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By Addison Chrivia, Editor
Calling all Sci-Fi lovers! If you love Frankenstein, Dune, or Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; if you like short stories; or if you’re not a Sci-Fi fan at all, but you’re just curious or looking to connect, then this is the club for you! The Sci-Fi Club explores reading, writing, and discussing Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction stories. Sessions happen every Tuesday, from 4-6 p.m. in Goins 232 and you can stop by at any point during this time, or you can join online.
The Science Fiction Club is open to both long-time fans of the genre and newbies who just want to try it out in a casual environment. Everything is read live at the meetings and discussed there, so there is no ‘homework’ or preparation to do. Professor Matsen, the founder of the club, says, “You don’t have to read anything in advance. You don’t have to know anything about the genres in advance. You just show up.”
This no-stress club is great for busy students who don’t want to worry about one more task on the to-do list. Also, all of the stories that are read are fully available online and accessible for students, so you don’t have to worry about buying anything!
So far they’ve read short stories, like Issac Asimov’s “Nightfall,” in which a planet full of people experience night time for the first time in 2,000 years, exploring what could be the fall of an entire civilization. It parallels the problems faced in our own society, asking the reader to reflect on our own world issues. The club has also read Andy Weir’s “The Egg,” a thoughtful dialogue-based story where the narrator has died and is speaking to an entity in the afterlife, opening students to the speculation of what really happens after we die with a truly remarkable philosophical idea behind it.
Professor Matsen has always loved Sci-Fi, whether it be through TV, books, podcasts, and movies, although short stories are a favorite. From a young age she enjoyed the Ghostbusters cartoon and Star Trek: The Next Generation. She remembers, “Watching it with my dad, and just they had these great philosophical ideas that they were incorporating into their storylines, and I really loved how it made you think and feel.”
Science Fiction as a genre is a great way to explore ideas about modern society and the future without the constraints of the real world. Matsen says, “What science fiction and speculative fiction are really about, at their core, is: What is the future? How do we envision the future?” Being able to envision these events and the possible ways society could go wrong, or what might happen in a possible future, allows the reader to work through and understand problems happening now, and maybe even prevent them from happening in the future. It might help you look at an issue from a completely different perspective, just being able to separate what’s going on from reality entirely, so you can look at it unbiasedly.
It’s also a genre that truly is open for anyone, and looking at many different ideas and topics. When it comes to Science Fiction, the possibilities are limitless; whether it’s a space-age adventure, a radioactive blob attacking New-York, or a dystopian wasteland. When asked what she wanted students to know about Sci-Fi, Professor Matsen expressed, “I want people to know that science fiction is for everyone to write, to read, and to picture themselves as characters in.”
The Sci-Fi club is a great place to read, write, and even just to make friends! It’s open to everyone, and is flexible in its meetups allowing you to come in at any time during the meeting. There isn’t any homework or need to purchase books, just a fun place to hangout and enjoy chatting about nerdy things. Professor Matsen even provides snacks and stickers! So, next Tuesday, if you have some free time, drop by Goins room 232, you won’t be disappointed!
