Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!harvard!seismo!brl-tgr!wmartin From: wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) Newsgroups: net.tv,net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: AMAZING STORIES 11/3: The Mission Message-ID: <2958@brl-tgr.ARPA> Date: Thu, 7-Nov-85 11:32:18 EST Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.2958 Posted: Thu Nov 7 11:32:18 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 8-Nov-85 21:27:32 EST References: <1384@mtgzz.UUCP> Organization: USAMC ALMSA, St. Louis, MO Lines: 26 Xref: linus net.tv:3304 net.sf-lovers:9905 > So he coddles them, tells them, "There, there, whatever you do, there > will be some way to fix it up. Just wish hard enough and everything bad > will go away." > Feh! > Evelyn C. Leeper I think I liked this episode a lot more than a lot of you, and now I think I know why. I think that, deep down inside, I really DO believe that you can change external reality by "wishing hard enough"; actually by mental force. It is just that we do not yet know how to do it, or do it repeatably or consistently. Maybe we need to evolve more, or be given the secret by aliens, or achieve higher planes, or something... Remember that I was the one who attacked an earlier Amazing Stories for unscientific portrayal of meteorite impacts, and not for the totally unscientific "animal magnetism" that the story hinged upon. This episode illustrates what I described as the proper technique of fantasy (in this sort of story); a totally realistic and accurate environment and detail, with ONE (or one unified set of) fantastic element(s). That element can be totally off-the-wall, unscientific, inexplicable, nonsensical, etc. It is the insertion of that element in the otherwise totally realistic environment that makes the fantasy, and having only to suspend disbelief for that (not for everything else, too!) lets you appreciate the contrast and leads you to think "what-if"s later on. Will