Re: The Warm Equations

On 2024-06-24, James Nicoll <jdnicoll@panix.com> wrote:

In article <v5c7ij$113u3$1@dont-email.me>,
Lynn McGuire  <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

On 6/23/2024 11:37 AM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:

Interesting to note the way margins of a real-life space venture are run:
 
Two astronauts have been stuck at the ISS for an extra two weeks,
so far, because their ride has flat tires, and it's not a crisis,
and nobody has had to volunteer to step out the airlock.

>
For those who do not know, this is a play on "The Cold Equations"
awesome incredibly sad short story:
   https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-cold-equations/
>

Alternatively, it's a terrible story about people with extremely
shitty pre-flight safety procedures.
>
https://reactormag.com/on-needless-cruelty-in-sf-tom-godwins-the-cold-equations/

In my opinion, James' article and the comments completely demolish the
claim that it's a "terrible story".  The fact that an sf story written
over 70 years ago is memorable enough and had emotional impact enough
to warrant the article and more comments than I've seen for any other
of James' articles is remarkable.

I consider it an excellent *story*.  It's absolutely unrealistic. So?
Most memorable stories are unrealistic.  It could have been made much
more plausible with many more details about the emergency nature of
the preparation of the ship.  That would have made a much worse story, IMO.

It works because it was so simple: the pilot, the girl, and space.
Just the unforgiving nature of space, and how it invokes our fears of
not being in control of things.  We're upset at the situation with
nothing else to blame. Godwin did an terrific job at manipulating our
emotions.  As I said, an excellent story.

Chris