Talk:Justinian (novel)

This reminds me of an essay by Heinlein I came across a few weeks ago when I was searching for something else: Heinlein essay

It dates from 1959 and is based on a series of lectures given on SF by prominent SF writers at the University of Chicago. Heinlein was talking about the lack of good SF being written and how most of the practitioners had the technical and scientific know-how but not the literary techniques. He then discusses the failure of mainstream writers trying their hand at SF and attributes it to their lack of scientific knowledge. Quote from about 3/4s of the way down:


 * "This great demand [for SF] has frequently resulted in authors with well-established literary reputations in other fields attempting to turn an easy dollar by whipping off a "science fiction" story or two. In most cases they have fallen flat on their scholarly faces, for this is not an art to be practiced successfully without hard and prayerful preparation. No man in his right mind would attempt a novel concerning the era of the Emperor Justinian without tedious research; the corollary is still more emphatically true when the "main stream" writer tackles speculative fiction. He simply can't do it, despite finished narrative technique, unless he already has, or painfully acquires, the necessary special knowledge."

At the time, I was reminded of this story and that Turtledove needed to get a PhD first to write it and mention it for your amusement (if any). ML4E (talk) 20:20, October 22, 2012 (UTC)