“The Jetsons had them in the 1960s. They were the defining element of 'Knight Rider' in the 1980s: cars that drive themselves. Self-driving cars appear in countless science fiction movies. By Hollywood standards, they are so normal we don't even notice them. But in real life, they still don't exist. What if you could buy one today?” IfsStillsRealSelfTodayFictionCarElementsNormalStandardsHollywoodScience FictionDrivingReal LifeWhat IfDefining1960sKnightsRidersScience Fiction MovieDriving Cars Author:Sebastian Thrun
“When I was growing up I loved reading historical fiction, but too often it was about males; or, if it was about females, they were girls who were going to grow up to be famous like Betsy Ross, Clara Barton, or Harriet Tubman. No one ever wrote about plain, normal, everyday girls.” IfsGirlReadingGrowsFictionGrowing UpGrowingNormalFemaleHistoricalMalesEverydayHistorical FictionClaraBetsy Ross Author:Kathryn Lasky
“There is no such thing as a normal period of history. Normality is a fiction of economic textbooks.” FictionEconomicPeriodsNormalTextbooksNormality Book:Contributions to Modern Economics Source: Contributions to Modern Economics
“Everyone has a bizarre childhood and unusual life experiences, whether they know it or not. There's no such thing as a normal childhood. What's useful in writing weird fiction is learning how to understand and articulate those moments of personal, particular strangeness.” KnowsWritingMomentsFictionChildhoodParticularNormalUnusualLife ExperienceBizarreStrangeness Author:Kelly Link
“In France, it's always about life, normal life. We always stick with these realistic things. So when French people are dreaming about American movies, they go and see the thrillers, and Westerns, and science fiction, huge entertaining movies.” PeopleDreamFictionHugeNormalScience FictionSticksFranceRealisticEntertainingThrillersNormal LifeAmerican Movie Author:Berenice Bejo
“The fiction I tend to like is nothing like my own work. I like the kind of writing that shows me things I don't know about, and what I don't know about is the everyday, normal world.” KnowsWorldWritingKindShowsMy OwnFictionNormalEverydayShow Me Author:Jim Woodring
“I grew up treating a life as a writer as a career in letters, one devoted to many kinds of writing. And so it seemed normal to study both fiction writing and the literary essay as an undergrad.” WritingKindFictionCareersStudyGrewNormalGrew UpLettersDevotedEssaysFiction Writing Author:Alexander Chee
“One of my central approaches to writing speculative fiction is to take an absurd situation, which we presently feel is normal, and then push it to an even further absurdity. It's only in this light that we can see the reflection of the disturbing state of our present-day affairs.” FeelsWritingStatesLightFictionSituationNormalApproachReflectionAffairAbsurdAbsurdityDisturbingPresent DaySpeculative Fiction Author:Alexander Weinstein