At 03:22 AM 24/12/00 -0500, "Ross A. Finlayson" <raf@tiki-lounge.com> wrote:
>An ontology of all the various forms of speculative science
>fiction, even space opera and fantasy, can be designed to some extent and
>utilized.
>By classifying science fiction information, then we can talk about a Dyson
>Sphere or a Niven Ringworld or something made by Asimov [final name
deleted out of squeamishness]
This would be a sub-part of what I call the sf megatext (in READING BY
STARLIGHT and elsewhere), the received virtual encyclopaedia and dictionary
generated and recirculated by tens of thousands of fiction texts during the
last century or so. The job has already been sketched to some extent in the
canonical and magisterial ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION, edited by John
Clute and Peter Nicholls. They include a number of special chapters in
specific topics such as Time Travel, Space Flight, and Big Dumb Objects,
which track the development of these tropes across time, place and authors.
Damien Broderick
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