about *them*. And Coville, who was probably my very favorite SF/F fantasy author in the days before I started reading the adult section, only had two SF series I really liked, _Aliens Ate My Homework_ and _The A.I. Gang_; I was was fairly apathetic about his others. (If I was naming children's SF I like now, btw, that list would be different.)
11. Name up to five authors of sf for children you did not like. Can't remember. On the *very* rare occasions I found a book I didn't like, I stopped reading it and forgot about it. But considering that _Matthew Looney and the Space Pirates_, _The Swiss Family Robinson_, and _Tom Swift and the Cosmic Astronauts_ were favorites, I think my standards were pretty broad.
12. Name up to five authors of sf for children with the same nationality as the country in which you experienced the bulk of your reading childhood. Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Virginia Hamilton, Louis Sachar, Lois Lowry, James Blish
13. If you started reading sf meant for the adult audience before the age of 16, who were your favourite sf writers at that time? (Name up to five).
Probably the last five I'd read at any given time. But Alan Dean Foster, Anne McCaffrey, Robert A. Heinlein, Larry Niven, and Orson Scott Card were consistent favorites. I was also reading vast numbers of Star Wars and Star Trek tie-in novels, in the time before Voyager and the Special Editions.
14. List up to five qualities that you think you looked for in science fiction when you read it as a child (under 13).
No icky romance, some attempt at teaching but without intrusive preachiness, interesting, internally logical (even if patently silly) science and concepts, similarly believable child *and adult* characters, and not taking itself too seriously.
15. List up to five qualities that you think you looked for in science fiction when you read it as a teenager (13 and over).
Depth of emotion (i.e. angst and melodrama); exploration of issues like identity, spirituality, and free will; non-icky romance; new takes on old cliches and new ways of looking at my world; not taking itself too seriously.
16. List up to five qualities that you look for in science fiction now.(NB: these can be negative qualities in the sense of what sf doesn't do, that other forms of fiction do).
A certain delicate sensibility of genre and a book's place as a part of the SF tradition, effective and efficient storytelling, worldbuilding and use of worldbuilding, good management of character and romance, not taking itself too seriously (*particularly* if it's meant to be humor).
17. Do you define yourself as a genre reader?
Yes, although I read across and outside genres, I define myself as an SF (and slash) fan.
18. What proportion of your reading as a teenager was outside of the genre? Strictly Science Fiction as the genre, probably at least 75%; but SF as the whole undifferentiated mass of spec-fic, and I have never really made a distinction between the different sorts, somewhere between 25% and 10% was outside.
19. What proportion of your reading as a teenager was non-fiction? (what subjects or genres?)
I have no idea, probably 75%-90% of my non-Spec-Fic reading. And it was broadly across subjects, but mostly history, language and bibliology (I, um, actually read the dictionary in middle school), and biological and physical science, often prompted by SF that I was reading or writing. Also anything that happened to be nearby if I was trapped without a book, up to and including tags on clothing and sugar packets. And by the time I was sixteen, a fair amount of my non-fiction reading was done online.
20. How much of your reading outside of the genre was set by others? (and who were they?).
Only that set by teachers, but it's hard to say exactly; much of the fiction we read in class I had already come to on my own, and I read entire textbooks just because I wanted too. So, very little, proportionally. And a fair amount of the set readings in English classes *were* sf. My parents were both readers who had given up most of their free reading in order to raise a family; but they were also SF fans and their influence was as much *toward* SF as against it (when I was about thirteen I took to hiding my more adult sf, not because my Mom would disapprove, but because she'd *read* them, and Mom reading my favorite sexy bits was just too *ick*.)
21. Did science fiction influence your political views? In what ways? What books were most important to you?
22. Did science fiction influence your religious views? In what ways? What books were most important to you?
Yes, in many, many ways, to the extent that I have difficulty articulating my views without referencing SF books I read in high school. In terms of particularly strong influences, Heinlein and L. Neil Smith are almost entirely responsible for my being simultaneously far-left and far-right in my political views. SF in general taught me that the country and culture I live in are not the only right way, and probably not even the best way, and that *life goes on* even under the worst conditions, but The American Way, for all its arrogance and unsustainability, is still a great deal better than most of the other options-- and could get a great deal worse, and would *still* be better than most of the other options. In terms of religion, SF was one of the only places I could find discussions of religious topics in an environment which wasn't highly fraught and ringed with traps. The greatest influences on my religious beliefs have been the Bible, Diane Duane's Star Trek tie-in _The Wounded Sky_ and Heinlein's _The Number of the Beast_, with a fair amount of pre-prequel Jedi learning thrown in, and a mixed-up grab bag from other places.
I have a tendency, when among fellow fen, to give my religious philosophy as Pantheistic Multiperson Solipsism and political faith as Rational Anarchy, if that gives you a hint as to how much SF, and one author in particular, have influenced me.
23. Taking no more than 100 words, describe briefly how you chose books between the ages of 13 and 18, and how those books were acquired (ie libraries, friends, second hand books, new books).
My books were primarily second-hand and from libraries; much of my reading was based on buying *all* the SF I could find at flea markets for less than fifty cents a pop, which gave me an eclectic taste to say the least. At the library, I chose based on author, series, and summary. The rare times I had a gift certificate or other excuse to buy new, I filled in gaps in series I was collecting. Also when I was sixteen I discovered webcomics and online stories and Google and recs lists became an important source for that.
This is a random additional comment, after having read some of the original discussion in your blog, but I've been thinking about this anyway because my mom has forced^H^H^H ah, gently suggested that I help out at a middle school library over winter break. Last week I go the job of putting 'genre' stickers on the new books, and I had been idly wondering about the process ever since I attended there. Because I learned very quickly to completely ignore them, because they didn't make sense; books would have the wrong genre label or the none at all when they obviously *were* genre by any standard. (I got to take home withdrawn copies of Artemis Fowl and Have Spacesuit, Will Travel, for example, both of which lack genre stickers, when The Giver is marked Utopia and The City of Ember, inexplicably, fantasy.) Since I knew the librarians were both SF lovers and should *know* this stuff, it made even less sense... until I discovered that the stickers were put on based only on what's in the countywide catalog, and who knows where the county gets it. So, having grown up in that school system (and to a large part, in its libraries), I never let anyone else dictate to me what was in a genre, or picked up a book based on its label.
Go to http://sfquestions.blogspot.com/ if you want to participate in the survey. I know ya'll are SF and comic readers from way back. (And the rest of her blog is really interesting too, if you like kidlit and SF, and don't mind that she despises Harry Potter. That and Hopelessly Lost are why I haven't accomplished anything today).
sf for kids?
Re: sf for kids?
I can't remember if we were ever forced to read any, although I do have a vague memory of Mrs. Webber reading Aliens for Breakfast (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0394820932/002-1215301-3280039?v=glance") out loud to the class, so we got *some* exposure.
Re: sf for kids?
no subject
Actually, these days I'm more into specfic and fantasy (and fanfic) .. I never even finished Red Mars. Hard sf reminds me too much of my research. d-: