Intersection

There is a cartoon graph on the front cover of Banana Wings 33. It plots "SF Content" against time. There are two lines - one for SF and one for real life. The point where the lines intersect is marked as the death of SF. According to the graph that happened a few years ago. It is an interesting thing to debate whether there is much science in science fiction any more - has the real world made the traditional "hard sf" form redundant. Certainly, there is very little of it published. However I would argue that those few who do publish what I would consider hard SF (rather than space opera) have not let the lines intersect and are pushing their fiction into the unknown edges of science and technology. But, to reiterate, they are a rare breed these days - not like back in "the golden age" when fiction writers really cared bout the science and wanted to explain it to you were dominating the field.

Interesting then that I read Rites of Passage by Alexei Panshin today - a piece of important SF that somehow I have neglected to read over all these years. The book won the Nebula award for best novel in 1968. The author just cannot help explaining things while telling the story. The technology of the ship the book is set in is an obvious target, but it extends to other things. For example there is a scene where various inhabitant of the ship are playing soccer - Panshin explains what soccer is and some (very old-fashioned) rudiments of how it is played. It is the explanation of somebody who has never played the game but still the desire to educate is there as there is no plot or thematic reason to do so. It seems to me that it is this desire to educate is mostly missing from SF these day where it used to be the norm. No longer do the authors wish to push the message of the wonderful things that science can do for us, or just the wonder of learning. Actually, much more likely is that the audience don't want to be taught, or the message is not one that they want to listen to.

One other thing about Rites of Passage. It is written in a clean uncomplicated style that is very characteristic of the best work of the time. It also has a teenage protagonist. Anybody reading this book without the historical context would immediately label it as a YA book. I don't know if it was intended that way - I suspect not.

.. and all for the want of a horseshoe nail

I may have lost an old companion. For half my life, I have had the same lamp beside my bed - many a book has been read by its light. It is certainly the oldest piece of electrical equipment I own. Now the switch has broken. It isn't the first time, but last time I was easily able to buy a replacement switch at Dick Smiths and install it. Now I can't find a switch anywhere that will both fit and handle mains voltage - even jaycar don't seem to have a suitable one. It is going to mean major surgery to adapt a different sort of switch and the surgeon is an incompetent fool. I don't hold out much hope.

ETA: Fixed - thanks to some good advice from mundens