From: "Strong, Lee" <StrongL at MTMC.ARMY.MIL>
To: "'WSFA members'" <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Counterfactuals, was Texas, more than you thought
Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2002 16:39:13 -0400
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

	Thank you to a gentlewoman and a scholar.  I will ask to borrow
_Alternate Realities_ when we get closer to a WSFA meeting.  _Number of the
Beast_ I've got, but didn't remember fictons from it.  The trouble with the
word ficton is that it sounds like "fiction."  Increasingly, alternate
universes seem less and less fictional!  (But stay tuned.  Those rascally
scientists keep rewriting the universe/multiverse/Cosmic All...!)
	Avoiding mainstream?  Generally yes, but it is good to sample some
of it to maintain perspective.  Just treat it like science fiction set in a
VERY SMALL universe...!  B-)

-----Original Message-----
From: Erica VD Ginter [mailto:eginter at klgai.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 09, 2002 4:31 PM
To: 'WSFA members'
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Counterfactuals, was Texas, more than you thought

Good for Hawking! I've avoided mainstream since I finished my English
requirements in college. P. G. Wodehouse is the closest I've come. There are
no new ideas in mainstream, IMHO. Nothing interesting enough to be worth my
time ever happens, and I can get a better idea of what various locales are
like by reading nonfiction or watching the Travel Channel. I once read an
opinin from someone outside of SF circles that the problem with fiction is
that writers are encouraged to write what they know about, which results in
lots of novels about assistant professors of English contemplating
infidelity.

Lee, the Heinlein in question was "Number of the Beast," and of course you
can borrow "Alternate Realities"; I first read it from the Arlington County
Library, if you want to read it more promptly.

Erica

-----Original Message-----
From: Ted White [mailto:tedwhite at compusnet.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 09, 2002 3:35 PM
To: WSFA members
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Counterfactuals, was Texas, more than you thought

"Strong, Lee" wrote:

>         Actually, I am reading up on real cosmology at the present time to
> become better educated on this subject.  Real physicists and cosmologists
> are increasingly leaning towards a quantum mechanical multiple worlds
theory
> of the meta-universe.  They're still thrashing out the terminology, and,
> yes, they're very aware that they're invading the realm of science
> fiction... and fantasy.  Some science fiction and fantasy literary terms
are
> gaining acceptance in real science.  Stephen Hawking used the term
"history"
> to refer to what most science fiction readers call an alternate history or
> alternate historical world.  Kip Thorne used the lower case term
"universe"
> to mean a dimensional world including alternate historical world, and the
> capitalized term "Universe" to mean the entire meta-universe or
multiverse.
> Research continues.  Fascinating times... at least in this universe.

According to Greg Benford, Hawking "read nothing but SF from age ten on.
Much
of his thinking is very science fictional, and he knows virtually nothing of
the
rest of western lit."  (TRAP DOOR #21)

--Ted White