March 9, 1991
Star Trends: The Next Generation
Henry Mietkiewicz, Toronto Star
Charting the evolution of science fiction usually means seeing clumsy robots transformed into lithe androids, fin-tailed rockets into warp-drive starships, and bug-eyed monsters into kindred alien spirits.
But with our eyes so raptly trained on distant galaxies and alternate futures, we often overlook subtle changes in another key SF element: the new generation of reader.
What still persists, all efforts to the contrary, is the outdated stereotype of the science-fiction fan as a pimply, gangling adolescent boy who neglects school work to devour the trashy, pulp adventures of a raygun-toting hero.
In actual fact, today's fan is more likely to be someone like 16- year-old Tina Mohr, a Grade 12 student from Lindsay Collegiate, on a field trip to Toronto's Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy (formerly the Spaced Out Library).
Like the other pupils in her group, she's visiting Canada's largest publicly accessible SF library out of curiosity about the history and "great possibilities of science fiction".
Nor are Mohr and her friends locked into narrow interests within the field. Eric Stamp, 14, eagerly follows TV's Star Trek: The Next Generation, but not at the expense of print ("I've read so many science fiction books that I can't remember which one I picked up first.")
Similarly, 15-year-old Andy Canivet is happy to jump from straight SF into J. R. R. Tolkien's epic fantasy, The Lord Of The Rings, or TVOntario's educational show about science fiction and comics, Prisoners Of Gravity.
Statistical information on today's SF and fantasy market is hard to come by, largely because definitions are so nebulous. For instance, how does one classify the audience for crossover bestsellers like Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale or Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy?
And at what point does dark fantasy overlap into the separate but related area of horror? That raises the question of whether to classify mega-selling writers like Stephen King and Peter Straub as true fantasists.
Still, it's generally estimated that SF in its various incarnations occupies somewhere between 10 and 12 per cent of the North American fiction market.
This level has been fairly strong and steady in the 1980s, after a major surge of interest in the '70s, says Patrick Nielsen Hayden, senior editor of Tor Books, a leading New York SF publisher.
And, he says, that makes SF a viable competitor against genres such as mystery, romance and political thrillers.
"Science fiction still has a relatively mild social stigma," Nielsen Hayden adds, "and it sometimes annoys me that there are still a few snobs around. But it no longer seems as if SF is a citadel besieged by snobbery."
As with so many other social phenomena of the late 20th century, the changing face of the SF reader can be traced, in part, to the baby boom.
Youngsters who loved science fiction in the late '40s, '50s and early '60s are now parents who pass their interests on to their children. Small wonder that more SF conventions feature child care and programming for kids.
Another reason for the influx of new readers is the flowering of fantasy fiction in the '70s, says Mary Cannings, library assistant at the Merril Collection.
Until The Lord Of The Rings made its breakthrough in the mid-' 60s, fantasy existed mainly as a tiny sub-section of science fiction. And even in the 10 years following Rings' release, many fantasy writers were content to churn out poor variations on Tolkien.
But, by the '70s, writers like Patricia McKillip and C. J. Cherryh began to devise innovative twists on Arthurian legends, Celtic myths and grand quests.
The result, says Cannings, was that the field became more accessible. Consequently, more readers become fans at a much younger age - perhaps at 8 or 9, instead of the early teenage years.
"Young kids find it easier to start with fantasy, where all it takes to make something happen is to wiggle your nose," explains Lorna Toolis, collection head of the Merril Collection.
"In fantasy, explanations are usually at a minimum and the story often features a much clearer connection between cause and effect. That makes it simpler for children to follow.
"By contrast, science fiction tends to be tougher to read, because it requires some sort of high-tech explanation. But let me tell you, once a young reader's interest is engaged, there's no stopping it.
"For instance, we get kids who are really curious about cyberpunk (a cynical and highly technical form of late '80s SF). They sit here, thoroughly engrossed, with a novel in one hand and a dictionary in the other."
Fantasy - along with the growing number of female fantasy writers - has also attracted a significant number of new women readers. Initially, at least, many of them prefer the emotional and moral struggles of fantasy to the high-tech shoot-'em-ups that draw men to SF.
Nielsen Hayden says that, while the male-to-female ratio "is now more like 60-40 instead of 90-10 a couple of decades ago", he's "not sure I believe the truism that women go mainly for fantasy."
Still, even if many women do end up reading SF, chances are they've entered the field through fantasy, says Michelle Sagara, manager of the Bakka science fiction book shop on Queen St. W.
"A lot of the women I know became fans by discovering (Tolkien's) The Hobbit and the Narnia stories (of C. S. Lewis). Men, on the other hand, were more into writers like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Larry Niven - authors I couldn't stand when I was in high school."
A further wrinkle in modern fans, Sagara adds, is that they often become readers only after they've sampled the field in other media, including movies, TV, videocassettes and board games. Until the '60s, print was the primary springboard into serious SF.
"Star Wars and Star Trek have brought in a huge number of people," says Lisa Shirley, reference librarian at the Merril Collection. "For years, science fiction fans griped about how small their numbers were, but now more people are reading SF than anyone would have dreamed in the '50s.
"As soon as a major science fiction movie is released, people come into the library and want to know who's writing the novelization."
This shift in public opinion was largely the result of visionary movies such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and accessible but thought- provoking TV series suchs as The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, The Outer Limits and Dr. Who.
Even so, a broader and more varied audience doesn't mean science fiction has achieved universal acceptance, especially in literary circles.
But that isn't necessarily a disadvantage, says Nielsen Hayden. One of SF's most attractive qualities is the disapproval it generates in some quarters, "and I hope it stays that way.
"Teenagers and other young readers find something inherently exciting in indulging in a pastime that some people say isn't good for them.
"Well, I know it is good for them, but I like the idea that a new generation of readers is looking for a cheap, fun time and getting a universe of challenging ideas in the process."