(disclaimer: there are good and beautiful stories in this genre, but they aren’t the ones about a dude sitting around and being sad and horny while waiting for a train. fuck that class)

also fuck The Cold Equations, while I’m at it

you can’t make the entire point of your story the rocket science, *then get your rocket science blatantly wrong*

Kamen Rider OOO taught me more about how to write than any classroom I’ve ever sat in

@gardevoir What's the carrier bag theory of fiction?
-F

@Felthry an essay by Ursula K. LeGuin, which I found pleasantly thought-provoking https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ursula-k-le-guin-the-carrier-bag-theory-of-fiction

@gardevoir See I'm fond of saying that The Cold Equations is a Second-Order Idiot Plot (a sci-fi society which can only function if every single one of its inhabitants is a complete idiot). Every single operating procedure that led to "teenager gets jettisoned in space" makes no sense whatsoever.

Like I can definitely see bean-counters trying to push "zero margin for error" as a cost-cutting measure, but. They didn't check for stowaways until *after* they'd taken off! They didn't even *lock the door!*

@DizzyHMuffin I actually think I just want to expand it with like one sentence:

“not realizing that too much fuel had already been expended to put both of them into orbit, his choice failed to matter, as he was turned into a pancake during a high-speed lithobraking maneuver on arrival”

@DizzyHMuffin honestly, now that I think about it “someone choosing whether or not to sacrifice someone else, not realizing that both of them are already dead on the rails laid by capitalism” is itself a much stronger story

@gardevoir I like the way you think