Ted Rabinowitz's Blog, page 38

Groundhog Day

Gah, today sucked.
I hope I don't have to keep repeating it.

Groundhog D-

Oops!
Now I see what the problem was.
As you were.

Secrets of New York #5

The 92nd Street Y has some impressive guest speakers - Paul Krugman, Al Gore, Charlie Rose, Sonia Sotomayor, Brian Williams, Vera Wang, Jaron Lanier...

Superkids

I don't often go all fanboy for comics. (It makes me feel old, oh so old.) Still, this is frikkin' adorable. Plus it violates every IP law you can think of. Read it before DC sics a team of ninja lawyer assassins on Yale Stewart's ass.

Angry Nerds

I suppose it had to happen.
I'm not sure why.

The Jolt of the Weird

Some real SF in this oneA spaceship doesn't make it science fiction.
"What if?" makes it science fiction.

If a story doesn't ask that question, it can't be science fiction, no matter how many hyperspace jumps it takes or alien telepaths it includes. Instead, it is science fiction's prettier, somewhat dimmer cousin - space opera. People associate space opera with blazing blasters, robots galore, fifty-eight different alien species on any given planet, and vast galactic empires. But really, space opera is just science fiction with the extrapolation removed.

Does this difference even matter? After all, if genre classification is a tricky beast, subgenre typology is a super-evolved mutant chameleon. It's the stuff of endless, tedious late Saturday night nerd-offs. The eyes glaze over, the head droops, and before you know it, you're in an alcoholic semi-slumber as two sophomores with skin problems thrash out the subject until they close the Loscon hospitality suite.
But if you're a spec-fic writer or other storyteller, it is important, because most of what people now consider to be science fiction is actually space opera. Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Doctor Who - they're all space operas, instead of straight-up science fiction. If you're going to pitch either genre, you should know the difference.

Obviously the same writer can write both. And some franchises, like the original Star Trek, veer from one to the other and back. When Heinlein wrote Methuselah's Children, he was writing science fiction - even if it was also adventure fiction. ("What if civilized human beings suddenly discover that their next-door neighbors will live five times longer than they? Will their civilization hold, or break?") When he wrote Double Star, that was space opera (but a lot of fun). Maria Doria Russell's superb novel The Sparrow is pure science fiction, even though advanced technology barely makes an appearance; Lois McMaster Bujold's equally terrific Vorkosigan Saga is almost pure space opera (with one or two exceptions, like the social structure of the planet Cetaganda).

Space opera is fun; I truly enjoy it. But the one thing it cannot deliver, that only science fiction can give, is the authentic jolt of the weird. If the story twists your brain; if it shows you a rational, utterly alien possibility based on the logical extrapolation of a premise - that jolt is the sign that you're encountering real science fiction.

Look for it. It's hard to find, but it's worth it.

I Succumbed to Peer Pressure

Yep, there is now a GoodReads widget on the blog - there it is, on the right, just above the e-mail widget.

Check out the GoodReads reviews of TWS...or write your own.

History Is KERR- RRAZY!

This is definitely going in TWS II or III. I don't know where, but it's in there.

It's a frikkin' CAT JET PACK, fer Heavenssake.

Secrets of New York #4

The Stage Deli, the Carnegie Deli, and the Second Ave Deli aren't that great.
For authentic deli, go to Ben's Best Deli in Rego Park, Queens.

Get the pastrami.

That Beautiful First Person Vibe

Being the charitable, patient and well-beloved writer that I am, I've been to at least one writers group recently, spreading the fruits of my wisdom and just all around giving back...or showing up for the free Diet Coke and Goldfish Crackers. Six of one...

Anyway, here's something I've seen pop up more than once:

A story with beautiful, technically polished narration: flowing phrases and subclauses, apt metaphors, telling details that glow with vivid imagery, told from a first-person POV.

All well and good...unless that first person is a sixteen-year old child soldier who's been training relentlessly since she was seven, or a twelve-year old tagger who plays hooky from school and whose mom works twelve-hour days.

It's a natural mistake. Writers become writers because we love language, and there's an almost sensual pleasure in pulling out all the stops on your metaphor engine and cranking up the elegance function full blast. And younger characters in violent situations are often the source of more extreme and dramatic stories than, say, settled, well-spoken characters in their 40s.

But you can't believe that that character is speaking those words. Let it go.

Suzanne Collins didn't make that mistake. She wrote The Hunger Games, and the POV narration there is truly in the voice of the main character, and it works. Collins deserves her success.