From: Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com>
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 1996 13:14:45 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Why I Don't Read SF Much Anymore
Message-ID: <3.0b36.32.19961120161314.0076ad68@panix.com>
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I'm off straight science fiction these days because the real world is so
science fictional that I find it hard to suspend disbelief.  I do continue
to like military SF though and now straight military fiction.  

The problem with straight SF for me is that computers and networks have
changed the future so much that (in the words of the motto of the SF
Writer's Association) The Future Ain't What It Used to Be.  The science
fictional futures of my childhood are now dead as doornails.  And I can't
enjoy contemporary SF that doesn't include a healthy dose of computers and
networking.  

Unfortunately,  Since I am involved in "defining" the future in the debates
over the effects of the technology, I also can't suspend disbelief and like
stories that come to radically different conclusions about that future than
I have.  This is not old fuddy duddyism (I hope) but arises because the
nature of society these days is such that the future has become much more
of a consensual act on all our parts and I consider it important to hold
fast to my vision of the future and push it so that it comes about.  This
doesn't encourage suspensions of disbelief.  Meanwhile there are plenty of
other things to read.  Not that I get to read that much fiction these days.
 The Nets take too much time.

DCF