Yet Another Graphomaniacs Compendium
Saturday, October 20, 2012

Hard Science Fiction

I've been brought short by a rather interesting interview with Stanley Schmidt in Locus in which he posits a definition of Hard SF that made me pause: What I mean by ‘hard science fiction’ is actually pretty simple: there’s some element of speculative science or technology in it, which is so integral to the story that you can’t take it out without making the whole story collapse. Which is a much more generous definition than I am used to: it makes Flowers for Algernon hard SF. I fall into the trap of assuming that "Hard" means worked out in nitty-gritty detail and scoring high for plausibility, having no obvious scientific implausibilites, like FTL. This probably makes Arthur Clarke the hardest SF writer of all as this is exactly what he specialised in: but it also means that, say Cordwainer Smith could just about squeak under the bar in places.

Which is encouraging. I love Smith's fabulatory style and it's spawned at least one imitator in Michael Coney and his Celestial Steam Locomotive. I find myself wondering it it's possible to combine some hardcore space opera and Smith's style. Although we live in far to cynical an age to get away with it, I suspect. Still, might be interesting to try, and NanoWriMo is coming up..

posted by John Connors at
Saturday, October 20, 2012

0 comments

On the reasons for not being Indie


Well, that didn't last long, did it? Ok, I took an offer of a job from Pitbull Studio. Sold out in a matter of weeks (if not days). Possibly the biggiest climbdown since the UK left the ERM. Well, I exaggerate slightly, but firstly, at Pitbull I'm not working on a game, but an engine, and secondly, they are pretty awesome as an employer, eschewing many of the practices that lead many to view the game industry with a jaundiced eye. So, work will continue on my indie plans, just much more slowly and - this is important for a family man - securely.

Onwards!


posted by John Connors at
Saturday, October 20, 2012

1 comments
The Journal



A miscellany of topics that intersest me: deaf culture, game design, politics as soap opera, the cyborg condition and the experience of learning to hear again. Other topics presented are speculative fiction and imaginary cities. There are appearences of snippets of work in progress, public rants, pointless posts and Mish the Mouse.




The Writer

A lower middle class cyborg living an innocous life in a suburban village near Newcastle On Tyne, in the United Kingdom. Mostly autobiographical and creative notes posts and musings on the topic du jour.


Archives

May 2001
June 2001
July 2001
August 2001
September 2001
November 2001
December 2001
January 2002
February 2002
March 2002
April 2002
May 2002
June 2002
July 2002
August 2002
September 2002
October 2002
November 2002
December 2002
January 2003
March 2003
May 2003
June 2003
July 2003
August 2003
September 2003
November 2003
December 2003
January 2004
February 2004
June 2004
July 2004
September 2004
October 2004
November 2004
December 2004
January 2005
February 2005
April 2005
May 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
January 2006
February 2006
May 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
August 2007
September 2007
December 2007
June 2008
August 2008
January 2010
April 2011
September 2012
October 2012


Links

Videogame Theory

Apolyton

Game Matters

Common Ground Sign Dance

Krazy Kat Theatre

Computing for Poets

The Langauge Construction Kit

Lemonodor: mostly Lisp

Twisted Matrix

Christopher Jam

Shrydars Blog

Linux Game Development Centre

Starlines

The Rise and Fall of My First Novel

Real Writers Bounce

Mela (designer of this blog)

CyberTarp

Mish The Mouse's Blog

News Feeds

atom feed

Technorati


Adverts



Powered by Blogger

Designed by mela | Image from stock.xchng | Image hosted by CyberTarp