X-Message-Number: 19038
Date: Sat, 11 May 2002 07:54:23 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: CryoNet #19036 - #19037

For Mike Donohue:

Heinlein did not want to be suspended. Asimov did not want to be
suspended. Vance (still alive, though getting old) does not want to
be suspended. 

I have thought about the problem you raise, and the best I can come
to is that despite imagining their fantastic future FOR OTHERS, 
these people themselves never really believed such events were
possible in the REAL WORLD. They discovered they could write fantasies
for others, and make money at it, and that was sufficient. That's
what you do when you write fiction, after all, even if it is 
not science fiction. You aim to write something which does not really
tell about reality but which attracts others to read it. You will
feel nowhere near to what your story says compared to how you would
feel it it were openly, frankly autobiographical. It's just a STORY.

There is another issue, too. It's not obvious that if a cryonicist
wrote fiction it would present its characters and their goals in
the same way as a noncryonicist .... and thus might find it hard
to write really popular stuff for those who aren't cryonicists.
Yes, I know some cryonicists do write fiction and get paid for it,
but I also note that they don't seem as popular as other authors,
of science fiction or whatever field they write in.

That's just a thought.

		Best and long long life for all,

			Thomas Donaldson

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