SCI FI PI

Did you ever get in a room and start talking to someone about Sci Fi and then realise after a few minutes that you just weren't getting through? That somewhere, in between 'Teal'c is awesome' and '7 of 9' is smokin' they started looking at you in that blank way usually reserved for gravy stains on corduroy trousers or bits of gum on the bottom of one's shoe?

Its a shameful and shaming experience. But it doesn't have to happen.

Too many people in the wide world aren't 'down' with Sci Fi. Typically, these are people who lack imagination, courage, and a history of regular torment and teasing as a child as they tried to protect their twelve-sided dice from schoolyard bullies, or brought their headless Princess Leia doll tearfully back home. These are the people who don't have 'their own little world'.

For these people, Sci Fi is a mystery, a force not to be embraced, but to be feared, ridiculed and in the end, ignored. Which is of course a terrible shame.

Those without the imagination to embrace the imagination of others are paupers of the mind. They look up at the stars and see only smog. They close their eyes, and all they see are blood vessels. That's where you, oh Sci FI lover, can help. It's not you who is the victim of a tragic injustice, but them. They are prisoners of the 'normal' - your love of Sci Fi sets you free.

You have seen things "you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. ...C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate."

How can one see such wonders with one's eyes screwed shut?

Help them. Help them open their eyes. By carefully explaining just how 'normal' loving Sci FI is. By pointing out than even chicks dig it. That a quick scan of the biggest movie blockbusters in history proves that everyone does indeed love Sci Fi. Then they'll be on the path to set themselves free.

Then they too, can adopt Sci Fi.