davidl@tekecs.UUCP (David Levine) (10/06/83)
Somebody in this group asked recently "What's so bad about saying
Sci-Fi?" All I can say is that it's accepted practice in the
SF-reading community to reserve the term Sci-Fi for Truly Putrid movies
and books, using SF (pronounced "Ess-Eff") as the generic abbreviation
for Science Fiction.
Sci-Fi (usually heard in the phrase "that Sci-Fi crap") has bad
implications for most of the populace: it brings to mind images of Buck
Rogers and Captain Video. Sci-Fi means the same things to SF fans, who
use SF to refer to "the good stuff." This usage, I believe, arose
because the media tend to brand everything from "Plan 9 From Outer
Space" through "Star Wars" to President Reagan's space laser proposal
as Sci-Fi, whereas those who read a lot of the stuff and know the good
from the bad would rather use a different term for the good.
Finally, my objections to the term Sci-Fi are semantic. For heaven's
sake, it's not <SIGH-ents FIKE-shun>, with the FY sound from "fire,"
it's <SIGH-ents FIK-shun> with the FI sound from "fish." You wouldn't
refer to Mystery Fiction as "My-Fi" or Historical Fiction as "Hi-Fi,"
would you?
--
-- David D. Levine, ECS Manuals Group (orca!davidl, x2155)
-- David D. Levine (...decvax!tektronix!tekecs!davidl) [UUCP]
(...tekecs!davidl.tektronix@rand-relay) [ARPA]israel@umcp-cs.UUCP (10/08/83)
I know that "science fiction" is not pronounced <SIGH-ents FIKE-shun>,
but there is precedent. After all, HI-FI is really an abbreviation
for High-Fidelity (and I don't know about you, but I pronounce fidelity
with a short "i").
--
~~~ Bruce ~~~
Computer Science Dept., University of Maryland
{rlgvax,seismo}!umcp-cs!israel (Usenet) israel.umcp-cs@Udel-Relay (Arpanet)mcewan@uiucdcs.UUCP (mcewan ) (10/13/83)
#R:tekecs:-302900:uiucdcs:12500045:000:48 uiucdcs!mcewan Oct 12 15:33:00 1983 But I thought "sci-fi" was pronounced "skiffy".
jsq@ut-sally.UUCP (10/13/83)
One would think it would be sufficient to know that the skiffy term
is pretty near unanimously denounced by sf writers and fans. Next
time you're in NYC, go to Harlem and ask: "Why don't you niggers
like to be called niggers?"
--
John Quarterman, CS Dept., University of Texas, Austin, Texas
{ihnp4,kpno,ctvax}!ut-sally!jsq, jsq@ut-sally.{ARPA,UUCP}