From: willdorr@nlbbs.UUCP (William Cutlip)
Newsgroups: misc.writing
Subject: Re: Research in Fiction
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 92 14:22:37 EDT
Organization: The Northern Lights BBS, Portland, ME  * 207-761-4782 *

hal@HQ.Ileaf.COM (Hal Wadleigh) writes: 

>A recent episode of STNG had the ship assuming synchronous orbit 
>over a pole. The writer missed a great opportunity for drama when 
>the ship cratered into the planet, since unmoving synchronous orbits 
>can only be over the equator. 

     Hal, my barefoot child, if that's the only technical objection 
you've brought to STNG, you've missed a hell of a lot yourself. I've 
got news for you: If two or more ships meet in space after travelling 
interstellar distances, they will not, in all likelyhood, be 
vertically and horizontally oriented alike. Also, I doubt that the 
whole universe speaks English. 

     Be that as it may: All the mountebank absurdities of the Starshit 
Enemaprize and her "next generation," New Age, codependent-no-more 
crew do not make for a bad story. I sometimes sit through the whole 
show. 

     As to all that other stuff: I'm not sure that anyone will be 
helped by an admonishment to "do good research and tell a good story" 
-- what passes for common wisdom on this thread. There is a tendency 
in the sci fi (pardon me, "spec fi") community to mistake good 
research for good storytelling. 

     For instance, Greg Bear's _The_Forge_of_God_ was well-received 
(to put it mildly).  The first three pages of the paperback edition 
contain excerpts from reviews from dozens of newspapers and fanzines 
across the country, all of which praise Bear unto the welkin. 

     Keep turning the pages and you will find that there is 
_NO_FUCKING_STORY_. 

     Planet Earth awakens ond day to discover that it is host to at 
least two strange monolithic objects, one located in Australia's 
Victoria Desert, and the other located in America's Death Valley. 

     Emissaries emerge from both objects: one bug-eyed monster in 
Death Valley, three flying robots in the Victoria Desert. (Absolutely 
all of the aliens in _Forge_ are purest-pulp, Big Science Space 
Monsters.) The American BSSM says that the Australian BSSMs are here 
to destroy the Earth, while the Australian BSSMs say that the Age of 
Aquarium is at hand, Peace and love will shortly abound, etc. 

     Gosh, what a conundrum! Who's telling the truth? Most of 
_Forge's_ American protagonists try exactly two permutations of this 
little problem: the Australian BSSMs either *are* or *aren't* here to 
destroy the world. Got a coin? Flip it; I'm dying to know. 

     None of Bear's protagonists say, "Well, maybe the BSSMs came to 
Earth just to pull a first-contact practical joke. Or maybe the 
Australian aliens are telling the truth, and the American BSSM comes 
from a race of pathological liars. Or maybe the whole thing is an 
earthling-generated hoax." There are at least a billion other 
possiblities and permutations -- any one of which would be more 
interesting than this moldy old "Space Invaders Come To Destroy Earth" 
stuff -- but only one other finds its way into print, to wit: 

     Arthur Gordon (an American) guesses (correctly) that the 
Australian aliens really are here to destroy the world, but the two 
groups are in fact one and the same; the American BSSM is merely here 
to "stir up" the human race before crushing it. 

     Just to make sure, Gordon & friends confront the Australian BSSMs 
with the American BSSM's story. After hearing this, the Australian 
BSSMs leave, (ostensibly to talk things over), and then they blow up -
- just ^BLOW^RIGHT^UP^ -- as soon as they get out of sight. 

     Yes, indeed. And Gordon knows immediately, instinctively, that 
the critters have blown themselves up -- just as he knows beyond 
metaphysical certainty that the aliens are here to destroy the Earth. 

     How does Gordon know all this? It has something to do with a book 
he has read, Sir Basil Liddell Hart's _Strategy_. "Never come at your 
adversary from an expected direction, or with your goals clear," 
qoutes Gordon. 

     Hm. Well, that explains a lot. And it's a good thing for the 
world that Gordon knows so much about alien psychology. 

     Or is it? Because all of Gordon's efforts -- which are limited to 
passively figuring things out when he's not actively bopping his wife 
-- come to nothing. In fact, all of _Forge_of_God's_ human 
protagonists are passive. They can figure out things, they can observe 
things, they can measure things. They can act in a very limited 
fashion -- commit suicide in a vain attempt to blow something up, say. 
And they can wait around to die. Because all of humankind is helpless 
in the face of the BSSMs' planet-busting proficiency -- which is all 
plausible and well-researched futuretech, I suppose. 

     But nobody -- no *human* -- does anything in this book. Instead, 
great good fortune comes to the human race in the form of yet another 
BSSM, a race of benevolent technospiders who unselfishly rescue a 
remnant of the human race, along with a tall stack of comic books, 
historical documents and a comprehensive collection of accordian music 
and all -- our culture is preserved, huzzah. 

     And there's your denouement, boys and girls: Deus ex machina, a 
limp cliche. This is a story? 

     I don't know about you folks, but I like my characters to *do* 
things -- to *attempt* things, to *accomplish* things. I want to read 
something and say, "If I'm ever at the bottom of a well with a 
thousand pounds of pewter rhinocerous chained to my neck, I'm gonna 
get out of it just like Captain Spiffy did on page 539!!!" 

     You don't get that from _Forge_of_God_. But you do get a sense of 
what is possible in science fiction these days. The plot is weak, the 
premise is old, the characters are helpless, the prose is subadequate 
-- but the research is "first-rate," and so Locus Magazine describes 
_Forge_ as "One of the most striking novels in modern science 
fiction."  

     Tell me: Is hard science fiction so rare that it can only be 
beautiful? More to the point: If I do the proper amount of research 
and come up with my own Big Science Space Monster/end-of-the-world 
story, will I be exempt from critical standards of story and character 
development? 

     If so, get my Hugo ready. The book will be called _It_Came_From_ 
Space_. I'll write it next week; it may take all afternoon.