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RAT

This page is now CLOSED. The most recent version of this material is available at: RAT3

                                                     June 2, 1992
Aka RAT3
                                                          (Sep 20, 2016)
"Rat3" was a working title for
one of my attempts (from 1985)           After reading an anti-technology
at writing fiction.                      op-ed in an LA newspaper, 
                                         I started thinking about a world
I was experimenting with a method:       where technological research was
                                         prohibited and driven underground.
    (1) Take no notes, except in the
    form of story fragments.             After a major technical accident,
                                         Congress passed "The Rationality
    (2) Avoid reading any other          Amendments", hence the working
    fiction until the story              title: Rat3.
    is finished.                                   

    (3) Avoid working on any other
    stories until the current one
    is finished.

This solved my typical
problem of procrastination,
But I didn't like the
finished product.
                                                       (Nov 26, 2006)
It was a nominally
hard SF story, where some of                 A funny bit: I wanted to
the technical elements seemed                write a story about
like they belonged in different              America over-reacting to
eras.  E.g. working laser                    a catastrophe, and I
launchers long before working                selected a massive poison
photonics had been developed.                gas release in New
                                             Jersey, caused by the
The secondary characters were                crash of a space launch
okay, but the main character                 which had been aiming for
seemed dull and passive.                     a polar orbit.
His "gradual transformation
of character" was much too                      When writing it, I was
gradual.                                        afraid it would seem too
                                                much like Bhopal.
Many of the background details
were more interesting than the                     Then the space shuttle
foreground, and the connection                     Challenger exploded,
between the two wasn't very                        and I was afraid it
strong.                                            would seem too much
                                                   like that.
                            Bhopal      = 1984
                            wrote story = 1985        If I wrote it now,
                            Challenger  = 1986        I'd be afraid people
                                                      thought I was doing
                                                      another 9/11.

   In general, the story was                                 (I wish reality
   ill-thought out, and it                                   would stop
   showed.  I avoided                 I need more            acting like
   drowning in preparation,           confidence in          a cheap imitation
   but boxed myself in with           my fabrications.       of a lame SF
   something essentially                                     story.)
   unusable.

   This approach might have
   worked for a different
   kind of story, but not
   for hard SF.





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