09-07-2010, 06:28 AM | #61 | |
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My pet peeve is when people in the stories don't react appropriately to the situation regardless if science fiction, fantasy, horror, crime, action...
A good case in point is the following story: Quote:
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09-07-2010, 06:34 AM | #62 |
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09-07-2010, 01:57 PM | #63 |
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rhmorrison, ROFL!! That's awesome! And yes, I agree, inappropriate reactions suck. Sometimes they're needed, but most of the time they just ruin things.
lol, wow, I like that. I've done that a few times myself, but I don't use it that heavily. Now that you mention it, I should have my one Russian character start swearing at a guy in Russian at some point, but have his universal translator screw it up for him so that he gets in trouble. lol. Last edited by Steven Lake; 09-07-2010 at 02:00 PM. |
09-07-2010, 02:11 PM | #64 | ||
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Quote:
http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/roc...html#causality The aphorism at rec.arts.sf.written goes "Causality, Relativity, FTL travel: chose any two." It is logically impossible to have all three, one of them has to go. (unless you want to open the squirming can of worms that is Causality Protection) Quote:
http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3g.html#meteors Mythbusters did a related experiment on blowing a hole in an aircraft, and found that no, the passengers would not be forcibly extruded through the hole like a Play-dough Fun Factory. And "forbidding weapons that can puncture the hull" still covers a lot of ground. Shotguns, frangible rounds and flechette weapons are all firearms that can kill people dead yet not harm the hull. http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3l1.html Otherwise I generally agree with your list. Last edited by nyrath; 09-07-2010 at 02:13 PM. |
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09-07-2010, 02:21 PM | #65 | ||
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Quote:
Weber put a lot of work into the physics underlying his FTL travel. It governs what his combatants can and cannot do, and where they can get to in what time frame. Since the same physics that permits FTL travel also underlies part of the defensive capability of warships in Weber's universe, some notion on the reader's part of how it all works can be seen as critical for understanding the action. The challenge any SF writer faces is how to integrate that information into a story without great indigestible expository blobs, like lumps in poorly prepared hot cereal. It becomes more pressing when the books are part of a series. You may have explained it all in detail in a prior book, but you can't assume your reader has read that book, and you need ro recapitulate at least partially for the benefit of the newcomer. Weber can go on a bit, but given the constraints above, I think he does it better than a lot of other authors. I could live without a recapitulation of how things work in the Honorverse, but I've been reading the series since it began. I can't assume everyone else is like me. (The nice thing about the series is that they are all freely available electronically, so newcomers can start at the beginning, but not all will.) Quote:
Clancy, alas, is an author who let best seller status go to his head, to the point where he no longer permits editing of his work. There were sections of the last Jack Ryan book that could have been excised with no loss at all, as they did nothing to advance the plot or add to the story. A good editor would have flagged that in a line edit, but Clancy won't permit that.) I've reached the point where I don't especially care if I read another of his books. ______ Dennis |
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09-13-2010, 02:06 PM | #66 |
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Rule: SF stories have room for those who don't know the science and intricacies of everything going on around them.
I am mindful of Wells' hero in The War Of The Worlds, who knew nothing of celestial mechanics, physics, alien physiology, etc, but still provided the reader with enough information about the Martian attack and his efforts to escape it to create a thrilling story. (This is one of the reasons I liked the recent WotW movie: The Tom Cruise character was closer to the hero of the book, an ordinary guy just naturally trying to get the hell out of the way.) |
09-13-2010, 05:14 PM | #67 | |
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Don't forget "The Time Machine" with the Eloi and the Morlocks.
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09-14-2010, 04:30 AM | #68 | |
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09-14-2010, 06:03 AM | #69 |
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I'm tired of english speaking aliens (even if justified by universal real time translators and such).
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09-14-2010, 06:24 AM | #70 |
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09-14-2010, 07:45 AM | #71 |
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Over: Maybe so, but if you plan to have any inter-species communication between them, or any conversations that the reader can understand, you'll need it. Otherwise you can only end up with mute aliens, and that's no fun, safe for a sci-fi horror thriller where mute is best.
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09-14-2010, 08:15 AM | #72 |
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True... there's no reason it wouldn't have played as well around London. I suppose the selection of Cruise had something to do with that... or the directors thought big-movie-going Americans wouldn't be as "invested" in the direness of the situation unless it happened on U.S. soil. Agh, politics...
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09-14-2010, 08:19 AM | #73 |
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Funny how so many of the decisions related to science and realism in SF come down to how "fun" it is... to encounter humanoid aliens, and to speak to them... to travel at ludicrous speeds... to have sex with robots... to have maritime-type battles in deep space... etc...
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09-14-2010, 09:26 AM | #74 | |
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There is also the fact that the Orson Welles broadcast had the story set in NJ rather than in England as well. The filmmakers might have felt that more people are familiar with that version of the story than H.G.Wells actual book. The original WOTW movie was also set in the U.S. if you recall. Probably for the same reason (and possibly in part due to budget needs too).
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09-14-2010, 10:37 AM | #75 | ||
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Orson Welles knew, of course, that making his radio show sound like it was impacting Americans (largely the only ones who could get the broadcast) made sense from two perspectives: You react more strongly when the threat is closer; and, oh yes, his entire cast happened to be American, and he surely didn't want bad cockney accents to ruin the verisimilitude of his broadcast. His choice, and its effectiveness, probably influenced Hollywood in making similar decisions with foreign content, and helps explain the vast amount of "Americanized" foreign content in movies and TV. Quote:
In the case of the new movie, I don't think budget was an issue. Today, countries vie for production locations equally because they can compete with American production budgetary needs. Sets and SFX can make almost any location look like any other location, removing the need to actually be there to fool your audience. Also, if budget was a concern, they could have replaced Cruise (and probably Fanning) with any two well-known actors that don't demand their top-box-office high salaries. Though the revenue stream has changed, Americans still provide the lion's share of profits, so small- and big-budget Hollywood movies are still done with American audiences in the cross-hairs. |
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