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FAILURE_FAIL

                                             June  7-26, 2013
  In KSR's 40/50/60 series...
                                              GETTING_WARM
  I like the way Robinson came up with
  an excuse for our hero, an ace
  technical climber of days gone by, to
  do an elaborate climbing break-in of
  an office at the NSF: he was trying to
  retrieve an angry resignation letter
  he now regrets.

   As another climber, I can
   attest that I constantly        CLIMBING
   have daydreams like this,
   I can't look at a large
   structure without
   thinking about how to
   climb it-- and once in a                               TRAIN_CLIMBING
   very great while an excuse
   comes up to actually do it.
                                    OVER_THE_TOP
   It's not by itself a terrible
   flaw that in Robinson's story
   the break-in turns out to be
   without purpose (the letter             Actually: through out the
   was picked up already)...               entire story nearly every
   however to my eye KSR did not           time the main character
   handle this failure well.               tries to take positive
                                           action, it fails.
      There are many alternate
      possibilities... While looking                 I can only speculate on
      for the letter, our climber                    what was going on with
      might discover something else                  this--
      of signifcance, either in that
      office, or somewhere else                      It's possible that the 
      along his route.                               passive, ineffectual  
                                                     nature of his main    
      Or though this expedition                      character got wedged in
      was a failure, his familiarity                 KSR's brain somehow, and
      with this route might turn out                 he could think of few 
      to be useful later, e.g. while                 actions for his main  
      running from some bad guys.                    character that would  
                                                     seem real.            
      Or this crazy break-in might be                                      
      played up more as a personal break             Mainly though, I would 
      through: standing on the roof of               guess that KSR was        
      the NSF building, looking over the             determined not to do a    
      DC area, he has an epiphany: he's              conventional adventure     
      been living a straight and narrow              thriller: the hero must  
      life for too long, and suddenly                not save the day with   
      he feels more like himself again.              some daring physical   
                                                     moves.                 
                                                     
                                                     
                                                     
                                                     


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