Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Twilight People
No, I'm not referencing Stephanie Meyer's sparkly vampires. This week we have a third short story in the same anthology set on a non-rotating planet, where people must live in a sort of twilight zone between the day-side and night-side. While in "Twenty Lights to 'The Land of Snow'" it's about a journey to this planet, and not occuring within a colony there, it's still part of the tale. To me, this begs the question of why at least three different authors chose to write about a tidally-locked planet. Did they just decide finding another Earth-like planet is improbable, so life is more likely to develop in habitable zones? Do they just think it's a neat concept? "Weep for Day" used the planet to illustrate the whole idea of a holy war being waged on Night, so I can understand why he chose to create a theoretical planet like that. However, neither "The Man" or "Twenty Lights..." really uses the setting as a major plot device or even as a crucial element to explain the world-building, rather, it's a minor point. If it isn't key to the story to create a tidally-locked planet, why would the authors do so? Any thoughts?
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I found it interesting too. I really just think the tidally locked planets are more alien feeling to people because that's not what we're used to reading/watching in most sci-fi. It's like the writers are trying to push forward and sort of come up with something more original that readers of the older sci-fi (Bradbury, Asimov, Dick) won't necessarily be all that familiar with.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Holly with the idea that I think the authors are trying to push the limits of science fiction and try something different. It definitely takes the reader into a different mindset, because it forces you to not relate the story to life on Earth. I really enjoy reading these shorter stories because if you don't enjoy a certain author's writing style, the next story, and entirely new world, starts a few pages later.
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