Re: spaceships, terminology, windows

On Wed, 30 Aug 2006 22:56:49 +0100, Tim S wrote:

Scott Golden wrote:
Michelle Bottorff wrote:

Scott Golden <gypsyluc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


keeping in mind that most of the time there would be very little to
look at.


Lots of stars?

>
I was comparing it in my mind to a long car ride through an area where
the scenery changes very little. Eventually you're going to want to see
something else, right? And the darkness of space might add to any
feelings of claustrophobia the crew might be experiencing.


Yes, I was thinking that too. Though with all the sfnal doodads I don't
actually know how long the journey would take.

Tim

I've read at least one story, and I think several, where people on long
space-voyages where nothing was happening would get in their spacesuits,
attach a tether, and push off, then hang weightless some meters from the
ship, with stars all around.

I'm trying to remember which story it was, and drawing a blank; I know I
used it in some of my juvenilia. It seems quite reasonable to me, but then
I'm the guy who scared the OOD s*less by climbing out on the prong that
catches the catapult bridles, wrongly called "bowsprit", on the carrier,
and sat there, twenty feet forward and five or so down from the edge of the
flight deck, seventy-five feet above the ocean, and better than two hundred
feet from the hull, for half an hour or so. Like flying. If I'd fallen,
*splash* and straight into the screws. Nowadays I'd probably go straight to
the brig, and from there to the looney ward.

Not everybody would do that, and some would be positively weirded out by
the very notion. Possibly a useful distinction for characterization. Ship's
policy toward that sort of thing would also be a point in the worldbuilding
-- libertarian(ish) societies would shake their heads and say "It's a free
system!" while authoritarian(ish) and nannyish ones might have draconian
rules against it.

Regards,
Ric

--
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