Do you have to be abduced...

[Lauren Hynde]

..to write good Sci-Fi?

 

[Zeb_Carter]

..to write good Sci-Fi?

What's good Sci-Fi, in your opinion?

 

[TxRad]

..to write good Sci-Fi?

I'll let ya know when i get back.....

 

[impressive]

..to write good Sci-Fi?

Naw, just probed.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

What's good Sci-Fi, in your opinion?

Are you trying to turn this into an actual authorial thread?

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Are you trying to turn this into an actual authorial thread?

Ok, if you want too! But I can be just a funny as the next person.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

OK. In my opinion, you can't set apart good Sci-Fi from good literature. There are no separate set of rules for different genres. If it is well-written, thought-provoking, engaging, and doesn't make you go gawd-this-is-retarded, it doesn't matter if it set in a technology-driven environment or in 12th-century Japan.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

OK. In my opinion, you can't set apart good Sci-Fi from good literature. There are no separate set of rules for different genres. If it is well-written, thought-provoking, engaging, and doesn't make you go gawd-this-is-retarded, it doesn't matter if it set in a technology-driven environment or in 12th-century Japan.

Agreed. But what makes it Sci-Fi?

 

[Guest]

Naw, just probed.

That would be my thought.

 

[3113]

..to write good Sci-Fi?

Actually, abducties don't write good sci-fi. Mind control devices put a damper on creativity...which is just what those damn aliens want. To keep us from figuring out how to defeat them

 

[rgraham666]

Naw, just probed.

That would be my thought.

Line forms to the left, ladies. (Snaps on rubber gloves)

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Agreed. But what makes it Sci-Fi?

Are you trying to force me to say something limiting like "focusing on a scientific or technological speculative future and/or on it affects the human entities operating within it", which could possibly leave out some excellent cross-genre Sci-Fi works, well, there it is.

 

[3113]

One Definition of Sci-Fi

Agreed. But what makes it Sci-Fi?

The late, great Theodore Sturgeon described Sci-Fi as follows (I'm paraphrasing as I can't recall the exact quote):

A story about human beings with a human problem requiring a human solution that would not have occured without some advancement or change in technology or science.

That includes, by the way, the appearence of aliens with their advanced technology and science

 

[Zeb_Carter]

The late, great Theodore Sturgeon described Sci-Fi as follows (I'm paraphrasing as I can't recall the exact quote):

A story about human beings with a human problem requiring a human solution that would not have occured without some advancement or change in technology or science.

That includes, by the way, the appearence of aliens with their advanced technology and science

Ok, so it's humans advancing or using advanced technology to solve their problem. And may or may not contain aliens.

So if you have all three does that make it any better?

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Are you trying to force me to say something limiting like "focusing on a scientific or technological speculative future and/or on it affects the human entities operating within it", which could possibly leave out some excellent cross-genre Sci-Fi works, well, there it is.

No.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Actually, abducties don't write good sci-fi. Mind control devices put a damper on creativity...which is just what those damn aliens want. To keep us from figuring out how to defeat them

Ah, but how about those mind control devices that over-stimulate the creativity centres of the human brain, thus keeping us too distracted with writing to figure out how to defeat those aliens? I hear from well-informed sources that these devices are what being currently used by nearly all hostile races from the Andromeda's central supermassive black hole vicinity.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Ok, so it's humans advancing or using advanced technology to solve their problem. And may or may not contain aliens.

So if you have all three does that make it any better?

Not if it wasn't any good to begin with.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Not if it wasn't any good to begin with.

Ok, that is a true statement. So it would be the story, not the technology or aliens that make it good. Doesn't matter what the genre just that the story, plot, characters are well written?

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Ok, that is a true statement. So it would be the story, not the technology or aliens that make it good. Doesn't matter what the genre just that the story, plot, characters are well written?

True for every genre.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

True for every genre.

I guess. But there is a lot of butt probing going on in Sci-Fi.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

That's just a bonus.

 

[3113]

Ok, so it's humans advancing or using advanced technology to solve their problem. And may or may not contain aliens.

So if you have all three does that make it any better?

Don't be dense. That just makes it Sci-fi. It by no means guarantees quality of any kind. There's a lot of really bad sci-fi out there.

And you misunderstand the quote. It's not about "humans advancing or using advanced tech to solve their problem"--its that the PROBLEM--and it has to be a HUMAN problem--would not have occured but for the advancement in technology or science. The solution--HUMAN solution--might or might not use advancements.

Real world example that a science fiction writer of old might have created:
Science advances and learns how to freeze fertilized eggs. A rich couple freezes some such eggs, to be later place in the woman's womb so she can have a child. They fly off. The plane goes down. They are dead, there are no heirs....

But there are the frozen eggs, fertilized and ready to go. Should they be placed in some woman's womb to be the child who will inherit all this wealth? The problem (caused by an advancement in science and technology) is taken to court.

*This* really happened (it was in Australia, I believe). But if someone had written about it some forty years ago, it would have been considered Science Fiction.

The Judge, by the way, decided that no, the fertilized eggs could not inherit the money nor would they be unthawed and inplanted. I forget exactly where the money eventually went.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

That's just a bonus.

Not for me!

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Don't be dense. That just makes it Sci-fi. It by no means guarantees quality of any kind. There's a lot of really bad sci-fi out there.

And you misunderstand the quote. It's not about "humans advancing or using advanced tech to solve their problem"--its that the PROBLEM--and it has to be a HUMAN problem--would not have occured but for the advancement in technology or science. The solution--HUMAN solution--might or might not use advancements.

Real world example that a science fiction writer of old might have created:
Science advances and learns how to freeze fertilized eggs. A rich couple freezes some such eggs, to be later place in the woman's womb so she can have a child. They fly off. The plane goes down. They are dead, there are no heirs....

But there are the frozen eggs, fertilized and ready to go. Should they be placed in some woman's womb to be the child who will inherit all this wealth? The problem (caused by an advancement in science and technology) is taken to court.

*This* really happened (it was in Australia, I believe). But if someone had written about it some forty years ago, it would have been considered Science Fiction.

The Judge, by the way, decided that no, the fertilized eggs could not inherit the money nor would they be unthawed and inplanted. I forget exactly where the money eventually went.

Uh...ok.

Oh, by the way it was my attempt at levity sorry if you mis-understood.

 

[3113]

Uh...ok.

Oh, by the way it was my attempt at levity sorry if you mis-understood.

back at ya. I should have seen that.