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There is no rainy day. Rainy day is today.
01/03/2007 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
Something I've always been reluctant to do is quote from a book that I'm reading and likely to include in the review section. Mostly because it can be seen as being unfair to highlight a book higher than others. Mind you, as this particular book has been out a couple years now, was self-bought and part of my storycraft book project research, it raises an interesting point so I hope you can forgive me this one time. Hello everyone
Something I've always been reluctant to do is quote from a book that I'm reading and likely to include in the review section. Mostly because it can be seen as being unfair to highlight a book higher than others. Mind you, as this particular book has been out a couple years now, was self-bought and part of my storycraft book project research, it raises an interesting point so I hope you can forgive me this one time.
The book in question is 'The Seven Basic Plots' by Christopher Booker. The title should give the game away as to its subject matter. Booker cites a lot of story examples, several from our genre interestingly enough so it isn't as though he skirts our genre. However a footnote on page 449 comments that Science Fiction has virtually no connection with science fact.
Yeah! That made me stop in my tracks as well.
How far 'virtually' extends is debatable since that can also mean some books might escape his definition. Thing is, though, I can't believe he's read enough of our genre to use that as a qualifying statement. Its like saying all cars are Ford black and ignoring the coloured ones flashing by on the motorway because he didn't read them or look at the overall subject.
What really struck me is the 'no connection with science fact'. A real throwaway comment as if it's totally true. It isn't. Of course, things like extended space travel is a little beyond us at the moment and time travel is more of a mental exercise of reversing cause and effect than any real intent but does that mean SF has no connection with science fact? If anything, science is the basis and often the adherence to before deviating from the norm and you can't do that without applying some scientific knowledge. Some of the speculation has become fact since SF highlighted the direction. I mean, cloning happened in SF long before it became possible. We might not have true Artificial Intelligence yet but computers had a head start in SF even if the writers thought it would be far-fetched for everyone to have a personal computer. Cyborgs are coming more and more possible as we're learning to hook nerve tissue to wires Even ethical consideration of tampering using science was addressed in SF long before it got the national interest. I can let you add to the list. To say there is no connection between science and Science Fiction is obviously not right.
Science Fiction writers extrapolate a lot of their ideas from where science is leading and look at the consequences of such actions. Science Fiction has been the inspiration for many people to take up the sciences so there must be something there. No one takes up science with the ambition to become a mad scientist (I hope). Indeed, SF treats the purveyors of science as being mostly seriously grounded. A knowledge of the sciences also makes it easy to recognise which writers do and don't do their homework and abide by existing scientific laws and principles. Most of them do so, fortunately. One has to have the right knowledge before deviating from our reality after all. It wouldn't be possible to criticise errors unless there were sufficient people interested in the genre looking at the real thing. Granted that not all people interested in Science Fiction also like science but the contrary is true as well.
In previous editorials, I've commented that Science Fiction is more about applied than theoretical science. It is the basis but not necessarily the reason for the story. A lot of SF does extend from current theory and technology to see where it takes us, especially if it can also make a good story. Submarines existed in Jules Verne's day although they were not as advanced as the Nautilus but were not that far off what we could do a century later although didn't quite go as far as using them to batter sailing boats down...well, not intentionally anyway. His bullet spaceship to the Moon was way off but in Verne's day, through ballistics, such a vehicle could only be deemed fast enough.
H.G. Wells might have been seen as going to the fantastic with the first alien invasion but he was also the first to send people to the Moon long before it was thought possible in reality. Wells obviously disagreed about using a bullet rocket but with nothing else available created a material that could defy gravity instead. Back then, who would have thought rockets could be that powerful but his way was a means to an end and even that had a scientific principle. Had rockets been developed in either of their life-times, you can bet they would have used them.
This should show that even early Science Fiction writers kept to the beliefs of the scientists of the day. Until the beginning of the last century, it was believed that there was life on the other nearby planets. What kind of life was debatable but that small tip enabled the writers to speculate based purely on the evidence at the time from canals on Mars to high cloud on Venus hiding a civilisation beneath. It demonstrates that early SF writers worked from what the scientists were saying at the time.
The connection to science fact is more palatable these days. How many of you people have seen that chap demonstrating a more realistic bionic hand and realised SF is coming of age? Come to that, the bone replacement in that soldier's hand is less cybernetics and more a Terminator-style movement. We've seen it before and it's more acceptable than thinking it makes the people with such surgery less than human. It's a supporter of life and giving them something undreamt of coming to reality a few decades ago. Even SF writers put such technology as something that would happen a couple or more centuries down the line. Our genre has opened up the possibilities to be more widely acceptable than something that could be summed up with the wave of a magic wand and might even have moved it along faster.
Science Fiction has played an immense part in how we've developed, let alone accepted, developments in our own reality. It's done a great deal to remove some prejudices against certain developments. There's a fair bet that the people against stem cell research have never touched anything to do with Science Fiction. They let their fears over-rule the need to help the living. Even those with a moderate interest in SF can see acceptable parallels. Those of us who are a little more intent just wonder why it took so long to catch up.
The highlighting of clones and even cybernetics has been rather prominent in SF long before it came to pass. It wasn't outside the realm of possibility just that technology hadn't caught up sufficiently to do it. Moral dilemmas on the subject seem old hat to those of us who've seen this aspect explored in SF. Outside of pulp adventure, it covered a lot of old ground based whether it was right or not rather than the actual benefits which are being discussed these days. If stem cell cloning is developed sufficiently then it will undoubtedly reduce the need for donors and get ready-made compatible body tissue which has to be beneficial. Can that be so bad? There isn't any downside other than medical staff no longer delicately having to ask relatives if they're nearly dead kin has a donor card. SF is becoming so up-to-date that one can rarely write a story about it that will not be tomorrow's press headlines. Finding the next breakthrough to see where it will lead is getting ever tougher in SF. Even string theory is seen as the means to doing something SF dreamt up years ago.
Science Fiction hasn't always been about science fact but in the morals of what to do with something that is more advanced or likely to change the shape of the world. It examines how things can work out and preventive if it seems too much of a threat. As mentioned with the lack of fiction relating to the dangers of global warming in recent years, it can also let down as well. Science Fiction is seen far too much as an entertainment medium than as something to stir people up to think as to ponder on where we want to end up these days. I suspect there is a fear that it can display the problems far more than the benefits. This does not mean SF should be portrayed as a harbinger for every change that could go wrong but it needs to show there is a right and wrong way to go about doing anything. In many respects, Mary Shelley was right when she had Frankenstein create his creature from dead body parts. Its something we can do today and with a bolt of electricity or rather a little zap get a supposedly dead heart beating again and bring people back to life. It is only monstrous when there isn't support or sufficient benefit is drawn from the process.
Science Fiction should include the work of pioneering advance from all angles of good and bad. It allows for more thought before things come to pass. The fact that it might possibly show a little stagnation in that regard is that authors today aren't keeping sufficiently far enough ahead with the speed of developments. Mind you, a few centuries down the line is going to look pretty immaterial if global warming means there will be little left in less than fifty years.
Science Fiction does go hand-in-hand with science fact. Maybe not as fast as we like, it can often be a pioneer when let loose. It can also be a happy pill for the masses and mental stimulation for those who want to dabble deeper into what it means. It's the one genre that has true growth in the last and this century as a measure of change. A genre that has such strength can only come from treating the material it looks at, invariably from science which causes the most change seriously. To think that the subjects are unrelated is clearly wrong. As to the rest of the book, see my review.
Thank you, take care, good night and be safe Geoff Willmetts editor: SFCrowsnest.co.uk
Less Serious Thought # 1:
Why are the people on TV so tiny?
So they can fit in the box on the screen.
That's becoming immaterial now as people
Now have to become digital
But doesn't explain how binary can become high definition!
Observation Point: The film 'Plan 9 From Outer Space' has always been ridiculed for a lot of problems. One of them is when its police officers rubs the barrels of their pistols across their jaws while pondering. We British think that must have been normal for you Americans reading this by the way. Anyway, doing some research watching the original 'Star Trek' and stone me, in the second season episode 'Obsession', Jim Kirk does the very same thing with a phaser. If his finger had been near the trigger - since when do phasers have a safety catch? - button, splat one captain's head under friendly fire.
A real Zen thought:Silence is a universal language. If you stop and listen, everyone can speak and hear it.
Another real Zen thought but this time for potential writers: If you can express an opinion independently of others and aren't likely to bend to the masses then you might show potential as a writer.
For all links, run your mouse across the last line of every entry. They are there.
BOOK REVIEWS
PS Do you love Science Fiction, horror or fantasy books? Do you read? Able to string words into sentences? Then read on...you maybe what we need...
If you've survived this far in the editorial, let me reiterate something from the website newsletter and the above editorial. As you can see from the main page, we have one of the biggest SF/fantasy/horror monthly reviews columns on the Net. Our success has increased the number of books that comes in and our policy is to read everything before giving a review. You want the bottom line about what you're going to choose to read. We roadtest books so you have some idea of what you're letting yourself in for. That means we need people actually willing to read the book and tell others what they think in reviews. For that, we're always on the outlook for more reviewers. Do you think you have what it takes to review a book? It's a skill that can be easily mastered and we need a few more.
Apart from the ability to put words into sentences, you also need to know how to précis, do a little research on associated subjects and can express opinions constructively about the good and bad points about the books you read. We even let you choose from our pile of received books rather than foster something on you that you wouldn't normally read. You'll even get a little editorial help in how to write good copy and that can always lead to other things. I did say you have to love books and willing to read beyond your favourite authors, didn't I?
If you like reading books in the genre, can really think and show you can write a decent review and, most importantly, live in the British Isles (sorry, expense, time and distance travelled mostly prohibits elsewhere), then use the link below and see our requirements. We can't pay you but a review for the price and regular supply of new books, this has to be a good incentive.
We have one of the most popular and biggest SF review columns on the Net. Do you think you're up to writing a review? If you think you can, then you're really going to think you've landed your hands in the biscuit tin. It won't hurt to try and see if you have the right stuff. Look up the Review Guidelines:
WHAT WE LOOK FOR IN CONTRIBUTORS AND WRITING GENERALLY
PPS: For those keeping track, I'm still about 21 months (mid-May 2005 - this was a relatively quiet year so watch the months fly by shortly) behind. With going through the ebook samples, I have removed some who've gotten published elsewhere. Thank you for your patience but let me know if you've sold elsewhere so I can reduce my pile or if you've changed address, especially e-mail address. I can't give you my comments unless either is up-to-date. Currently, doing spot-checks to see if you're still there when I reach your sample in the pile is making it easier on my time and catching up on the slush pile.
This isn't much of a repeat, just to show you're not forgotten. Those sending in ebook samples, be prepared for a long wait and read the Guidelines with your mouse here: elsewhere on this website They are there to help you do some of the right things and reduce the number of times I'm repeating myself over silly grammatical errors and spelling mistakes that you shouldn't be making. It makes editing a lot easier if any editor has less work pointing out poor English which should have been sorted out in the first place and more focused on other areas of your work. As a writer, it is your command of the English language and its grammar that will show how serious you are about writing.
NOVEL-LENGTH AND OTHER WRITING
General advice for those who want to become writers of any sort: There's an old editorial adage, if you can't aim for perfection why should an editor nurse-maid you to that state? If you're a writer, then you should understand the words, sentences and grammar of the job you're supposed to be writing or are you considering it as mundane and boring as any other job to get right? Fall in love with making every sentence the best you're ever written, read up and understand the rules of grammar. Put the time in researching any subject you're using in the story. Be prepared to put a story away for a few weeks and go back to it for a self-edit. Even I do that. A lot of the time, errors will just stare you in the face when you didn't see them the first time round. Once you know where your weaknesses are, they can be sorted out and allow you to move a little higher up the ladder towards making your material look its best. Look up the Common Problems Link with your mouse here:
SHORT STORY SLUSH PILE
Please don't confuse the above link with my short story slush pile which is kinda low at the moment. We're always willing to give short story writers a chance to be seen if they can withstand my scrutiny even if we can't pay for their efforts, your material will be seen by a lot of people. If you can get a short story written well then it'll make it easier to move up to novel length. Look up the Short Stories Link with your mouse here
FLASH OR ONE-PAGE FICTION Don't forget also, we've got a teaching ground of one page stories, so check out the rules elsewhere on the website. Flash fiction stories link with your mouse here.
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