Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!houxz!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!sri-unix!duntemann.wbst@XEROX.ARPA
From: duntemann.wbst@XEROX.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Star Wars is indeed Science Fiction
Message-ID: <223@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 20-Jul-84 13:27:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.223
Posted: Fri Jul 20 13:27:12 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 22-Jul-84 05:45:42 EDT
Lines: 34

There isn't a blamed thing in the Star Wars saga to remove it from
our own (albeit remote) future save Lucas's idiotic "Long, long ago
in a galaxy far away..."  Nor is there any reason to put it
anywhere but in our own remote future; why people insist on the fairy
tale prelude escapes me.  Consider The Stainless Steel Rat books, which
take place in our universe umpty-ump thousand years from now, so that
the word "earth" is a synonym for soil and not the name of any
given planet.  (Until DeGriz gets to ride a time machine back to
Old Earth, or Dirt, or whatever the name of the place was...)

There's no way to draw lines between science fiction and non-science fiction
without valid arguments that the lines ought to be drawn elsewhere.
The internal consistency argument is actually a means of drawing a line
between good writing and bad writing; both SW and ST fail that test,
but whereas I'd grade Star Wars at about 55%, Star Trek gets a zero for
not even bothering to try.

What I suspect is bothering people about Star Wars is the intention
that it be nothing beyond an adventure story.  Well, yeah, that bothers
me too--BUT, considering that Star Trek is really nothing more than
All My Children: 2300AD, I'd say Star Trek is not science fiction either,
but (bad) soap opera with pointed ears.

Damned little media work passes my own personal litmus test for
science fiction, which involves a high level of internal consistency,
"not offending the known", and working from a set of reasonable
premises toward a reasonable theme.  Neither "Cowboys on Mars"
(Star Wars) nor "All My Children: 2300AD" passes the test.  On the
other hand, not many books pass it either.

I think it's a thoroughly stupid thing to throw packets after, bottom
line.  Let's argue about something else.

--Jeff Duntemann   duntemann.wbst@xerox