m. c. de marco: To invent new life and new civilizations...

The November issue of IGMS asked the question, Why Do People Not Read Science Fiction? I spotted an interesting theory on a mailing list—because Sept. 11 Killed Star Trek:

It’s a cliche, albeit it [sic] a truthful one, that everything changed on 9/11 — including, most importantly, that ephemeral quality known as the zeitgeist, defined as the general trend of thought or feeling characteristic of a particular period of time. And Star Trek — bright, shiny, optimistic Star Trek with its well-lit bridge and its going boldly and all — it no longer held the general trend or feeling characteristic of the time after the towers fell.

The real answer is probably one of the choices from the IGMS article, though:

Science fiction just does not interest most readers.