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A comment on Towards a taxonomy of cliches in Space Opera (2016). Parent comment

Re:Towards a taxonomy of cliches in Space Opera (2016) by fouc on Sunday September 05, 2021 @09:39PM (#28429419)
technology or civilization doesn't require our recognition, it exists or not regardless.

Our combustion-based technology is rather a fluke of having a huge amount of one-time crude oil reserves. Other planets won't necessarily have that.

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Re:Towards a taxonomy of cliches in Space Opera (2016) by asymptosis on Sunday September 05, 2021 @09:40PM (#28429422)
We're talking about fiction. If you can't recognize it as technology or civilization, how do you plan to write about it?

As for combustion, indeed, other planets may not have it. So how do you propose that they would start to develop a technology which would lead to building spaceships?

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Re:Towards a taxonomy of cliches in Space Opera (2016) by uncletaco on Sunday September 05, 2021 @09:47PM (#28429465)
This was not a problem in Solaris, Annihilation, or Story of Your Life.

Some stories very much are about aliens who use tech or have civilizations that are very very alien to us.

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Re:Towards a taxonomy of cliches in Space Opera (2016) by filoeleven on Monday September 06, 2021 @07:43AM (#28432730)
Children of Ruin does this quite well also.
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