How Old Are We?

[Jame]

Lord Iron Wolf does have a point about sci-fi being in trouble - fantasy, which is escape, is rising and sci-fi, which is progress, is waning. This likely does not bode well for our culture.

Anyway, I'm trying to write a sci-fi novel set within two years from now. The outline is pretty much done, but at some point I'm going to have to get it into book form with chapters, names, descriptions and dialogues. Seems like I can expound, but not describe - oh, well, I can take a few writing classes!

 

[Lord Iron Wolf]

Hi Jame,

You had better make that more than 2 years in the future as a book accepted for publication takes 18 months to two years to see print. With that short a time frame, you are better off with a short story.

Lord Iron Wolf

 

[Jame]

I'll think about it. First I have to write it in novel form, then take care of minor rewrites.

 

[Haplo781]

I'm 21 1/2 and I think Firefly is the best gorram show ever!

 

[grendelttroll]

Originally posted by Haplo781:
I'm 21 1/2 and I think Firefly is the best gorram show ever!

Sorry, but I think you mean was...

 

[Grimjack]

Hello all, finally saw this thread. I'm 36 myself.
I have been RPGing since 1978, D&D that is. I never really played a SCIFI RPG until Gamma World came out. I never liked the Star Frontiers game. The first Space scifi I played in was Space Opera. Man did I have fun playing that game. The rules were GARBAGE, but the universe was GREAT! I heard about Traveller after my service days from my Father-in-law. I borrowed his hardbook copy of the rules, read them and I have wanted to play it ever since. I have since "borrowed" permenantly all of his CT stuff that he had. Unfortunatley, in the last 14 years I have only been able to play it once at a con! Well, there is alittle about myself, thanks for listening.

 

[Prometheus]

Hurray for the 80s generation.. 30+ rpgers rock on!

 

[Dynamo]

I was born in the last days of 1975, I was introduced to traveller in 1984. Nuff said

 

[Befuzin]

Im 24...but after reading T4 i felt like 80...

 

[Orionruse]

This is going to sound pathetic, but would someone please rate me, so that the eavesdroppers on my screes will think I'm cool?

Oh yeah, I'm 33.

 

[Orionruse]

I don't think the problem is necessarily science fiction literature... or the genre for that matter. The biggest entertainment media last year was video games, grossing over the entire movie media by about 1.5 billion dollars worldwide.

I've read on the WotC board that many younger roleplayers have a "want it now" mentality. One complaint I've even heard was that some GM's actually let players "save" their progress in an adventure. What has gaming come to?

I've always been taught that consequences are the essence of life... that the choices you make define who you are, and is also a display of character. RPG's are great vehicles for this very concept-- no matter how you decide to play a character.

Anyways, just thought I'd throw that thought out there. I have to agree that fewer people are reading these days... and that is a damn greek tragedy. That people would willingly throw away one of the great freedoms we have (expression) shows just how weak in heart youngsters are today. If I could tell them anything (not that they would listen) is that, "Lipservice means jack squat if you can't back it up!"

Many of them can't. Their egoes have gotten the better of them, because they were'nt taught differently.

Enough of my ranting... I'm going to go play a game with my wife and kids.

 

[ozbonius_2000]

I am 35 (Class of '86, Wichita KS, Northwest High School). I grew up playing Atari video games on a 2600, and did alot of reading (scifi and fantasy). I started playing D&D in Junior High, and Traveller & Cthulhu in HS. I stopped gaming right after HS, and haven't until just recently. I discovered a big box that I'd been packing around the country for years. It was full of old D&D dungeon modules, Classic Traveller, Star Frontiers, Gamma World, Call of Cthulhu, and James Bond. I pulled out the CT books and blew the dust off them. For some mysterious reason unbeknownst to me or my wife (poor woman is understanding, but very perplexed ), I picked up dice in one hand, a pencil in the other and WHAMO -

[ Reality Mode: Off ]
I’m sitting on the bridge of Free Trader ‘Rhapsody’. We’re preparing for an emergency landing in Bay 13 of the Xao module at Rhylanor Orbital Starport. I check the power cells for my Laser Pistol as I try to figure out how to get 25 cases of banned Heyan Cigars through Starport Customs Administration. I unleash a stream of obscenities at my Engineer that would make an Imperial Navy Petty Officer blush. Impossible to fix, my &#*!! I’ll be hiring a new one here, that’s for sure…
[ Reality Mode: On ]

The Game is Afoot

BTW, what does a brother have to do to get a few stars around here? Will someone please throw me a friccin' bone

 

[taishon]

Just some general comments along this "Sci Fi is in trouble, young ones aren't interested theme.."

I attended the UW in Seattle and I enrolled in a graduate class in Sci Fi (in the English Department) after convincing the intructor that I could do it even though I was an undergrad and had never taken any English classes. Well, I attended a couple of the classes, got bored, and blew the class off (I did that frequently..took me 10 years to get a BS in Physics- a very noncompetative major

Anyway, the instructor made what I consider a valid point- Sci Fi and Fantasy genres produce a lot of crap second only to the Harlequin genre. Within the crap are a lot of wonderful gems..but lets face it...From a literary point of view the genre produces a heck of a lot of trash. Its even worse when you talk movies/tv. I just think a truly realistic sci fi movie would bore the mass audience which is sad. Its amazingly disgusting how lousy, from a science point of view, a lot of popular sci fi is. There is little distinction between fantasy and popular video sci fi (this includes such institutions such as Star Trek..sorry if I offend trekkies).. Ok..to cut the ramble short..Traveller seems to be predicated on running a game with realistic sci fi elements..which is likely to appeal mainly, and primarily, to people with a strong interest in real science.
Sorry about the ramble.

PS I believe my Female instructor was James Tiptree Jr..I know she was some famous sci fi author with a psuedo.

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

At least with a physics degree you don't have to say "Do you want fries with that?" every 3 minutes.

I also took a Science-fiction class as my literature elective. The instructor there (Michigan State U. in East Lansing, MI) said the same thing (must've gone to the same school as yours), that "... only Harlequin Romance produces more superficial drivel than all the science-fiction publishers put together."

[Note: Half the women in that class dropped it that week.]

He did demonstrate the "3-Axis" principle of S/F. All S/F stories take place in one or more of the following settings:

1) Distant Space (Mars, Alpha Centauri, etc.).
2) Distant Time (Far Future or Past).
3) Distant Probability (What if Germany had developed the A-bomb first? What if the Ionian Awakening had not been quenched in ancient Greece? What if the dinosaurs had not died out?).

Science Fiction, when based on "What If", is closer to it's true form, which is Speculative Fiction - taking known conditions and extrapolating upon, or exploring the Unknown while adhering to known scientific principles.

Okay, so maybe a few extrapolated gimmicks are needed to be thrown into the mix; like Faster-Than-Light travel (FTL), handheld energy weapons (laser pistols), and the like.

Otherwise, true Speculative Fiction does not violate known physical laws, and as such, it can seem as boring as a high-school General Science course all over again.

 

[taishon]

Its amazing how our boundries of what can be speculated with known physical laws compared to speculating in uknown are being pushed. Consider magnetism which can, speculatively, offer an explain from everything from animal migration to psionics to even "Magneto" from X-men. They have discovered magentite in human brain tissue and it seems to explain how some behavior of even bacteria.
Ringworlds and Dyson Spheres seem to be "merely" an engineering problem rather than a violation of physical laws (yes..one HELL of a engineering problem).
Nanotechnology, an overused and really misunderstood buzz word these days (I used to be involved in some original NT info dissemination and studying up in Seattle back in my slacker college days) seems to be mainly an engineering problem, not a basic science one. We don't seem to have to learn any new science..just need to push aside the theorists, roll up our sleeves, and get to work with the engineers and technologists. Not an easy issue but not one of law violation.

The only really speculative, known-law-violating concept that seems vital to an interesting traveller universe is the FTL drive. And that only violates some known laws by an obscure German who said that anything massive cannot be accelerated to light speed or greater. Jumping to lightspeed may be different.

So with only one seemingly fantasy element you can make an incredibly interesting traveller universe.

My 2 cents.
Tai

 

[taishon]

Oh..one other interesting thing..I went to a backwoods hick high school in a backwoods town named Longview, WA (if you heard of it..your from there :0), graduating back in '81 (thus linking back to the purpose of this thread..I am 39). The police department was thinking of purchasing an invisible laser rifle ! No..not a laser guided rifle..a laser rifle. It had a cumbersome power pack but it was lethal..I forget what gas it used but it was higher than visible light frequency. We joked about how the cops were gonna burn holes in the skate punks like myself

So..cumbersome laser rifle in a TL 7,8 backwoods environment...the Traveller universe gets less and less speculative all the time.

Tai

 

[mad13142000]

OK, I'll bite...

I'm 33...I think...(2003-19...hmmm)

Anyway, it's not the age, it's the miles...

later
-MADDog

 

[Zutroi]

Anyway, the instructor made what I consider a valid point- Sci Fi and Fantasy genres produce a lot of crap second only to the Harlequin genre

Congratulations! Your instructor discovered "Sturgeon's Principle." SF Legend Ted Sturgeon was on a panel with another (mainstream) author who did nothing but read the most execrable passages out of SF books to support his argument that "90% of science fiction is crap!"

The unflappable Mr. S. responded with "Yes, but 90% of everything is crap!"

Sadly, the genre does seem to be collapsing under the weight of media tie-ins. When was the last time you went into a bookstore and found ANYTHING by deCamp? (Now THERE's a source for your sword and starship RPG!) For that matter, most of the "Asimov" in the stores these days is "Isaac Asimov's" something or other, by A. Random Author.

My 20 millicreds!

BTW, 41 on average (mentally 11, but I feel 71 in the morning!)

 

[Jame]

Still only one of us is under 19...

I was walking home from the library today, thought of this and realized that there were a few children actually within the library. I still say that poor, urban children of Our Youngest Generation to date is less likely to read than poor, rural children of my age (look it up, it's on page 2) ago, although parents like Liam (says he is, having never been to Arkansas I couldn't say. He hasn't had much to say here lately...) will get their kids more interested in books and sci fi than a lot of others (my parents did so for me, but we're technically middle class AND my dad dislikes sci fi).

Someone said something about needing a good movie to bring interest back, so I'd like to propose we make my novel into a movie!

 

[clementk]

Originally posted by Zutroi:
Sadly, the genre does seem to be collapsing under the weight of media tie-ins. When was the last time you went into a bookstore and found ANYTHING by deCamp? (Now THERE's a source for your sword and starship RPG!) For that matter, most of the "Asimov" in the stores these days is "Isaac Asimov's" something or other, by A. Random Author.

Both authors are dead and it's hard enough keeping recent books by current authors in print and in stock these days.

deCamp...falls very close to being in that 90% category for the hatchet job he and Lin Carter did to Robert E. Howard's stories and his "biography" of H.P. Lovecraft. The first science fiction book I ever really had was a "Issac Asimov's" collection I got to put in my mom's grocery cart because I didn't bug her that day getting groceries. Still have it, and it has some fine stories. (early early 80's)

If the non-media-tie-ins don't sell they don't get restocked. Solution, support them. These days if I see a book I like or am interested in in a bookstore, I'll buy it then and there* 'cos it's likely to go out of print and stay out of print for at least 5-10 years. The local mall bookstore has a huge rent to pay so naturally they go for high profit, fast turnaround items. These days I usually go to used book stores (I'm lucky enough to have two Half-Price Books stores within 30 miles), bigger bookstores, abebooks or other specialty online-bookstores, or Amazon.com as a last resort. IMO, the books are out there, it's just a matter of finding them.

Still there's a collection of Clark Ashton Smith poetry currently in print so nothing's impossible. (much better than paying $100's for the old Arkham House books)

Casey
* Though I now have a box full of backlog I need to read, so I'm not as interested in doing this except for rare H.P. Lovecraft related authors, Meryvn Peake, and Iain M. Banks.