Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
If you can take out the science and still have a meaningful story, maybe you aren't really writing SF, and should consider removing the trappings.
|
I understand what you mean... but it suggests that the SF background is undesirable if it is not critical to the story. I don't wholly subscribe to that notion, I think an SF backdrop is as valid and desirable as a contemporary backdrop, a wartime backdrop, a family home backdrop, etc. It's just a different backdrop. |
Like I said, "maybe". I'm not trying to draw a hard and fast rule. But I think the background really should be intrinsic to the story, and like the science in SF, if you remove the background, you no longer have a story.
My reference is the late Damon Knight's dictum "If it reads like it
could have been set in Australia, it probably
should have been!"
I suppose I'm saying that the first thing you have to do is clearly understand what story you are trying to tell, and what the appropriate form is to tell that story.
______
Dennis