McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Science-Fiction: How 'real' must a technology be?
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: Galvatron on June 12, 2013, 03:50:49 PM ---This is a good point, Im not a fan of having a character go into info dump mode, and there are a lot of characters in a sci fi setting that probably are not going to know the mechanics of FTL drives / space ships/ worm holes/ the history of the galaxy.
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Depends on whether the story you want to tell needs someone who plausibly knows that stuff or not; if you're writing a competent professional in their field, or a reasonably educated person within the context of the setting, for example.
--- Quote ---Some people will know it, but even if the character is a scientist, have them just spit out info for the sake of telling me is annoying.
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Telling for the sake of telling is a character-building technique, though.
Imagine a first-person narrative being written by an explorer on a new planet. She has an in-universe audience in mind, the people back home who are going to be reading her report. The stuff she explains to them - the stuff she needs to explain to them - is a very powerful tool for characterising her, for characterising them, and for establishing what the setting's details are like - particularly in terms of what's obvious to her and her in-world audience but not to the real-world reader, and vice versa. ("These people call this stuff coffee but it's flat and bitter, and worst of all, they serve it hot.")
There are some amazing (and successful) novels doing clever things with this kind of thing - Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos books and Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, for example.
slrogers:
--- Quote from: Galvatron on June 12, 2013, 03:50:49 PM ---This is a good point, Im not a fan of having a character go into info dump mode, and there are a lot of characters in a sci fi setting that probably are not going to know the mechanics of FTL drives / space ships/ worm holes/ the history of the galaxy.
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I think that probably the best way to think about it is from the character’s point of view. For example, most people use cell phones and TVs without understand the fascinating physics that makes them work.
If your main characters are developing, or working closely with, the technology then you are going to have to be very good with your physics. No one likes to find out that your Heisenberg-Raazkove innovation that allows for teleportation doesn't even have the Heisenberg side of the technology right. -- On the other hand, your characters don't have to know how it works to know that they operate the device in some way and get something cool to happen. They probably don't even care (and perhaps the reader as well) which, if any of the particles involved are violating Einstein’s relativity because of Heisenberg uncertainty. New knowledge only available in your book doesn't have to exist now, with current limited understanding of the universe. And a lot of people might not care how exactly they've overcome current understanding (or even what current understanding is).
So if you have to discuss science, make sure you get it right. But you don’t have to discuss science to write a good science-fiction.
Galvatron:
--- Quote from: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh on June 12, 2013, 05:06:23 PM ---Depends on whether the story you want to tell needs someone who plausibly knows that stuff or not; if you're writing a competent professional in their field, or a reasonably educated person within the context of the setting, for example.
Telling for the sake of telling is a character-building technique, though.
Imagine a first-person narrative being written by an explorer on a new planet. She has an in-universe audience in mind, the people back home who are going to be reading her report. The stuff she explains to them - the stuff she needs to explain to them - is a very powerful tool for characterising her, for characterising them, and for establishing what the setting's details are like - particularly in terms of what's obvious to her and her in-world audience but not to the real-world reader, and vice versa. ("These people call this stuff coffee but it's flat and bitter, and worst of all, they serve it hot.")
There are some amazing (and successful) novels doing clever things with this kind of thing - Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos books and Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, for example.
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I agree, but the trouble I see, or more the thing that really grinds my gears are when the obersvations dont fit the character.
Say the character is not educated, maybe instead of a scientist its a gunslinger, the types of obersvations the charcter would be related to an in universe audience should be different.
When the character should be looking for possible ambush points, but is instead telling me about the history of an ancient alien race or talking about how a ships FTL drive works (unless the character has been shown to have an undestanding of this type of thing) comes off as more of an info dump.
So I suppose what I am getting at is whats be related to me as the reader should make sense from the point of view I am getting it from, and it makes no sense that the on screne character would know or notice a certain thing Id rather find out about that information later and in a way that fits the narritive better.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: Galvatron on June 12, 2013, 05:30:43 PM ---I agree, but the trouble I see, or more the thing that really grinds my gears are when the obersvations dont fit the character.
Say the character is not educated, maybe instead of a scientist its a gunslinger, the types of obersvations the charcter would be related to an in universe audience should be different.
When the character should be looking for possible ambush points, but is instead telling me about the history of an ancient alien race or talking about how a ships FTL drive works (unless the character has been shown to have an undestanding of this type of thing) comes off as more of an info dump.
So I suppose what I am getting at is whats be related to me as the reader should make sense from the point of view I am getting it from, and it makes no sense that the on screne character would know or notice a certain thing Id rather find out about that information later and in a way that fits the narritive better.
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No argument with any of that.
I think the way it can sometimes fail for even good writers is "I absolutely need the reader to know bit of world-mechanic X in order for the events of chapter 25 to make sense, because readers not understanding what's going on is bad, and I am going to shove it into a quiet moment in chapter 10 because i can't find a better place for it."
Wordmaker:
--- Quote from: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh on June 12, 2013, 05:06:23 PM ---Telling for the sake of telling is a character-building technique, though.
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Telling anything for the sake of telling is going to feel like you couldn't find a way to make it fit naturally into the story. Just like you shouldn't introduce a character then spend a paragraph describing their entire appearance in detail, you don't want to blow all your setting detail in one go.
--- Quote from: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh on June 12, 2013, 05:06:23 PM ---Imagine a first-person narrative being written by an explorer on a new planet. She has an in-universe audience in mind, the people back home who are going to be reading her report. The stuff she explains to them - the stuff she needs to explain to them - is a very powerful tool for characterising her, for characterising them, and for establishing what the setting's details are like - particularly in terms of what's obvious to her and her in-world audience but not to the real-world reader, and vice versa. ("These people call this stuff coffee but it's flat and bitter, and worst of all, they serve it hot.")
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Perfect! Right there is a character who is likely to be thinking about the specifics of FTL and the technology at her disposal compared to the world she's exploring. That's exactly the kind of thing you want to use if you want to make technology details a major part of your book.
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