BoingBoing pointed to this essay by Jo Walton, discussing the mindset required to read and enjoy science fiction. She talks about the necessity of knowing what it’s acceptable to skim, such as not needing to know how a tachyon drive works, just that its ability to move you faster than light is important to the plot. This in particular caught my eye:

This tachyon drive guy, who has stuck in my mind for years and years, got hung up on that detail because he didn’t know how to take in what was and what wasn’t important. How do I know it wasn’t important? The way it was signalled in the story. How did I learn how to recognise that? By reading half a ton of SF. How did I read half a ton of SF before I knew how to do it? I was twelve years old and used to a lot of stuff going over my head, I picked it up as I went along. That’s how we all did it. Why couldn’t this guy do that? He could have, but it would have been work, not fun.

I wonder if picking up SF as a child–when you expect things to go over your head occasionally–is important for developing a love of the genre. We occasionally discuss our first experiences with SF in chat, and our members seem to have overwhelmingly embraced science fiction as children or young adults. Are the necessary mental gymnastics too hard for most adults to find SF attractive?