Sounds in space, how do you feel about it?

Adams wrote comic fantasy. As I said before, you can get away with anything in comic fantasy. The problem comes when you want to be taken seriously as a science fiction writer. Then you have to treat science with a degree of respect.
 
No I disagree. If you want to be taken seriously as a writer write historically accurate detailed historical/contemporary fiction or biographies. The vast majority of 'readers' couldn't give a toss about the facts of sounds in space. As long as you don't insult their intelligence or patronise them they'll read most books for what they are. Something to do while they're lying in bed, on the beach, waiting to die.

That isn't to say it doesn't have to be well written.

If my story starts by describing that the sun has turned blue and then goes into fantastic credible physics detailing the way this happened would anyone then take the rest of the book 'seriously'.

However if it started

Woke up. The sun was still blue. Nothing new there then Fred thought to himself.

The reader accepts there's something going on with the sun - it's blue. Anything more detailed would just turn them off cos anything you describe will be complicated, untrue and give the reader the impression he is thick because he doesn't understand the rubbish and he'll think he should.

Of course if you want to sell books critically acclaimed and read by hundreds then fine, stick with the accurate. If you want wide spread appeal and millions of copies through the book shop door, forget some of the physics. Have a word with JKR at the same time and point out where she went wrong. (in my opinion)

Personally, I would much prefer that I turn on the radio and hear the Book Program ridiculing my science and belittling my blue sun than hear the same comments from the fifty or so people that I gave a copy to because I needed the space for a new coat hanger.
 
TheEndIsNigh said:
Ah ha. There you are then. Did it do well?

OR did you get thousands of letters from ctg and his mates describing their excruciating pain in the reproductive regions.
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Funnily enough it's been the most well-received story of the magazine this issue. The only complaint was a minor grumble in one review, but the reviewer didn't yell that it had ruined the whole story for him.

The odd thing was that it did make me twitch to read it (there are sounds on the moon, as well as someone struggling to get over a 4ft wall in spite of the low gravity), but I thought "What the heck. It works" and left it all in.
 
Perhaps it depends, to a certain extent, whether the reader is prepared to believe that the author knows what they're doing (i.e. which laws of nature they're bending or breaking, and why) and that they are not simply woefully ignorant of these laws.
 
I suggest you read Arthur C Clarke's Earthlight. It is set on the moon and a battle is described involving some super weapon which produces a bright flash but no sound of course. Thats how I would write it but I'd want to be as accurate as I could. Also during atmospheric evacuation,such as a hull breach or a port being blown off your eyes don't bulge or bleed as shown in 2001
 
Troo said:
Funnily enough it's been the most well-received story of the magazine this issue. The only complaint was a minor grumble in one review, but the reviewer didn't yell that it had ruined the whole story for him.
The odd thing was that it did make me twitch to read it (there are sounds on the moon, as well as someone struggling to get over a 4ft wall in spite of the low gravity), but I thought "What the heck. It works" and left it all in.
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Out of interest which mag is it.

(You never know if the readership is so forgiving they might accept some of my pathetic offerings)

Ursa major said:
Perhaps it depends, to a certain extent, whether the reader is prepared to believe that the author knows what they're doing (i.e. which laws of nature they're bending or breaking, and why) and that they are not simply woefully ignorant of these laws.
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Yes but when I buy a book I buy the pretty picture on the front and the synopsis on the back glance at the first bits and decide OK it may be worth a go - after all somebody thinks it's OK cos here it is. If two days later I find I've got ctg's problem then I may never buy a book by that author again but then what the heck there's plenty that will and my money is in the till so mark one copy down to success.

AE35Unit said:
I suggest you read Arthur C Clarke's Earthlight. It is set on the moon and a battle is described involving some super weapon which produces a bright flash but no sound of course. That's how I would write it but I'd want to be as accurate as I could. Also during atmospheric evacuation, such as a hull breach or a port being blown off your eyes don't bulge or bleed as shown in 2001
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Interestingly enough though (never having experienced it myself you understand) the popular belief is that that is just what does happen. General plebs would probably ridicule anyone now if they didn't include those details in anything you wrote. It still sounds plausible to me even though I accept implicitly on your say-so that it's a load of bulls wastage
 
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Funny thing,if i read such inaccuracies in a SF book i.ll laugh and deem it a lesser work,yet i'm quite willing to accept it in sci fi like star wars etc,
 
TheEndIsNigh said:
Out of interest which mag is it.
(You never know if the readership is so forgiving they might accept some of my pathetic offerings)
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Ah yes, sorry. I keep forgetting that Chrons has no signature facility.

The magazine is Pantechnicon: Pantechnicon - Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror magazine

AE35Unit said:
Funny thing,if i read such inaccuracies in a SF book i.ll laugh and deem it a lesser work,yet i'm quite willing to accept it in sci fi like star wars etc,
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That's the distinction I made, too. While the story presents as SF, it's really Sci-Fi, so I was happy to leave it as it was :D
 
Troo said:
The odd thing was that it did make me twitch to read it (there are sounds on the moon, as well as someone struggling to get over a 4ft wall in spite of the low gravity), but I thought "What the heck. It works" and left it all in.
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a 4ft wall might be a problem for someone in a space suit, even with low gravity.
I can remember the first Lunar landing and the debate caused when the lander didn't settle as far into the surface dust as predicted.
there was serious concern that the astronauts wouldn't be able to get back into the Eagle as the ladder didn't reach the surface and they would have to jump up on to it (although how they expected them to move around on the surface if the dust had been as thick as they anticipated remains a mystery :confused: )
 
Being able to hear in a vacuum is not the only odd thing going on in that story, Troo. So, given that the other odd happenings are deliberate, I'd be prepared to believe that this potential "mistake" is intentional and an indicator to what might be really going on; possibly.
 
Okay. After all of this discussion, I decided to try out the theory. I took the end of the vaccuum hose and put it up to my ear. Curiously enough, I heard wind noises in my other ear from the air being sucked through my empty head. So, appearantly under special circumstances, you can hear sounds through a vaccuum.

- Z.
 
Ursa major said:
Being able to hear in a vacuum is not the only odd thing going on in that story, Troo. So, given that the other odd happenings are deliberate, I'd be prepared to believe that this potential "mistake" is intentional and an indicator to what might be really going on; possibly.
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That was my sneaky suspicion, too. And in a dazzling display of unprofessionalism I promptly forgot to discuss it with David :D
 
chrispenycate said:
The sun itself, of course, and I have actually heard a recording of our star, taken from a spacecraft on its way to Venus, with a microphone open to space.
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But wouldn't that just be magnetic effects, and not sound?

That isn't rhetorical, I'm actually asking.
 
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