Boxes, books, and bananas: A peek at the MIT Science Fiction Society
It is a Tuesday night, and on the quiet fourth floor of MIT’s otherwise bustling Stratton Student Center (W20), the MIT Science Fiction Society (MITSFS) is holding open hours. Inside room W20-473, colorful books line the walls from floor to ceiling. “We aim to have a library full of science fiction and fantasy and horror, and tangentially related genres, that we can make accessible to MIT, the community, and anybody else who’s interested,” says Laura McKnight, the Society’s “vice” — a role she describes as “approximately vice president” — for the current academic year. Just inside the door, a small plywood box is stacked on its end. This, McKnight says, is the Society’s original library. When freshman Rudolf “Rudy” Preisendorfer founded MITSFS in 1949, members would pass their books from dorm room to dorm room in this box. Things have changed a bit in the last 65 years. “Our total book count is,...