XPost: alt.usage.english, rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.books   
   From: hayesstw@telkomsa.net   
      
   On Fri, 13 Sep 2013 00:42:51 -0700, Snidely  wrote:   
      
   >Robert Bannister explained :   
   >> On 12/09/13 2:36 PM, Snidely wrote:   
   >>> on 7/25/2013, Steve Hayes supposed :   
   >>>> On Thu, 25 Jul 2013 07:37:58 +0800, Robert Bannister   
   >>>>    
   >>>> wrote:   
   >>>>   
   >>>>> I would have thought that most people who read SF&F are aware that   
   >>>>> FTL, time travel, telepathy, etc. do not work and cannot work. Back   
   >>>>> when I was twelve, these were all thought to be possibilities.   
   >>>>> Moreover, although only a few really knew the details of real science   
   >>>>> at the time, it was possible to understand the broad ideas, and   
   >>>>> Asimov and others spent a lot of time explaining them. Modern science   
   >>>>> is way beyond the imagination of those not involved.   
   >>>   
   >>> Hmmm.  I'm not sure that Stephen Hawking is that hard to read, at least   
   >>> in _A Brief History of Time_ and _The Universe in a Nutshell_.  I've   
   >>> only dabbled in George Gamow, but his books made an impression on the   
   >>> public, especially the public that was buying science fiction.   
   >>>   
   >>>>   
   >>>> Perhaps you could say that there is a difference between SF that   
   >>>> focuses on   
   >>>> the technology as such, and that for which it is a mere literary   
   >>>> device for   
   >>>> moving people to an unfamiliar environment.   
   >>>   
   >>> There's a handful of stories that can do both.   
   >>   
   >> This is a revival of a very old thread.   
   >   
   >Ah, come on.  2-3 months?  That's just the blink of an eye.   
   >   
   >And if you hadn't posted to it so often, I wouldn't have had trouble   
   >keeping up with it.   
      
   And since it has continued (albeit with a lot of topic drift) throughout those   
   2-3 months, one can't really speak of a "revival", though perhaps there is a   
   reversion to one of the earlier subtopics.   
      
   IIRC the original topic was on literary genres, and the difference, if any,   
   between science fiction, SF and sci-fi.   
      
   I admit that I stopped paying much attention to it when it was on about the   
   difference between debit and credit cards and such things.   
      
      
   --   
   Steve Hayes   
   Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/LITMAIN.HTM   
        http://www.goodreads.com/hayesstw   
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