{"id":37122,"date":"2026-06-09T12:05:03","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T16:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=37122"},"modified":"2026-06-09T12:05:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T16:05:03","slug":"guest-contributor-tregonsee-09jun2026-tregonsees-three-pronouncements-about-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/09\/guest-contributor-tregonsee-09jun2026-tregonsees-three-pronouncements-about-stuff\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Contributor – Tregonsee – 09JUN2026 – Tregonsee’s Three Pronouncements About Stuff"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Long ago my wife and daughters found my pronouncements amusing. I codified them in a set of rules (which became referred to as the Rules of Acquisition after the Ferengi rules in ST: Deep Space 9). I have three related to fiction and opinions<\/p>\n

16. Opinions are like certain bodily orifices. Critically important but not something decent people expose in public.<\/p>\n

17. In fiction (Written, Visual, or Interactive) I desire a story and escape. If I want morals I\u2019ll hear a sermon, if I want to work at something I\u2019ll\u00a0go to work and get paid for it.<\/p>\n

18. This is not to say a writer or other content producer may NOT provide meaning or morals. Just don\u2019t shove it in my face unceasingly (Remember that orifice in rule 16?\u00a0You wouldn\u2019t shove that in my face either).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And yes Clarke and Asimov are far more of the \u201cIdea\u201d arm of SciFi. Asimov often has to work to make his male characters two dimensional. His female characters rarely rose to that and are almost literally paper cutouts. Clarke uses some stereotypes in his early short stories, but almost all his stories even the Big ones like\u00a02001\u00a0<\/em>,\u00a0Childhood\u2019s End\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Rendevous with Rama\u00a0<\/em>depend far more on story (and the first two are reusing parts of several short stories pasted together) than on character. I think it is why Asimov and Clarke excel in the shorter forms (up to about Novella) but struggle more ion the longer forms. This may also stem from the fact that from mid \u201940s to mid 60\u2019s the primary form (and most financially viable form) of Scifi was the magizines either as short stories or serialized for longer pieces. These forms make character development harder I would think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long ago my wife and daughters found my pronouncements amusing. 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