Re: Hard Sci-fi?

Wayne Throop <throopw@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> : Remus Shepherd <remus@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> : I don't care if you
> : have a story-consistent reason for allowing a character to fly
whenever
> : he's in danger -- that's *not* science fiction.

> No anti-gravity belts?  Aw, man, we never get to do anything fun.

   I was referring to a conceit in _Perdido Street Station_.  The main
character built a device that could harness 'crisis energy' and basically 
work miracles, but only if the operator was in mortal danger.

   ...I can't tell you how frustrated I am that this was recommended to
me as a science fiction novel.

> : The attitudes of the characters are not what separates 'hard' and
> : 'soft' sci-fi stories, to me.  It's the attitude of the author that
> : matters.  Authors either say, "Accept this and I will tell you a
> : story", or "Here's what could happen and I'll tell you how and why."
> : Those are the defining differences, IMHO. 

> I tend to agree.  But only to a limited extent, because the boundary
> between the two cases is inherently blurry.  "Accept this could happen"
> and "this *really* could happen" have a huge overlap where "the "really"
> is arguable, for one thing.  

   So arguable that I originally put 'really could happen' in that post,
then deleted it because I didn't want to make such a strong statement.  :)

> Plus, the problem that what *really* is
> going to happen is that our notions of what really could happen are
> going to change, so some element of "accept this" is inevitable, except
> for extreme near-future SF bordering on technothriller.

   Yeah, the definitions change.  And many of the people arguing are from
different generations, with different folklore and different exposure to
sci-fi tropes.  This does not encourage me that the debate will ever
end...

....                                                                  ... 
Remus Shepherd <remus@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
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