Things in stories even a prodigy couldn't do

[TomMazanec]

Ever get annoyed when a character is able to do something or know something that seems flatly impossible?
I once read a children's book about an alien who did not know what money was, but was able to read in the boy protagonist's mind that the sun of his home planet was Mirach. I recall thinking "Gee, that kid knows a lot of astronomy! I love astronomy and I never even heard of Mirach!"
Now that I have a BS in Astronomy (CWRU 1980) I know enough to seriously doubt that even Carl Sagan was so proficient in the Solar Neighborhood geography that an alien could look into his mind and identify its home system.

 

[Montero]

Good for you. That is just the kind of thing that brings my suspension of disbelief crashing to the ground.

 

[BAYLOR]

Ever get annoyed when a character is able to do something or know something that seems flatly impossible?
I once read a children's book about an alien who did not know what money was, but was able to read in the boy protagonist's mind that the sun of his home planet was Mirach. I recall thinking "Gee, that kid knows a lot of astronomy! I love astronomy and I never even heard of Mirach!"
Now that I have a BS in Astronomy (CWRU 1980) I know enough to seriously doubt that even Carl Sagan was so proficient in the Solar Neighborhood geography that an alien could look into his mind and identify its home system.

It's called bad writing.

 

[TomMazanec]

Here is "bad writing" by Philip Jose Farmer.

Sketches Among the Ruins of My Mind

There is no way the human race would be able to destroy the Ball as it was described in the story, by diverting the asteroid Tora to collide with it. Each night the Ball erased four days of memory of everybody on Earth. After a decade or two senior citizens are mentally teenagers and most people are mentally neonates hosed down every day. Each morning you wake up and don't know what is happening, you have to learn all that has been going on since the Ball arrived, and everything that happened in the history whose memory was erased, and then the next morning DO IT ALL AGAIN. Yet, starting from around 1980 (forget the exact year) we are able to perform a space mission which would be a strain on us without the alien amnesia probe to do today. If he had made it a tragedy, humanity dying out from this memory draining, it would have been a much better (if even more unsettling) story.

 

[Danny McG]

I don't expect logical explanations when I'm reading a SF story.
I let the tale carry me along and I'll tolerate a fair bit of 'hand wavium' because that's what I expect.

If I was reading a contemporary thriller book and the protagonist jumps into his car and hurtles off down the road then I read on.
I don't expect a world-building mini lecture on the workings of the internal combustion engine, ditto for a SF plot device

 

[Droflet]

Many years ago I read a book on writing that said you could write anything you wanted, AS LONG AS YOU COULD JUSTIFY IT. Apparently there are a lot of (even recognized) authors who didn't read the same book. I agree with you Tom. Something that irrational rips me right out of a story.

 

[Montero]

Probably depends on your definition of justify. "Just because it's cool" doesn't float my boat.
In sf if there is overlap with real worlds physics I expect that physics to be accurate.

 

[Droflet]

The same book, Montero, said say whatever you want, AS LONG AS NO ONE CAN PROVE YOU WRONG. My first book is set 500 years in the future and within an environment in-which the normal laws of physics do not necessarily apply. If you see my point.

 

[Montero]

Um no I don't see your point.

 

[Droflet]

The point is at this stage of our knowledge of the galaxy no one can prove or disprove me wrong. Drof shrugs and shuffles off.

 

[TomMazanec]

But PJF’s implausibly had nothing to do with the laws of nature 500 years in the future. It had to do with present day human nature. IIRC there was even a flat screen TV hung on a wall. We hardly have that in 2020 and we have not been dealing with a memory erasing catastrophe.
Or in my original example, I had no trouble believing an alien a million years beyond us could read minds. It was a Beaver Cleaver knowing all about Mirach that I was referring to.

 

[Montero]

The point is at this stage of our knowledge of the galaxy no one can prove or disprove me wrong. Drof shrugs and shuffles off.

Actually, from your description of your book, I don't think my disbelief would be suspended, because you are talking about the suspension of the laws of physics in a special environment. I could believe in clever new technology that looks like the laws of physics are suspended/like magic - but I couldn't believe in all suspension of the laws of physics. We may have discovered new ones in 500 years time, or different reasons for why the existing ones work, but I don't see the existing ones stopping working.

But PJF’s implausibly had nothing to do with the laws of nature 500 years in the future. It had to do with present day human nature. IIRC there was even a flat screen TV hung on a wall. We hardly have that in 2020 and we have not been dealing with a memory erasing catastrophe.
Or in my original example, I had no trouble believing an alien a million years beyond us could read minds. It was a Beaver Cleaver knowing all about Mirach that I was referring to.

Yes. Totally agree. And it would also assume same co-ordinate system and referencing.

 

[.matthew.]

Consistency means a lot too. Take Discworld, completely mental world, but everything that happens in it follows the 'rules' - often that there aren't really any

If an author spells out what is possible and what isn't THEN breaks them, that ruins it for me.

 

[Biskit]

I don't expect a world-building mini lecture on the workings of the internal combustion engine

Nope, that's what the Haynes series is for...

 

[TomMazanec]

Of course, I can imagine PJF saying "I made a career out of writing science fiction and you sold one article to a gaming magazine. Who are you to call my story "bad writing"?