{"id":33839,"date":"2025-07-12T05:00:29","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T09:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=33839"},"modified":"2025-07-11T22:48:54","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T02:48:54","slug":"when-i-was-your-age-television-was-called-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/12\/when-i-was-your-age-television-was-called-books\/","title":{"rendered":"When I Was Your Age Television Was Called Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When I was a kid, I was a science fiction fanatic.\u00a0 I went to the local branch of the Brooklyn Public Library and pored over the shelves.\u00a0 I read everything they had and then I went to the next closest library and found what they had that was different.\u00a0 And so on and so forth.\u00a0 Until I reached the main branch; \u201cGrand Army Plaza.\u201d\u00a0 And then there was no more.\u00a0 So, all that was left until a new book made its way to the shelves was the monthly edition of Analog; the science fiction magazine where new stuff was to be found.\u00a0 Sometimes there was a novel serialization by some well-known author like Heinlein or Frederik Pohl or Joe Haldeman or Gordon Dickson.\u00a0 But more often there were short stories by anyone and everyone.\u00a0 Not all of them were great or even good but they were still fun to read.\u00a0 I had my own subscription for a number of years.\u00a0 Then I found Camera Girl and I had too much to do with work and school to read anything but textbooks.\u00a0 But I still saw the Analog covers at the local magazine rack down by the local El stop of the NYC subway.<\/p>\n

But once I left New York, I confess I completely lost track of Analog.\u00a0 I guess I just assumed that it (and its competitors; Asimov\u2019s and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction) were still out there chugging along even without me.<\/p>\n

Turns out I was wrong.\u00a0 Apparently, they\u2019re all dead or dying.\u00a0 The market for short science fiction has completely dried up.\u00a0 Even the anthologies that used to collect these stories and sell them as books have stopped making money.<\/p>\n

I guess none of this is surprising to folks who understand how the mass marketing of entertainment has changed.\u00a0 I guess it only makes sense that the same generations that refuse to buy music and refuse to buy movies would also refuse to buy books and magazines.<\/p>\n

Apparently, what they will buy are video games.\u00a0 Now that reminds me of an old joke from an old movie.\u00a0 There\u2019s a scene at the beginning of the movie \u201cThe Princess Bride\u201d where the grandfather played by Peter Falk is trying to read a story to his grandson who is playing a video game and objecting that instead of a book he wants to watch television so Falk says, \u201cWhen I was your age television was called books!\u201d<\/p>\n

So, I\u2019m at least two generations too late to imagine Americans reading short stories.\u00a0 Now isn\u2019t that amazing.\u00a0 Or is it just paying for books that\u2019s obsolete?\u00a0 I think it must be the latter.\u00a0 I understand there are free websites where authors provide their stories to consumers and they support these writers somewhat indirectly through Patreon or other means.\u00a0 I guess this could be the new economy.\u00a0 It seems as improbable as the world of the \u201cMatrix\u201d where human beings acting as bio-batteries power the cyber world they dream through.<\/p>\n

Maybe I\u2019d better find one of these sites and see if I can get these penniless zoomers to read my stuff.\u00a0 I think I might see if I can play this three-penny opera thing that\u2019s growing up in this brave new world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was a kid, I was a science fiction fanatic.\u00a0 I went to the local branch of the Brooklyn Public Library and pored over<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,5,1289,818,237,4,242],"tags":[38,1355,265],"class_list":["post-33839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-current-events","category-fiction-by-me","category-ocf","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-book-reviews","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-science-fiction"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen I Was Your Age Television Was Called Books - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/12\/when-i-was-your-age-television-was-called-books\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When I Was Your Age Television Was Called Books - 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