This list gave me the urge to start a novel with the line "Katie Walker took a deep breath which caused her medium sized breasts to rise slightly, as breasts do when one breaths deeply." I believe this is an excellent start to a novel. Rules are made to be broken.
Diametrically opposing every one of these suggestions from your original article would make for an incredibly entertaining book. I mean it wouldn't be good, but it would be funny. "The Room" of books.
Sep 25, 2023Liked by David Swindle 🟦, Sally Shideler
So if I wrote a female protagonist without once inserting any Ode to Anatomy ... but she's a superhero ... do I get a checkmark or a citation? Or have I created a paradox?
Douglas Anders: Science fiction is an existential metaphor that allows us to tell stories about the human condition. Isaac Asimov once said, "Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinded critics and philosophers of today, but the core of science fiction, its essence, has become crucial to our salvation, if we are to be saved at all."
Sep 26, 2023·edited Sep 26, 2023Liked by Sally Shideler
Everything is about the human condition. Even the trivialities of science fiction franchises that have lasted for over 50 years. Star Wars. Star Trek. Doctor Who. Foundation. Dune. Lord of the Rings. The Wheel of Time. I can go on.
These things tell *our* stories. Illustrate our souls. Possibly better than period dramas and historical fiction.
I don't think science fiction and fantasy are at all trivial! They might be some of the most important fiction genres - they allow gifted minds of non-scientists to show us what could one day be possible!
I just ... can't get into it. It's much the same as how I deeply respect science itself, yet have a mind that wants to be all artsy and weird and non-empirical.
Let's talk about Jules Verne. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Edgar Allen Poe.
Roddenberry and Lucas (et al) were just as much visionaries as people like Melville, and Chaucer, and Dumas. And told just as captivating stories. Which is rather the point of any fiction/writing.
I don't dispute any of that. I know those stories captivate lots of people! I just don't happen to be one of them. Different strokes, different folks, etc.
This list gave me the urge to start a novel with the line "Katie Walker took a deep breath which caused her medium sized breasts to rise slightly, as breasts do when one breaths deeply." I believe this is an excellent start to a novel. Rules are made to be broken.
Gotta say, I'd read some of that! 😅
Diametrically opposing every one of these suggestions from your original article would make for an incredibly entertaining book. I mean it wouldn't be good, but it would be funny. "The Room" of books.
"The Room" of books is a concept that's going to be stuck in my head for WEEKS now! 😂
So if I wrote a female protagonist without once inserting any Ode to Anatomy ... but she's a superhero ... do I get a checkmark or a citation? Or have I created a paradox?
You get a pass to an editor better suited for that genre! 😅
From "Stargate SG1" Episode 200 (2006)
A quote within a quote, if you please.
Douglas Anders: Science fiction is an existential metaphor that allows us to tell stories about the human condition. Isaac Asimov once said, "Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinded critics and philosophers of today, but the core of science fiction, its essence, has become crucial to our salvation, if we are to be saved at all."
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0784558/quotes?item=qt0311198
Everything is about the human condition. Even the trivialities of science fiction franchises that have lasted for over 50 years. Star Wars. Star Trek. Doctor Who. Foundation. Dune. Lord of the Rings. The Wheel of Time. I can go on.
These things tell *our* stories. Illustrate our souls. Possibly better than period dramas and historical fiction.
I don't think science fiction and fantasy are at all trivial! They might be some of the most important fiction genres - they allow gifted minds of non-scientists to show us what could one day be possible!
I just ... can't get into it. It's much the same as how I deeply respect science itself, yet have a mind that wants to be all artsy and weird and non-empirical.
Or "high literature" for that matter.
Let's talk about Jules Verne. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Edgar Allen Poe.
Roddenberry and Lucas (et al) were just as much visionaries as people like Melville, and Chaucer, and Dumas. And told just as captivating stories. Which is rather the point of any fiction/writing.
I don't dispute any of that. I know those stories captivate lots of people! I just don't happen to be one of them. Different strokes, different folks, etc.