An earlier post answering your questions seems to be lost in
the ether. I apologize if it suddenly pops in and covers the
same ground.
First of all I am not offended by the use of the term even
though I don't use it myself.
The term "sci-fi" was associated with Forest J. Ackerman,
creator of the magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland, who
relentlessly promoted its use for the last six decades.
Through Ackerman the term "sci-fi" came to be associated with
the Grade-Z films he was often ballyhooing in print. The
better critics (Damon Knight for one) used the label to
identify the worst juvenile drek.
If you Google "sci-fi + pejorative" there are over 30,000
hits and I imagine many more are out there with other
combinations. I found one fairly recent one from writer Mike
Resnick who corrected an interviewer's use of the term by
saying he was among the 90% of professional science fiction
writers and editors who considered it a perjorative.
All of this predates the wave of political correctness. Among
the things I consider offensive, this isn't one of them. I
separated myself from the term because I was aware of the
negative connotations. Perhaps I've socialized with science
fiction writers too long.
I have to say that it surprises me that my recent posts on
specific writers receive little comment except regarding this
minor phrase and an earlier subject heading.
Richard Moore
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, DJ-Anonyme@... wrote:
>
> Richard wrote:
>
> ". . . sorry but the term "Sci-fi" is considered by
some to be a
> pejorative . . ."
>
> I've heard this, but not being much of an SF reader,
I've never
> understood why.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 26 Oct 2007 EDT