I am moved to write by one story in particular "PRoblem", by Alan Nourse, which I read recently. It's truly aggravating because it starts out as a fun illustration of the many, many possibilities for human/space-alien conflict that don't involve hostility. I was thinking "This is really good for 1956!" And eventually I thought "Wait, they're resolving the really good conflict with a few pages to go, could it be that..." Oh no! In a shocking twist, the aliens were out to screw us over! So I got caught by the twist, but at what cost? I was caught because the story convinced me it was too good for a cheesy twist ending.
I guess since it's in the public domain now I could just write my own ending. That won't solve the general problem though.
![[Comments]](/nb//themes/Default/comments.png "6 comments")
(6) Wed Jan 16 2008 16:59:
My least favorite science fiction story type is "space aliens act friendly but in a shocking twist they're out to screw us over." You no longer see this much in published stories, but I encounter it with some frequency because I'm still catching up and because I often take a lucky dip (love that phrase) into the old stories published at Project Gutenberg.
- Comments:
Posted by Brendan at Wed Jan 16 2008 18:59
Yeah, that general problem seems pretty intractable. Wait, I know what could solve it! Aliens!
Posted by Leonard at Wed Jan 16 2008 19:02
They offered to rewrite our twist-ending stories to make them less cheesy... but then re-copyrighted the resulting derivative works!
Posted by Brendan at Wed Jan 16 2008 19:08
NOOOOO
Posted by Brendan at Wed Jan 16 2008 19:09
Actually that's perfectly reasonable.
Posted by Adam at Thu Jan 17 2008 11:25
To Serve Humans(silliest Twilight Zone ever...)
Posted by Adam at Thu Jan 17 2008 11:27
Oops...double-post: a result of my inability to see my original post after submission, and also because I left it anonymous. Delete the one of your choice. I promise to quit posting now.
