Attention SF geeks
Dec. 31st, 2021 05:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kengr(mostly old time fans will get this)
Ok which one is supposed to be Delos D. Harriman? Jeff Bezos or Richard Branson?
Ok which one is supposed to be Delos D. Harriman? Jeff Bezos or Richard Branson?
kengr
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Date: 2022-01-01 02:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-01 05:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-02 02:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-01 02:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-01 05:08 am (UTC)He at least gets mentioned in a few other stories, but as I recall, the only other one he appears in is Requiem.
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Date: 2022-01-01 07:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-01 12:43 pm (UTC)The Juveniles and the older Future History stuff are generally considered to be halfway decent if not great. And many of the short stories are excellent.
Though a lot of people don't realize that the shorts they are objecting to are not "the same old idea" but the *first* stories to use those ideas. For example All You Zombies and By His Bootstraps are the source of those particular time-travel ideas.
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Date: 2022-01-02 02:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-02 02:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-01 04:00 pm (UTC)Ever notice the parallels between _Requiem_ and the subplot and ending of _Space Cowboys_?
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Date: 2022-01-01 10:36 pm (UTC)On the other hand Robert Vaughan's character in Battle Beyond the Stars has a some resemblances in his fate.
ps. a number of local fans refer to Battle Beyond the Stars as "John Boy in space" :-)
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Date: 2022-01-01 10:03 am (UTC)Harriman was at least likeable, so Branson I guess is nearest of the two.
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Date: 2022-01-01 12:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-01 12:52 pm (UTC)Harriman wasn't a robber-baron, he was a hustler. A conman with principles if you like. Witness him convincing two soda companies (obviously meant to be cola and pepsi) that their rival was about to sponsor him to write their brand name across the face of the moon. So they'd each pay him to do no such thing.
Branson is no hustler, and Bezos is just a straight up shark. Branson would solicit sponsorship from whomever could pay the most, and Bezos would take both companies money and then renege on the deal and sic his lawyers on them.
I counter-propose that the closest we have to Harriman is actually Elon Musk. He has that element of showmanship that neither of the other two have, but he also has no need for anyone else's money to get where he's going... which btw, is lot more ambitious than anyone else, including Harriman! He's proposing to single-handily (well, him and his company) build all of the necessary infrastructure to successfully colonise Mars. Even Harriman only aimed for a privately funded version of an apollo moon-shot, not building a million strong city on Mars.
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Date: 2022-01-01 02:55 pm (UTC)The 6+ that he was wearing was also obviously a stand-in for 7UP, whose logo *would* be naked eye readable.
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Date: 2022-01-01 03:11 pm (UTC)huh, yeah you're right. I misremembered that. Still, the idea still stands. It was a hustle.
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Date: 2022-01-01 04:01 pm (UTC)Maybe we need a transporter "accident" to merge the two. ;-)
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Date: 2022-01-02 03:46 am (UTC)