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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=dstockhoff@verizon.net
href="mailto:dstockhoff@verizon.net">David Stockhoff</A> </DIV></DIV></DIV>
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Yes, I agree. Science realism is after all impossible, if you are <BR>>
proposing scientific impossibilities such as FTL.<BR><BR>> On 11/28/2012 8:56
PM, António Pedro Marques wrote:<BR>> > I think I've said this a number of
times but, for me, 'hard sf' is <BR>> > that where the workings of science
itself are a major driver of the <BR>> > plot. Little to do with being
science-'realistic', except as an almost <BR>> > necessary implication. In
that regard, Wolfe's work is not hard sf.</DIV></DIV>
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">That’s
my view too. </DIV></DIV>
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">There
are different types of hard SF though. There is the realistic sort where
the writer tries to tell a story that could actually happen (e.g. the Mars
trilogy). And there’s the kind where the writer takes some dubious physics
theory and extrapolates wildly based on that (e.g. Schild’s Ladder by Greg
Egan). </DIV></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Of
course, even a hard SF writer isn’t going to get the science perfect. (I
never believed you could oxygenate Mars using wind power.) </DIV></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Wolfe
isn’t writing hard SF, so his standard for plausibility divided by coolness is
correspondingly lower.</DIV></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">-
Gerry Quinn</DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>