VLSI%DEC-MARLBORO@sri-unix.UUCP (07/10/84)
From: John Redford <VLSI at DEC-MARLBORO> Let me put in a word in favor of "The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin. Most SF stories are relentlessly optimistic. Given enough smarts, SFers believe that they can get around any difficulty, solve any problem. The whole point of "The Cold Equations" is that some problems cannot be solved. There is no way that both the pilot and the stowaway can both land safely. There is no way that the stowaway can land the shuttle. Therefore she has to go out the airlock. Jeff Duntemann calls this an "idiot plot", a plot that only works if everyone involved is an idiot. "Why not unbolt a chair and throw it out?", he suggests. Well, the shuttle already had to be stripped down to make it possible for it to land at all. The fifty extra kilos of a stowaway was outside of its safety margin. The idea was to set up a situation that even can-do engineers would admit was hopeless. The parameters of the situation could be changed to make it even worse. The point is that these situations exist, that sometimes there is nothing you can do. This is a true but unpleasant moral, which is why "The Cold Equations" is a good story. John Redford --------