[00:00.00]Student: How was that conference last weekend? Professor Miles.
[00:08.64]Professor: Great. I heard some really terrific presentations, refreshing topics too. About all these, you don't usually hear too much about.
[00:17.50]Student: why not?
[00:18.36]Professor: Oh, it's a funny thing about academia. It seems scholars would do research about every topic imaginable. [00:25.37]But actually, some authors, some genres aren't respected very much. So not very much is written them... gothic literature, detective novels.
[00:35.07]Student: But that's what the conference was about？
[00:37.00]Professor: Yeah, pretty much. It was kind of subversive, I guess. But there's a whole wealth of knowledge out there just waiting to be explored. I find that really exciting.
[00:47.75]Student: Sure.
[00:48.50]Professor: Yeah. Anyway, you wanted to ask me about the final paper ?
[00:52.70]Student: Yeah，which I see now ties into the theme of that conference, since we're supposed to write about a book from one of those lesser genres. I was wondering what about science fiction?
[01:02.47]Professor: Sure. Though it's a genre that's actually getting more and more respect within academia. [01:08.04]There was even a talk at the conference about Jack Vance.
[01:11.37]Student: He wrote planet of adventure, right?
[01:13.61]Professor: Yeah. He's a well-researched respected science fiction writer. If you're interested in science fiction, you could look them up. [01:21.57]That leads you to lots of other authors and lots of possibilities for your paper.
[01:26.13]Student: Great. I'm relieved you think that, that's a good genre to study. I'll find a book that interests me and do the paper on that. [01:33.27]It seems like most people assume that science fiction is kind of like, I don't know, junk literature.
[01:39.10]Professor: Yes, a lot of people do.
[01:41.44]Student: Yeah, but I've read somethings and I think that some of it is really well written and it takes so much imagination to write SCI-Fi.
[01:49.64]Professor: Well, careful, though, there is a difference between science fiction and Scifi.
[01:54.48]Student: What do you mean?
[01:55.39]Professor: SCI fi, that's what you tend to see in films. It has all the spaceships and robots, and it focuses on exotic technology you know factor like special effects，at the expense of a well written story. [02:09.21]I think a lot of people don't realize this and tend not to make a distinction.
[02:14.49]Student: Okay.[02:15.20]Professor: But true science fiction is much more intellectual than that. [02:19.43]The story is very important, and even though it might take place in an imaginary world, it might have exotic gadgets. The focus is on the plot. [02:30.01]Science fiction creates metaphors about our world. And well what it means to be human. [02:37.44]It's meant to get people to think about real things like history and human behavior. That's worthy of your time, but not SCI fi.
[02:46.41]Student: Great. Well. Can I let you know next week which book I want write about?
[02:50.89]Professor: Sure.
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