bsafw%Berkeley@ncoast.UUCP (05/13/84)
From: decvax!ncoast!bsafw@Berkeley (Brandon Allbery,524-1416)
I've been `lurking' on the SF-LOVERS net for about two weeks, and I
finally decided to stick my oar in...
Psychics in Heinlein: Someone (sorry, whoever it was; a '16 has limited space)
stated that the Little People in "Methuselah's Children" were not psychic be-
cause they were a group mind. But if you define psychic powers as an external
manifestation of the mind, and you consider each *physical* Little Person (?)
to be akin to a brain cell, then the effect that unites them is by definition
PURELY psychic in nature. No?
"Did Spock really have to die?": The first time I really saw Star Trek (a
four-year old doesn't count...) I got the impression that the transporter sent
the component matter of whoever was being transported, then re-impressed the
matrix of the transportee upon it (which explains the 1600-mile limit: di-
vergence of a stream of subatomic particles). Nothing I've seen or read since
then has changed this impression. But Genesis is just this without the matter
transportation bit; therefore it should have been developed *before* the
transporter was. Anyway, even if it by some chance wasn't (Genesis is more
refined, so it's possible), the Genesis Effect's wave may interfere with the
transporter beam in such a way as to render the transporter ineffective, while
Genesis was itself powerful enough that it would not have been affected.
Getting rich via time travel: The easiest way is to get someone's signature
(innumerable variations: a copy of some of the scrolls at the Library at
Alexandria, maybe?) and hide it where it'll stay undisturbed until you can
'discover' it, back in the future. Although finding that 'undisturbed' spot
might be a wee bit difficult...
What is SF?: Who cares? I don't define either 'fantasy' or SF; I use the
term 'speculative fiction' and ignore the other two (despite the fact that
you could include "Johnny Tremaine" and other historical fictions in it).
'Nuff said?
Roll-your-own SF Films: Before I start on this, I'll drag in some fantasy:
why won't somebody finish Bakshi's "Lord of the Rings"? But I'd choose the
Lensman books (yes, them) to be made (a non-netter suggests that if we do
"First Lensman", Robert Redford should be Roderick Kinnison), produced by
Peter Hymans. Done correctly, it'd show up Star Wars as the rip-off it really
was (Luke and Leia the twin children of Darth Vader? Now, really...). Next
is Piers Anthony's Xanth (good luck...).
Brandon Allbery (decvax!cwruecmp!ncoast!bsafw)