Date: Sat, 11 Sep 2004 15:27:41 -0400
From: Jim Kling <jkling at nasw.org>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: The World Turned Upside Down - and changes
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

Saturday, September 11, 2004, 11:50:28 AM, you wrote:

> That's good question - how do post-computer readers
> feel about stories written in the pre-computer era?  I
> know I find it jarring to read a story where the main
> character pulls out a slide rule to make calculations
> for his whiz-bang machine.  It seems odd to have a
> machine that can do wonderful things, but the data to
> run it has to be manually entered.  And I remember
> slide calculators!  What if you've never had that
> experience of no computers, cell phones, and the like.

> Not that those stories should necessarily be updated,
> but would the stories be too unusual for those
> readers?   Seems to me that if people can relate to
> Jane Austin's era, they might be able to find
> pre-computer days comprehensible.

I read these stories as alternate history.

--
Jim Kling
science writer
Rockville, MD
http://nasw.org/users/jkling