Alternate Exploration

If you go through my rambling list I am sure you will notice that my favorite genres are science fiction and fantasy.  I think one of the best thing about these genre's is their ability to explore real world issues without "offending the masses".  Ok reading that it sounded a little bit pretentious and snotty...let me see if I can try this again.  Sometimes when an author tries to to write about a legitimate issue, too much political correctness tends to overshadow the message they are trying to get across.  In science fiction and fantasy we can create whole worlds, governments, races, societies and situations just to address a specific (or in really good books several) issues that may be a bit

sticky to tackle in a real world.  In fantasy we see old school epic kingdoms play out human history with people and countries that don't exist.  In science fiction our fears and questions of the future are played across worlds.  The addition of magical and/or alien races give us a group of people that we can apply stereotypes to...then hopefully destroy them without the message getting lost in cultural appropriation, whitewashing, and other problems that plague certain mainstream novels.  In these imaginary spaces we as humans feel more comfortable exploring the things that make us uncomfortable in the real world.  We can explore why these issues and problems exist, ask the questions that maybe don't have answers, and offer possible solutions that we can work out in the sandbox of imagination.  I have read many older science fiction and fantasy books that set forth idea's that during their publication time were weird or out there and are now taken for granted as normal.  I hope I am getting my point across here.  I'm not trying to do anything other then point out that along with all the other wonderful genre's science fiction and fantasy allow us to truly explore our real world in a way that may not be possible in real time.  Ok enough philosophizing and back to reading.  Happy Reading Everybody!