Gavin comments on Open Thread: January 2010 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: Kaj_Sotala 01 January 2010 05:02PM

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Comment author: Gavin 01 January 2010 09:58:34PM 3 points [-]

A sci-fi series based on real extra-terrestrials would quite possibly be so alien to us that no one would want to read it.

Comment author: billswift 01 January 2010 11:18:17PM *  5 points [-]

Not just science fiction and aliens either. Nearly all popular and successful fiction is based around what are effectively modern characters in whatever setting. I remember a paper I read back around the mid-eighties pointing out that Louis L'Amour's characters were basically just modern Americans with the appropriate historical technology and locations.

Comment author: dclayh 04 January 2010 10:33:19PM 0 points [-]

I've found that Umberto Eco's novels do the best job I've seen at avoiding this.

Comment author: pdf23ds 02 January 2010 06:02:10PM 0 points [-]

I'd love to see an essay-length expansion on this theme.

Comment author: billswift 03 January 2010 06:30:00AM 0 points [-]

As I wrote, I read it in something in the 1980s. Probably, but I 'm not sure, in Olander and Greenberg's "Robert A Heinlein" or in Franklin's "Robert A Heinlein: America as Science Fiction".

Comment author: Alicorn 01 January 2010 10:13:00PM 2 points [-]

I might have to mess with them a bit to get an audience, yes.