Writers and characters
Lloyd Wood
characters in their stories. For instance:
Isaac Asimov: can do realistic robots, can't do realistic people.
Arthur C. Clarke: can do compelling concepts, can't do compelling people.
Stephen Baxter: can do particle physics, can't do particular people.
Peter F. Hamilton: can put lots of words on pages, can't do people.
William Gibson: can't do convincing technology or convincing people.
Douglas Adams: can't do convincing usenet posts or convincing people.
L. Ron Hubbard: can do dianetics, can't do people. or plot. or...
Robert A. Heinlein: only stretches as far as redheads.
Allen Steele: only stretches as far as Americans.
Jerry Pournelle: only stretches as far as redneck Americans.
Kim Newman and prefer to reuse existing dead redneck Americans
Eugene Byrne: wherever possible.
Harry Harrison: I'm an egotist!
Alan Dean Foster: We're all optimists!
Stanislaw Lem: We're all pessimists.
Bruce Sterling: We're all pawns used to illustrate political statements.
Iain M. Banks: everyone's a sex-starved communist utopian.
Ben Bova: everyone's busy fighting communist utopians.
Kim Stanley Robinson: everyone's a liberal Californian in disguise.
Lucius Shepard: ...with added continual LSD flashbacks.
William Shatner: LSD has been cited as improving appreciation of the Tek
series.
L.
frankly, only Simak and Bradbury are actually any _good_.
Jack Wright
>
> frankly, only Simak and Bradbury are actually any _good_.
Whatever became of Alfred Bester, by the way? <Rogue Moon, The
Demolished Man, The Stars My Destination ...>
--
The process of becoming a writer is akin to that of becoming a harlot.
First you do it for love, then for a few friends, and finally only for
money. ... Moliere
Mr. Sweetness & Light
Lloyd Wood wrote in message <72if89$dl6$1...@info-server.surrey.ac.uk>...
>I've often wondered why science-fiction writers can't write believable
>characters in their stories. For instance:
>frankly, only Simak and Bradbury are actually any _good_.
Ellison off the list. Not to mention Connie Willis and Sheri Tippett.
Nothing like skewing your data to prove a point, I suppose. Oh yeah, you
left off those amazingly *boring* British wankers like Aldiss et alios.
Reading those fuckmonkeys is like spending an evening watching a fly crawl
up a drape. Pure fucking excitement. Don't quit your day job if you have
one.
Cujo.
*plonk*
ps: nice troll.
AjD
<kfr...@diespamnewtsdiecyberramp.net> wrote:
>Lloyd Wood wrote in message <72if89$dl6$1...@info-server.surrey.ac.uk>...
>>frankly, only Simak and Bradbury are actually any _good_.
>Of course, you realize you left Herbert, Bester, Sturgeon, Tiptree and
[...]
>Cujo.
>*plonk*
>ps: nice troll.
Who snapped at the bait, wankfish?
AjD
ps: you're still using that mawkishly
self-elevating froggo first-person
pronoun, i see.
--
the sea offers up strange rejects...like a mango.
http:// home.msen.com/ ~ajd/ index.html
Matthew Skala
Joseph Askew <jas...@chomsky.arts.adelaide.edu.au> wrote:
>out Asimov did not write realistic robots.
I'd venture to say that his robots were realistic people. (Though not
vice versa.)
--
The third girl had an upside-down penguin on Matthew Skala
her stomach, so the doctor told her, "I'll Ansuz BBS
examine you for free, if you and your (250) 472-3169
boyfriend will debug my Web server." http://www.islandnet.com/~mskala/
Joseph Askew
>I've often wondered why science-fiction writers can't write believable
>characters in their stories. For instance:
>Isaac Asimov: can do realistic robots, can't do realistic people.
Ignoring the blatant flame-bait nature of this post, it occurred to
me the other day that the only things people predicted computers
would do were exactly those things that they can't. We don't have
robots that can talk like people, we don't have domestic robot
servants, we don't have crazed robotic killers. But we do have a
revolution in Design, in word processing, in military equipment,
all virtually ignored by SF writers. Asimov did write _Galley Slave_
in which a robot did help a writer but only by imitating humans and
not by what any decent Mac does with word processing. Missed again
you see. In one of his novels Daniel is stumped when asked to give
a hand despite the fact he has no other problems with the English
language. In short whatever else you might like to say as it turns
out Asimov did not write realistic robots.
Joseph
--
Reason Why I'm Never Going to Get an Academic Job Number Three:
"[Monsanto] said that they had carried out 'extensive safety
assessments of new biotech crops' including tests using rats
that have results published in journals" (http://news.bbc.co.uk)
Lloyd Wood
: >I've often wondered why science-fiction writers can't write believable
: >characters in their stories. For instance:
: >Isaac Asimov: can do realistic robots, can't do realistic people.
: Ignoring the blatant flame-bait nature of this post, it occurred to
: me the other day that the only things people predicted computers
: would do were exactly those things that they can't. We don't have
: robots that can talk like people, we don't have domestic robot
: servants, we don't have crazed robotic killers. But we do have a
: revolution in Design, in word processing, in military equipment,
: all virtually ignored by SF writers. Asimov did write _Galley Slave_
: in which a robot did help a writer but only by imitating humans and
: not by what any decent Mac does with word processing. Missed again
: you see. In one of his novels Daniel is stumped when asked to give
: a hand despite the fact he has no other problems with the English
: language. In short whatever else you might like to say as it turns
: out Asimov did not write realistic robots.
...unless you're contrasting them with his less-than-realistic people.
L.
the Mule was probably the most engaging and convincing of the lot.
--
<http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wood/><mailto:L.W...@cryogen.com>
Ahasuerus
Newsgroups: talk.bizarre,rec.arts.sf.written
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Lawrence Watt-Evans <lawr...@clark.net> wrote:
>>Lloyd Wood wrote:
>>>
>>> frankly, only Simak and Bradbury are actually any _good_.
Mmm. YMMV. Both ways :)
> As for what happened to Bester, most recently he died. Before that...
> well, he never earned enough from his SF to quit his day job, and he
> was too busy to write much.
Well, yes, that and alcohol. Quite a bit of alcohol, actually. To quote
Mike Resnick, whose account is very similar to what Charles Platt said in
his obituary, Bester was "dead drunk, full-time" the last X years of his
life.
> He did produce a few more stories, but
I know what you mean, but just to clarify: "stories" in this case means
*all* kinds of fiction, including 3 novels.
> they were markedly inferior to his work from the 1950s.
I think the prevailing opinion is that they quickly moved from
"disappointing" to "actively bad".
--
Ahasuerus
Gary Farber
: Note the header:
: Newsgroups: talk.bizarre,rec.arts.sf.written
: ^^^^^^^^^^^^
: Lawrence Watt-Evans <lawr...@clark.net> wrote:
:>>Lloyd Wood wrote:
:>>>
:>>> frankly, only Simak and Bradbury are actually any _good_.
: Mmm. YMMV. Both ways :)
:> As for what happened to Bester, most recently he died. Before that...
:> well, he never earned enough from his SF to quit his day job, and he
:> was too busy to write much.
: Well, yes, that and alcohol. Quite a bit of alcohol, actually. To quote
: Mike Resnick, whose account is very similar to what Charles Platt said in
: his obituary, Bester was "dead drunk, full-time" the last X years of his
: life.
I only met him a couple of times, at sf conventions, but I'll vouch that
he fulfilled that description at those times. I watched him pitch a chair
over a balcony for amusement.
No, it wasn't any more amusing than that description.
Very sad.
[. . . .]
--
Copyright 1998 by Gary Farber; Web Researcher; Nonfiction Writer,
Fiction and Nonfiction Editor; gfa...@panix.com; B'klyn, NYC, US
Plain and Simple Cronan
>I only met him a couple of times, at sf conventions, but I'll vouch that
>he fulfilled that description at those times. I watched him pitch a chair
>over a balcony for amusement.
>
>No, it wasn't any more amusing than that description.
That's only becuase you don't know how to tell a story. Let me try:
So Bester's all like "Gary, dude, don't make me kick your ass again." and I'm
all like, "Hey, I love you man!" And then Bester broke down crying and stuff
and I hugged him and some junk and then he, like screamed and said something
about marshmallow peepers infesting the chair and he ripped off his pants and
stuff and set them on fire and threw at the chair. And then it, like, it
went KERPOW and got all like, hot and fiery and some junk. So he picked up
the chair and flung it out the window just before we almost got, like, death
tanned! I said, "Like, I'm not gay or anything but I've got, like a full on
web researcher chubby!" And we kissed.
>Very sad.
When you tell it your way sure but luckily I'm here to tell it the way it
really happened.
>--
>Copyright 1998 by Gary Farber; Web Researcher; Nonfiction Writer,
>Fiction and Nonfiction Editor; gfa...@panix.com; B'klyn, NYC, US
++
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