My Kind of Sci Fi Read

I am not a big fan of the sci-fi genre. Or maybe it's because I usually confused it with fantasy, but either way, I rarely would pick up a sci-fi book. But there are times when I venture out of my comfort zone and find gems from this particular genre. Among my previous finds are The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood) and Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes). And last week, I picked up Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

I see a pattern in my preference for sci-fi reading material. They are usually classics, which have stand the test of time.

The Handmaid's Tale for instance, speaks very coherently to me about feminism as I know it today (and I was born in the same decade they made it into a movie, starring the late Natasha Richardson). This either means Atwood is a writer who is beyond her time, or the cause of feminism has been static since she wrote the book.

Flowers for Algernon is about neuroscience and tackles the question of a person's "existence" despite his low IQ. I enjoyed it so much because I did not find the theme or the scientific methodologies described as obsolete. Most probably because no major breakthrough in that particular field of study has been made since Keyes penned it down.

I picked up Fahrenheit 451 without really understanding what it was about. I read the blurb and figured it was about a fireman who burns books after hours. Little did I know that it was set in near dystopian future when firemen burn books (and houses and people) for a living!

Not only that, reading a book was a crime, forcing scholars from the old days to be fugitives on the run. They reminisced about not too long ago when colleges were shut down because no youngsters wanted to learn anymore. You see, book-burning in the novel was an irony, because it was unnecessary. Nobody was reading anymore, anyway. Everybody was too absorbed with the larger than life televisions on their walls, the Seashells plugs in their ears and their high-speed beetles. The very act of burning the books was an authoritative gesture to exert fear and obedience by the power that be. It's creepy, and creates a shivering sense of dejavu.

But that's probably why I like it, because it's a foreshadow (Fahrenheit 451 was written more than 50 years ago and the first draft was completed in 9 days!) and gives me a wake up call.