Quote:
Originally Posted by mike alexander
To me, the idea of substitution as a test of a science fiction story (the SF/Western substitution mentioned above) is pretty irrelevant if the story is a good one. Using the Galaxy Test I don't see how The Green Hills of Earth could qualify as SF. It's just (sic) a sea story, with spaceships and atomic piles substituted for tramp steamers and steam tubes, a prose extension of Kipling's McAndrew's Hymn.
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You're right and you're wrong, Mike. IMHO, of course!
In terms of
plot you could replace space with the sea in TGHOE. But in terms of
story, you can't. The fact that space will be a hostile environment in the future in the same way that the sea was at the time of writing is part of the point of the story; likewise the idea that we will be longing for close-up views of our planet in the same way that we already long for the sight of a familiar coastline.