The other half of the blog clocking in here - Pema.
Despite the popularity of Sci-Fi more than once I've been with a group of friends of the writerly persuasion and had conversations that go like this:
Me: "Oh, are you watching Being Human? It's marvellous. Funny, sad, and really touching, all about the struggle to be human, to remain human, about what it takes to live in this world."
Enthusiastic Reply: "No, sounds great, what's it about?"
Me: "Well, it's about a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost. And they live together in this house in Bristol and ..."
And I've lost them .... for some people the leap into the form is just a bridge, a gulf, a valley, a galaxy too far.
Which is such a shame, because there are worlds, universes, dimensions filled with stories that resonate with the human experience, with characters who are as complex, ambiguous and tragic as any you may find in Tolstoy, and with ideas that provoke and challenge, that reflect society today and foreshadow societies that are yet to come.
Thing is, of course, that once you do connect with people who are out and proud about their passion for storytelling in alternate spaces, you discover a conversation that feels like it's been going on since we bipedal-ugly-bags-of-mostly-water first hunkered down around a campfire in a dark cave and listened to someone tells us a great yarn.
Pema
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