Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site topaz.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!ihnp4!cbosgd!cbdkc1!desoto!packard!topaz!JAFFE From: JAFFE@RUTGERS.ARPA Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: The Problems of Science Fiction Today Message-ID: <2561@topaz.ARPA> Date: Mon, 8-Jul-85 16:40:33 EDT Article-I.D.: topaz.2561 Posted: Mon Jul 8 16:40:33 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 9-Jul-85 07:34:06 EDT Sender: daemon@topaz.ARPA Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 29 From: Mark Purtill >It seems to me that nonheroes or antiheroes have been fairly common >in SF for many years. Consider, for example, the characters in >Theodore Sturgeon's "More Than Human," who were all flawed in some >way. Or Dr. Nancy what's-her-name in Asimov's robot stories, who >could relate to robots effectively but not to her fellow human >beings (at least that's how I remember her). It was Dr. Susan Calvin (I think). I beleive Asimov as said that she's his favorite character. Incidentally, one could classify at least some of the robot stories as Mythic or Heroic, *if* you consider the robots to be the protagonists. Especially the last two stories in _I,_Robot_, whose names I've forgotten (the one about "Is the candidate a robot or not?" and the one wherein the protagonists worry about whether the giant robots (really computers) that run the world are cracking up (I'm trying to avoid "spoilers" here, so I may be a little vague.)) In many of the stories robots mess up only because of (as HAL would say) human error. (Like the one where the robot messes up because it is told to pull a lever "firmly," and bends it.) On the other hand, in some of the stories robots mess up on their own (eg the one about the robot with a weak first law who was told to "get lost.") As with most attempts to classify all of anything into several neat pockets, there are ususally examples that either don't fit or which overlap more than one. Mark ^.-.^ Purtill at MIT-MULTICS.ARPA **Insert favorite disclaimer here** ((")) 2-032 MIT Cambrige MA 02139