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<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">PS
–One of the things I notice that I don’t share with you guys
is a history of reading Science Fiction. I read <i>Etoin
Shurdlu</i> when I was about 15, <i>Metamorphosis</i>
(Kofka) when I was about 17, and Shirley Jackson’s <i>The
Lottery</i> when I was in my 20’s and that’s about it. </span></p>
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<p>I don't know how strong of a correlation reading (early or
otherwise) of Speculative Fiction (of which Scientific Romance
(Verne, et al), Scientifiction, Science Fiction and Fantasy are
the more extreme forms?) is with various choices of
technical/scientific profession/avocation, but anecdotally it
seems *very* strong.</p>
<p>I only know of "<i>etoian shrdlu</i>" as something of the
typesetting equivalent of "qwerty" on the conventional typewriter
keyboard, or Terry Winograd's AI he named SHRDLU. My previous
partner had a large collection of lead type and a small collection
of the Linotype brass "masters" used for the purpose, and they
were arranged by letter-frequency which is what "etoianshrdlu"
reflected whenever that convention was set. <br>
</p>
<p>My internet friend Wikipedia shared a number of possibilities
with me however, and I'm wondering if you read the SF Fanzine by
that name or the "Black Hole Travel Agency" novels penned under
the penname Etoian Shrdlu?</p>
<p>I can imagine how Kafka and Jackson's _The Lottery_ might put you
off speculative fiction! I was introduced through Jack London's
(singular?) tale about past-life regression with his protagonist
under psychoanalysis (hypnosis?) remembering his life as a "Cave
Man" for the entertainment of his Analyst (and the reader). Not
very Sci Fi, but fascinating to an 8 year old considering the
endless possibilities implied by such a concept as past-lives.
The Tom Swift books my mother found for me, gave me a sense of the
fantastical facilitated by technology and science and convolved
with the empowerment of a young man who couldn't qualify for a
drivers license cavorting around the world with a friend or to in
his father's various creations like Atomic Submarines. Burroughs
and Verne were shelved in the same section of the tiny bookmobile
that served our community, and the rest is history.</p>
<p>I would claim (for myself) however that the biggest influence on
me was not to feed my appetite for the endless possibilities of
experience offered up by scientific knowledge and technological
capability, but the *social* (and political?) alternatives offered
to me in that format. Ursula LeGuin offered me an image of what
it might be to live as an ambisexual (on a planet faraway and a
time long ago with a species otherwise quite alien or not) in her
_Left Hand of Darkness_ while the likes of Robert Heinlein offered
me ideas like "grokking" and "plural marriages" and so forth.
While most Space Opera was not particularly enlightened or
progressive in it's tropes and characters and themes, the
remainder of SciFi was as likely to be as not.</p>
<p>My appetite for Speculative Fiction didn't blunt my appetite for
more conventional/celebrated literature. I feel it gave me a
broader ability to read critically writers like Proust, or Borges,
or Marquez to name a few.</p>
<p>- Steve<br>
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