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It doesn't even have to be limited to wizard duels. This is actually one way warriors can work in my setting; it's extremely comical to have some master stand perfectly still, doing nothing, while another guy swings at him ineffectually, over and over, without being able to land anything...

I've been using both of these and a few others since I first read The Elegant Universe in 1999. Like Joshua I've also found Kaku an accessible writer for non-specialists, especially some of the discussion of what a being who could move as easily through all dimensions as we can through our 3...

Surely the circularity of what you're saying here didn't escape you? I mean about the "true Batman" and the "true Batman fan," and the "true Batman" is the one the "true Batman fan" knows, and the way we know the "true Batman fan" is by his knowing the "true Batman"--? As to the lemmings...

It's probably overblown, but I think all movies known for their twists are. The first problem is that if you know there's a twist going in, of course you're going to get it. Sixth Sense and The Usual Suspects were like this for me. The second problem is that for some reason writers always pick...

So much to disagree with, so little time.

Neither are impossible positions to defend. Keaton doesn't have pouty lips (Adriana Lima has pouty lips), Keaton doesn't have a weak voice (certainly no weaker than Bale's), he's 5'10'' (cetainly not short, just not tall), and he was well before 40 at the time Batman was released. See, that...

Not if I can help it.

Strange. I have Before Sunrise and Before Sunset (and Waking Life, which is only mildly relevant) on DVD, and I watch them all the time, yet they never become routine. I couldn't really say which movie I've seen the most though. There're a bunch I've seen 100+ times easily, off the top of my...

I don't misunderstand your position in the least. You're saying there's a set of all works of SF, and everything that's a part of one of these works is a part of the set without being necessary to any member of the set. What I'm doing is drawing out some of the consequences of your position...

No, it's absolutely correct. You said "once I show a single SF work with a certain characteristic, that characteristic exists within the set of all SF." That's utter nonsense if you're asserting it has anything to do with a definition of SF, which is the entire point of this thread. What is F...

Nobody's even disputed this. All you've done here is lay down a line of reasoning that can only end in the conclusion that there are no such things as genres (except on the individual level of the work) at all. According to you, no work of SF can be anything but SF. Everything that's part of a...

I agree that the issue of identity isn't unique to SF or anything else. As a question, identity figures in all literature. Yet we still might, for example, discriminate genres based on the quality of their response to this question, rather than assume there are no distinct identity-based genres...

If you prove it exists in another literary form then by that fact it is not unique to SF or F. What you've missed, again, is that you cannot prove that an element exists in any form whatsoever. You obviously aren't trying to work with me because this is very simple. You keep trying to show that...

I like the way you think. I take it a step further: players don't even know the precise numbers of their stats, their precise number of hit points etc. They get descriptions, but there's no counting cards, so to speak.

You've never heard of tragicomedy? It is perfectly obvious. You've failed to prove the impossibility of SF and F having unique narratives. That's what I demonstrated. I criticized your belief that you could demonstrate that something is not unique to SF or F. By the method you have used so...

But what does this have to do with SF needing a narrative of its own? It seems to me that literature is about content, that is, about interpretation. At a basic level, even plot is nothing more than imagery, as is setting, or imagery in the sense of "technological" or "fantastic." It seems to me...

Which two ways am I trying to have it? This is where you're confused, although what I said originally was that you were making a mistake in your reading of my argument, not that you were confused about it. We don't need a narrative element ABSENT from other genres to define SF and F in their...

I wish there were more idiosyncratic reviewers (i.e. biased reviewers, but not at the level of an individual product--biased as reviewers, and very articulate about their biases), as I'd definitely be more interested in their reviews. There's always a bias, it's simply a question of whether or...

Also Del, in response to your concern about pdf piracy, you should know that it really isn't even an issue unless you're moving product in Monte Cook numbers. Most of the pdf piracy market is oriented around print products from the bigger companies, not the smaller pdf stuff. Very little of the...

To be fair, I was less stating your position than performing a reductio on Psion's reading of it, that is true. There are certainly all kinds of ways to define genres (none of them being factually right or wrong, since there is no fact to be right or wrong about). My very plainly stated goal...