Wow, and I thought I knew Kipling

[dianeduane]

I didn't know that he'd been writing science fiction, though. Neat!

Comments

[mikailborg.livejournal.com]

Q: "What do you think of Kipling?"
A: "I don't know, I've never kippled."

Neat article, though. I'll have to look up those tales.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Well, seeing that the links on that page go to my web site I'd better give my ten cents worth. Kipling wrote very good SF and was way ahead of the rest. With the Night Mail (http://www.forgottenfutures.com/game/ff1/night.htm) is the best example of world building you'll find pre the 1950s, a travelogue "written in 2000 AD" with a huge wodge of background appearing as ads, articles, etc. Its sequel As Easy As ABC (http://www.forgottenfutures.com/game/ff1/abc.htm) (which is a better story than the first) manages to pack in stun weapons (lights and sounds that cause temporary blindness, nausea, etc.), force fields, death rays, radio-controlled robots, a post-apocalyptic future, a world government, and a fairly well-reasoned argument on human values, all in about ten thousand words. His other quasi-SF stuff is more tending towards the mystical, e.g. Wireless, and Horror, e.g. They.

People who assume that he's only about The Jungle Book and his military stories miss a hell of a lot.

[dduane.livejournal.com]

(chortle) That quote was almost the first thing I thought of when posting.

[dduane.livejournal.com]

(grin) Marcus, Peter tells me that he's known about this stuff for ages from your "Forgotten Futures" work, and he claims that he told me about it quite a while back. And he's almost certainly right. But heaven forbid I should tell him so. ;) Anyway, it doesn't do to have one's husband think one's listening to him all the time. It might give him Ideas. :)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Forgot to add that I have, of course, written RPG stats for both stories (http://www.forgottenfutures.com/game/ff1), as part of my Forgotten Futures RPG. In fact I'm reasonably sure I gave you a copy many years ago.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Perish the thought...

[dduane.livejournal.com]

Yup, and indeed Peter just emailed me the links. That boy really likes to rub it in, sometimes... :)

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

It's probably a sign of my literary unworthiness that I immediately started thinking of science fiction Just So Stories. "How The Camel Acquired FTL Drive" would be a fun one.

[dduane.livejournal.com]

Oh jeez, you've done it now. I got this image of a camel with warp nacelles...

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

"Engage!" "GROOOOOOOONKK!"

(I don't actually know if camels gronk, but they certainly look like they should.)

[cjmr.livejournal.com]

I'd say "gronk" is a fair description of a camel noise. If it is an unhappy camel.

[cjmr.livejournal.com]

I see I'm about 6 hours too late to make this joke...

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Isn't that Serenity?

[marmelmm.livejournal.com]

Wowsers. Good stuff.

(Oh, BTW, hiyas. Love your writing. I'm one of the aforementioned influx from a few days ago.) :)

[dduane.livejournal.com]

Hey, you're entirely welcome. :)