Welcome, ‘Ickle Firsties’

Hi Friends!

Usha and Julia and I have been talking about this for more than a semester now, and we're really excited about it.

There are a lot of discussions in the literature field already, but I think a discussion of "SF/F" (Science Fiction/Fantasy) has great potential for coming generations of researchers. The works that fall into these categories often have a penchant for utopic and dystopic comment on society's potential or status quo, and seek a variety of explanations for and solutions to problems that confront us today, including religion, science, technology, art, and a host of others.

Moreover, because the possible worlds (see my upcoming post on that topic) of SF/F are so fantastically foreign to ours, the reader enters the world in awe and wonder and is taken by the social commentary of the author, often totally unaware. It is in this that realism and constructivism meet: the author is able to construct meaning by giving the reader a sense of having discovered it among a world that is so convincingly real. If for no other reason than this slight-of-hand alone, SF/F is truly an art, and may be the last vestige of the 'spells' that medievals once feared so much.

I'd like to think that those of us who have already read Harry Potter are immune to the power of the spell we're about to have cast upon us. For those of you who have not, enjoy the ride. Consider this a formal invitation to scholarly discourse surrounding these works. Rowling is obviously a very educated, very talented writer, and we would do her a disservice to assume that there is nothing for us here but entertainment. As for what's beneath the thrills of monsters and magic, I've honestly no idea; I've never looked for anything else. But let's see what we can find, shall we?

Taking a running start at what looks to be a wall (are you coming too?),

Aaron Long