This is going to seem like an odd editorial to release at the end of the month although I actually started writing this editorial at the start of the month when all that world sports fuss on television was about to begin. The question I’m going to ask is what have you been doing this month to while away the boring sport on television?

Hello everyone

This is going to seem like an odd editorial to release at the end of the month although I actually started writing this editorial at the start of the month when all that world sports fuss on television was about to begin. The question I’m going to ask is what have you been doing this month to while away the boring sport on television?

If you’re anything like me, then the one thing you weren’t doing is watching the World Cup and even Wimbledon, assuming of course that you’re living in the UK. If not, then there’s a variety of sports across the world that you probably mostly avoid as well. If you have the television on and haven’t found anything to watch, you’ve either turned it off or been re-watching something from your DVD collection. So the obvious question to ask is why aren’t SF and genre fans also sports fans? Why don’t we get pulled in by this tribal thing of supporting the national team. I rarely hear of the two intermeshing. If there are any that are, is it more a friend thing to blend in or an actual interest in such things?



Of course, there’s also an obvious answer in that we have better and more interesting things to do with our time which is an indication of how our genre is so engrossing. As I’ve commented in an editorial a while back, in terms of fanaticism, there is an element that can be compared to sports fans in how extreme some of our community become yet we never turned to sport at that level of interest if we had any at all. If anything, we tended to be pariahs to our cause without being influenced by parents or friends to take such an avid interest in sport and it’s not even as if we’re all unfit. If anything, we’re quite the opposite of children encouraged by their parents into sports. We tend to spin in the opposite direction at levels that doesn’t make it a safely blanket.

Our parents tolerated our SF interest, thinking we’d grow out it. Hah! If anything, I think I could call it the geek moment and that our genre is actually a representation of nonconformity or at least outside of the herd movement that makes it feel special and only for us, making no demands on us to conform. The fact the subject is wide enough that it can sub-divide our tastes in itself is a bonus. There is something for everyone. But what specifically makes us somewhat different in attitude than the other people about us who see it as a passing phase than a life-time interest? I mean, they don’t quibble with their off-spring having a life-long interest in sport even if they become couch potato viewers.

The puzzle is that why doesn’t it encompass both? Surely fanaticism can contain it all and if there are hooks, why do they miss us? I mean, we tend to have a wide-range of interests outside of our genre, just rarely in sport. Then again, we’re also more likely to be inept at sports and intellectual games take their place which might actually be the clue.

Likewise, being intellectually inclined doesn’t turn us all into SF fans so the nonconformity is probably stronger or we’re the ones who have intellect mixed in with a heavy dose of imagination so we look out of place to the rest of the class. Hence, we get compartmentalised and even bullied at school about our interest but we’re also stubborn enough to believe we’re right and carry on into adulthood. Would the same hold true if we didn’t? Would we want to blend in and take a serious interest in sport? Then again, with time at a premium, probably not. Being essentially non-conformists, we lack the herd instinct and sports interest is really part of the stampede.

Whether that means we lack competitiveness is up to the individual. Based on the number of Role-Playing Gamers or those who play computer games in our genre, it doesn’t take a jump of logic to say that’s where the competitive amongst us burn their energy. Those who are creative find a variety of outlets to demonstrate their abilities. Mind you, how many sports-inclined people are also truly creative? It’s far more dependent on physique, technique, co-ordination and team spirit – none of which combine together and seems ineffective with us.

In many respects, we genre fans sees sports fans as being the enemy. After all, who were the ones most likely to bully us at school? It would make sense why we would keep them at arm’s length and in turn, sport itself. That is bound to stay with us as we get older. There’s a lot to be said for being a little smarter.

This doesn’t mean I want to deny people their sports just the matter of it not having it rammed down our throats throughout the media as if the world would fall apart without it. I’ve yet to see that happen as they just re-group and have another sports bout in another season. With our genre, we aren’t limited to such a short attention activity. Maybe our fanaticism is actually a lot stronger than what they have? We play in a big universe not just a playing field. No wonder we find our genre more interesting. We don’t play with national level but world or even galactic level.

Which neatly brings us back to the opening question? What were you doing this month? Well, amongst other things, I was making ‘The War Of The Worlds War Machine’ and drafting a story. One you’ll see this month and the other when it’s been polished. That and a lot of film watching and book reviewing. Life has to have some meaning at this time of year.

Thank you, take care, good night and thank the Illuminatii for a decent DVD player.

Geoff Willmetts
editor: SFCrowsnest.co.uk

PS There should be a poll on this in the new Forum. Join up and express your thoughts. Isn’t there always?

A Zen thought:Aspiring to being creative is helped by doing something.

Don’t forget, I’m always on the lookout for people to be reviewers, articles and stories and after some recent changes, let’s see if the full details about that appears below. If they don’t then look in the new Forum, you don’t necessarily have to join to look, or on the link line at the top of the main page. Only reviewers have to be restricted to the UK. Wanna join the main team even for a little exposure?

Another real Zen thought but this time for potential writers: If you can express an opinion independently of others and aren’t likely to bend to the masses then you might show potential as a writer.