If Bilbo Baggins is your childhood hero, if close encounters fascinate you, or if you just enjoy science fiction and fantasy, the newly formed Science Fiction and Fantasy Club may interest you.
"We're probably the only club on campus that doesn't discriminate on the bases of planetary origin," said Tom Galloway, newly elected Galactic Overlord of the club.
"We're mainly interested in speculative fiction, a catchall phrase for science fiction, fantasy, and supernatural literature - something you wouldn't find in a slice-of-life novel, definitely not mainstream," Galloway said.
He said his title of Galactic Overlord was a symbolic title for president of the club. Other officers are Starship Commander and Wizard, standing for vice president and treasurer, respectively.
But the offies are there to satisfy the requirements for University recognition, and programming meetings will be a rotating duty for all members, Galloway said. "We want people to trade off the duty of planning the meetings so that they can invite discussion on their favorite topics," he said.
"We also plan to invite local authors to speak, and perhaps we will sponsor a convention next fall."
"Readers of speculative fiction (SF) often have more of a desire to write SF than do readers of 'normal' fiction," he said. "We're thinking of writing as a group or of creating circumstances such as a planet, gravity force and life forms around which people can write their own stories." [Ed. note: Larry Iversen mentioned this; the shared universe was called "Chimera's World" and there are some logos for it in Larry's Gallery.]
Computer science, education, physics, English, astronomy, social work, and math majors attended the last meeting of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Club.
"There is a theory that people who like SF are unsatisfied romantics," said Paul Thompson, a graduate student in education and Wizard of the club. "Many people call it exaggerated literature, but I feel it is really realistic." [Ed. note: Paul's handwritten commentary: "I didn't say that.", continues a long history of SF fans being misunderstood and misrepresented in the press.]
Senior English major and Starship Commander Ian McDowell added, "Reality is just a crutch for people who can't handle science fiction."
UNC-Greensboro also has an active science fiction and fantasy club [Ed note: that's the Science Fiction and Fantasy Federation, aka SF3], as do most technical schools, Galloway said.