XPost: alt.usage.english, rec.arts.books, rec.arts.sf.misc   
   From: bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com   
      
   On 2/2/26 12:05, The True Melissa wrote:   
   > Verily, in article <20260202105936.0000758d@gmail.com>, did   
   > commodorejohn@gmail.com deliver unto us this message:   
   >>   
   >> On Mon, 2 Feb 2026 12:25:41 -0500   
   >> The True Melissa  wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> I love short stories from the Golden Age. I recently reread Isaac   
   >>> Asimov's collected short stories, and I enjoyed it very much.   
   >>   
   >> Definitely =^_^= Finally crossed "The Martian Chronicles" off my to-do   
   >> list last year; "There Will Come Soft Rains" has long been a favorite,   
   >> but there's just a *pile* of other good stuff in there.   
   >   
   > The one I can't forget is "Dark They Were, And Golden-Eyed." "Mars Is   
   > Heaven!" was also pretty memorable.   
   >   
   > It's interesting that they're not all set on the same Mars, or at least   
   > they don't appear to be.   
   >   
      
   	That is because Mars was like Africa was for Burroughs, unexplored and   
   possibly   
   full of various peoples and polities.  A fine place for unknown   
   civilizations and alien   
   peoples possibly immortals and Roman survivals, intelligent apes or   
   hominids.   
   	Look at the stories about Venus.  Tropical with oceans and maybe 'saurians.   
   When a place is  completely unknown then writers are free to impose multiple   
   realities.   
   	Once the terrain is known Mars is barren and cold, Venus is barren and hot,   
   writers are constrained to the known conditions, unless they posit alternate   
   universes or realities.  We know what 17th Century Germany was like and it   
   changes with Eric Flint's work in the Ring of Fire series. In Sterling's   
   work   
   science is replaced with magic and semi-barbarism refering to the   
   Emberverse.   
   	And the fascistic nature of American culture is exposed in the Black   
   Chamber   
   series where Teddy Roosevelt conquers Mexico and Imperial Germany is using   
   poison gas to kill millions.   
      
   	The Future if we have one is completely unknown territory and we can   
   find whatever we need there for good stories from Laws of Robotics to   
   Foundations preserving knowlege across thousands of years and multiple   
   regimes.   
      
   	I could offer other examples but I think this is enough.   
      
   	bliss   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)