Tristan Seligmann

This manual is intended to focus on the special needs of the science fiction workshop. Having an accurate and descriptive critical term for a common SF problem makes it easier to recognize and discuss. This guide is intended to save workshop participants from having to “reinvent the wheel” (see section 3) at every session. - Tristan Seligmann

"While I’ll take your word for it that “saying hi” is important, that still doesn’t really get me any closer to understanding how to actually do this. Part of the problem is that I don’t identify at all; when people “say hi” to me, I find it completely awkward / irritating / alienating; as such, when I’m trying to do the same to others, I have no internal measure of whether I’m actually succeeding or not, and it usually seems like I do more “damage” than if I just avoided making the attempt in the first place. It seems like people don’t understand how confusing / difficult this is for people like me; I can’t make any sense at all out of what Daniel says further up, for example. I don’t avoid social interaction (people who know me can attest that I’m a pretty intensely social person, despite the difficulties I have with social interaction), and I’m an ambivert; the problem is just that I don’t understand the forms of social interaction that are being discussed here at all." - Tristan Seligmann