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From: duntemann.wbst@XEROX.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Constructed as in BUILT, guys...
Message-ID: <1542@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 3-Jul-84 05:16:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.1542
Posted: Tue Jul  3 05:16:09 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 14-Jul-84 13:21:49 EDT
Lines: 36

No, no!  You got it wrong!  When I spoke of "constructed
worlds" I meant more than just "built systematically in the head
of a writer."  I meant a planet or planet-sized thingie which was
put together out of whole cloth or reworked wholesale (a la
Riverworld) for some purpose.  L5 tincan worlds like Rosinante and
Bova's Colony are small change.  I mean BIIIIG.  Ringworld.  Cuckoo.
Riverworld.  Gaea.  Artifacts or complete crustal
reconstructions.  Did I miss any?

And Tom Godwin is, of course, famous for "The Cold Equations," a story
I never bought anyway.  It's been 20 years since I read it, but it
seems as though they could have unbolted a chair and thrown in out
the door instead of the girl.  What we in the trade call "idiot plot."

There was a Hal Clement story I didn't see on that list:
"Seasoning," which was part of a rather silly series of "shared world"
stories surrounding a planet which Harlan Ellison designed (not
built.)  It was in IASFM about four years ago, and involved baloon
creatures and a supercomputer named Black Diamond (chummily
referred to as "Beedee.")  Definitely minor Clement, but if you're a
completist...

By the way, did that anthology (called MEDEA: Harlan's World) ever
hit print?  None of the stories fit in with any of the others; some
made the baloon things intelligent and some did not; one writer
gave them the ability to move about at will like dirigibles without
saying how; stuff like that.  A mess, like most anything Harlan gets
his fingers into.

Illigitimati non carborundum, you latin hacks--

--Jeff Duntemann

The Carbon Filament Rat

duntemann.wbst@xerox