RE: I've got a speech...comments?

From: Russell Blackford (rblackford@hotmail.com)
Date: Sun Jul 15 2001 - 02:55:11 MDT


Reason said

>1) cut to the chase sooner. Condense those first two paragraphs into one
>sentence ["things are a-changin'"] and start directly with "we have to be
>prepared to live longer."

Not sure I agree with this. If it was an academic essay, perhaps so - every
word has to count. But I think it is okay to lead in gently with a speech to
a non-specialised audience like this, or even in a newspaper feature article
(a hard news story requires a different technique again).

>2) remove references to SciFi works; no matter how great they are, the
>majority of the populance looks down their nose at SciFi.

Hey, Reason: "Never say 'SciFi'!" :-) The accepted abbreviation among
those who care about the genre is "SF" or "sf".

That said, Reason is absolutely right. Sadly, the reference to _Dune_ has to
go.

>3) people like a challenge -- consider that everyone around 25-40 today
>stands on the greatest cusp in history.

<Sigh.> Us over 40s are in trouble again.

Cheers

Russell

==========================================================
Russell Blackford
writer philosopher lawyer transhumanist
Active Member: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA)
Member: Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA)

rblackford@hotmail.com

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