Time to get to know the curators from the Escape Velocity Collection! How? By asking them the questions that really matter! Let’s see what our curators have to say…
This week’s question is:
Do you prefer Fantasy or Sci-Fi?
I choose you, sci-fi! Although I do not see myself as someone particulary fascinated by space or technology, I love the societal stories good sci-fi tells. In my opinion, the best sci-fi warns us for the excesses of technology or show another way of living together, new societal hierarchies for better and for worse. I guess I want my media to make me think.
Fantasy on the other hand, I associate more with escapism. And while I want to walk a mile in someone else’s moccasins, I ultimately want to come out a better, more mindful person myself. Then again, I do love playing D&D, watching LotR and recently read the first trilogy of Robin Hobb with great enthusiasm. So, maybe, there is still hope for me…
Key
Jasmijn
I can appreciate both. The most important thing for me is that the world isn’t needlessly complicated (Dune, I’m talking about you), and the plot is about the characters more than about stinky politics (stupid Dune). I love magical elements, so if I had to choose I would gravitate towards fantasy. Fairytales are the stories I most easily get lost in, in a good way. But I do enjoy the tech-elements that come with a sci-fi story (long way to a small angry planet).
I love both! It’s really tough to pick one or the other. I think they scratch different itches and I wouldn’t want to give up either. That’s not what you’re here for though.
If I look back over the past years, I have read more fantasy than sci-fi. I think Fantasy books have a tendency to be more comfortable, easier to read, more exciting, a bit less thought-provoking. I like reading science fiction because as a genre it is constructed to encourage you to reflect on the present. It’s more inherently political. But that also means that reading and properly considering a sci-fi book takes a bit more out of you. Because I am so busy with my job, I tend to want to relax a bit more in my free time – and so I often feel more inclined towards fantasy.
The above dichotomy is less evident outside of books and maybe tv shows, so in games or films I really don’t have a preference.
Peter
Lotte
I love sci-fi, but my heart will always belong to fantasy.
For me it’s mostly an aesthetic thing. I love historical fashion, hairstyles and design. I love the idea of nature, even if I rarely go out in it because it’s kinda dirty and bugs scare me. I’m not much of a minimalist, so the fact that most science fiction styles tend to be quite minimal kind of puts me off.
Still, I do love science fiction as a genre. I love space, and I love the idea that science fiction shows us what our society could look like in the future. I just don’t love the type of future we are often shown.
I am – and probably always will be – a true stan for fantasy.
The imagination and (possible) diversity of the fantasy genre speaks to me in a way that I cannot quite put into words. Where most people tend to write it off as a non-intellectual genre, I find that it invites me to look at things in unique and different ways. At the same time, the escapist elements of fantasy remain comfortable enough for me that I don’t mind pondering more difficult issues. Also, I like dragons and forests.
As for sci-fi, as some Dutch twitch-streamers wisely summarized: I’m not much of a spacem’n. Space, aliens, and smooth metal spaceships and such are not necessarily my thing. This leaves me with sci-fi that stays more true to our current world barring a few differences, and although the scenarios and questions in these stories often intrigue me, the similarity with our own life prevents me from truly enjoying them in a escapist way.
Jop
Robin
In general, I would rather read a story that takes place in a forest than a story that is set on a spaceship. Even though a large part of fantasy and sci-fi stories might not take place in either of those two settings, I still find it helpful to explain why I am often drawn more to fantasy than to sci-fi: I really enjoy the mystical atmosphere and the focus on natural elements that many fantasy worlds offer. While I appreciate sci-fi stories for their originality and thought-provoking questions, their settings are usually less comfortable and therefore less effective as a means of escapism, to me at least.
That’s it: another soul-searching question answered!
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