James E. Gunn

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James E. Gunn
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29 Quotations from James E. Gunn

alternate world n. 1975 J. Gunn Alternate Worlds 213 Science fiction writers, from H. G. Wells through Murray Leinster and Clifford Simak to Ward Moore and Philip K. Dick, have considered the possibility that there may exist, side by side with our Earth, separated from it by time or dimension, alternate worlds split off by moments of great (or small) historic actions or decisions, and that upon occasion, by traveling in time or chancing upon some gateway or crossroads, we can pass from one world to another.
antimatter n. 1996 J. Gunn Joy Machine xiv. 209 It wouldn’t be difficult to jury-rig a device—say an antimatter payload contained within a neutronium shell.
avatar n. 1996 J. Gunn Joy Machine xvii. 249 You have given up your avatars?
beanstalk n. 2013 J. Gunn Transcendental xv. 208 We knew that the Centaurans, or some other rapacious meat creatures, would return, but we had the vegetable tradition of patience, and we knew that we would persist until at some distant moment we would succeed. And then one of our Centauran sisters produced the answer—the ability to extract metal from the soil and to shape it, molecule by molecule, into support beams and rocket liners. Another, remembering a Centauran model, developed the ability to process internal carbon into a beanstalk extending, atom by atom, into the sky.
Dyson sphere n. 1986 J. Gunn Readers of Hard Science Fiction in G. E. Slusser & E. S. Rabkin Hard Science Fiction 78 Bob Shaw’s Orbitsville, which also was based on Dyson’s speculations about advanced civilizations converting planetary matter into a sphere about a sun and utilizing all that star’s energy and all the converted planet’s area as living space was not as spectacularly popular as Ringworld but kept the concept of the Dyson sphere at the center of the novel.
feelie n. 1953 J. E. Gunn Breaking Point in Space Science Fiction Mar. 12/1 Imagine that. No video or trideo. No jet-races or feelies. What do people do with their time in a place like this?
future war n. 1975 J. Gunn Alternate Worlds 62 The genre might be called the prophetic (or cautionary) novel of future war (and the first representative of the genre might be the work already cited, the 1763 Reign of George VI ). Its distinguishing characteristic is a richly detailed description of an imminent war, often fought with future weapons or tactics, which goes badly for the nation attacked.
gafiate v. 1975 J. Gunn Alternate Worlds 182 Why do the fans go to all the trouble? The fans themselves ask the same question. Some of them answer with ‘fiawol’, which is fanese for ‘fandom is a way of life’; others, unable to find a satisfactory answer, ‘gafiate’—get away from it all.
gafiation n. 1975 J. Gunn Alternate Worlds 182 Degafiate—To resume fanac after gafiation.
hard science fiction n. 1986 J. Gunn Readers of Hard Science Fiction in G. E. Slusser & E. S. Rabkin Hard Science Fiction 74 By hard science fiction we mean that science fiction in which the story turns around a change in the environment that can be understood only scientifically and generally through what are known as the hard sciences, usually the laboratory sciences such as chemistry, physics, and biology, and the observational sciences such as astronomy, geology, and geography. Mathematics and computers are two of the tools used by all the hard sciences. These sciences are considered hard because they deal with objective data, and predictions can be made from these data that are verifiable.
hard science fiction n. 2011 J. E. Gunn Thought Experiments: Celebrating Isaac in Asimov’s Science Fiction Apr.–May 15/1 [Isaac Asimov] is ranked among hard science fiction writers, which means that the fiction is based on real science or on new developments in science, but he was not the hard science fiction writer that Hal Clement was, or Larry Niven; Isaac’s fiction was more philosophical, based on concepts like psychohistory or robotics or the musings of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Heinleinian adj. 1979 J. Gunn On the Road to Science Fiction in Asimov’s Science Fiction Mar. 109 The fictional debate resulted in a consensus future history that Wollheim summed up in The Universe Makers. It was not entirely Heinleinian, although Heinlein was the first writer to base his early stories on a consistent future.
holovision n. 1996 J. Gunn Joy Machine iv. 69 The students were facing a holovision display of a woman and a man looking attentive and kindly.
mech n. 1955 J. E. Gunn Naked Sky in Startling Stories Fall 21/2 I was about to get a straightforward answer to a straightforward question from this mech.
neutronium n. 1996 J. Gunn Joy Machine xiv. 209 It wouldn’t be difficult to jury-rig a device—say an antimatter payload contained within a neutronium shell.
photon torpedo n. 1996 J. Gunn Joy Machine ix. 131 If we had a diversion from the Enterprise. Phasers. Photon torpedoes.
problem story n. 1953 J. Gunn Plot-Forms of Science Fiction in Dynamic Science Fiction Oct. 47/1 Under plots of circumstances, there are the adventure story and the problem story, which depict characters battling against circumstances for which they are not responsible but from which they can extract themselves, sometimes—or over which they can exercise some control.
Rigellian n. 2 1950 ‘E. James’ Private Enterprise in Astounding Science Fiction July 71/1 When you arrive on Rigel V, you will be followed until it is certain that you are not being shadowed. At that time a Rigelian will approach you, call you by name, and say: ‘Welcome to the fertile soil of Rigel V’—in Rigelian, of course. You will reply: ‘Fertility must be properly cultivated.’
science fiction n. 2 1986 J. Gunn Readers of Hard Science Fiction in G. E. Slusser & E. S. Rabkin Hard Science Fiction 74 By hard science fiction we mean that science fiction in which the story turns around a change in the environment that can be understood only scientifically and generally through what are known as the hard sciences, usually the laboratory sciences such as chemistry, physics, and biology, and the observational sciences such as astronomy, geology, and geography. Mathematics and computers are two of the tools used by all the hard sciences. These sciences are considered hard because they deal with objective data, and predictions can be made from these data that are verifiable.
Sirian n. 1 2013 J. E. Gunn Transcendental i. 13 There were thirty-seven in the waiting room, not counting the Terminal officials—a couple other human males; a barrel-like Sirian with small, hooded eyes and a round hole for a mouth; an Alpha Centauran with a feathery topknot, a fierce-looking beak, and vestigial wings; and several whose home world he could not identify.
Sirian adj. 2013 J. E. Gunn Transcendental xi. 152 My apologies to fellow galactics for Sirian parochial attitudes. We teach greatness so that our offspring can rise above the treachery of their biology and so that they will never encounter a galactic or a situation except on terms of equality. We teach greatness so that we can imagine it, and, having imagined it, achieve it.
space navigation n. 2013 J. E. Gunn Transcendental vii. 100 We studied military strategies, combat maneuvers, enough space navigation to understand—and sometimes check upon—the navigators, weapons and weapon repair, chemistry and physics and mathematics, but no literature or art.
suit up v. 1957 J. E. Gunn Space Is Lonely Place in Venture Science Fiction May 14/1 I’ll go out and check.…Suit up and get ready to lend a hand.
trekkie n. 1975 J. Gunn Alternate Worlds 224 The success of ‘Star Trek’ in syndication, with its own fandom (sometimes called ‘Trekkies’) and conventions with attendance in the thousands, has created a new interest in science fiction.
trideo n. 1953 J. E. Gunn Breaking Point in Space Science Fiction Mar. 12/1 Imagine that. No video or trideo. No jet-races or feelies. What do people do with their time in a place like this?
xenobiologist n. 1996 J. Gunn Joy Machine iii. 37 A group of xenobiologists believed it was close to opening communication.
xenologist n. 2013 J. Gunn Transcendental 176 My father, who was a xenologist, taught human history, psychology, and languages.
xenology n. 2013 J. E. Gunn Transcendental vii. 103 I learned a bit of human speech and what passed for humor between us both. We told jokes. I learned something of human history and the history of other species in the galaxy and compared them to our own. That was my education in xenology.
xenopsychology n. 1972 J. E. Gunn Listeners 209 She was on her way to begin graduate study in xenopsychology at a university in New York.