Re: Worst SF/F book you've read

Martin Wisse <mwisse@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Tina_Hall@xxxxxxxxxxx (Tina Hall) wrote:
>> James Nicoll <jdnicoll@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>>> This only gives a taste of how horrid the science in this is
>>> in terms of the time it was written.
>>
>> It's the kind of science that I'd call proper Science _Fiction_.
>> I'd like that kind of stuff, if the story itself weren't horrid,
>> about exterminating all those hapless aliens.

> You don't mind if the science is nonsense, as long as it is
> entertaining nonsense?

Almost. I'd consider nonsense actually better than what is believed
to be possible (it's got some actual 'wonder', 'other', or whatever
the word is for what I have in mind when I think of 'proper Science
Fiction'), and the stuff surrounding it should be entertaining, with
the science not the focus.

> I could go along with that.

Are you planning to found a club? ;)

>> But this reminds me, is there another definition for 'entropy'
>> besides: "(Physics) a quantity expressing how much of a system's
>> thermal energy is unavailable for conversion into mechanical
>> work. - Origin: Greek <skip word> 'transformation'"?
>>
>> Because the way people use the word doesn't match this. They use
>> it as if it's some social situation of a culture, and not a
>> quantity at all, never mind anything to do with physics.

> That's because it's a misuse of entropy, an extension of an idea
> that makes sense to use in the context of physics, used outside
> this proper context.

I guess people won't stop using it. It would be nice if they added a
footnote on what it's supposed to mean in improper context, though.

> It's the old fallacy of thinking (human or alien) cultures have
> the same sort of lifecycle as humans have themselves: passing
> from impuslive expansive youth through mature and thoughful
> adulthood into aged senility, but now dressed up in
> pseudo-science.

That idea does sound very strange. Exaggerated and taken literally,
it could be a fun idea in a story, but not outside that context,
applied to others.

--
Tina
No internet access.
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