Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Poul Anderson's approach to science fiction

I'm told that Poul Anderson's approach to writing science fiction was to ask himself, "Suppose we were wrong?" (Presumably he asked this question about established scientific principles, then set about devising an alternate explanation -- and then based his story on that.) -- Rachel Holmen

1 comment:

Margaret M. Fisk said...

That's certainly an odd fact :), but what an interesting approach. When I write SF, my anthropological background shows (or so I think). I don't do the hard science what if, but I can see Poul Anderson's approach being even stronger in a world where we believe (rightly or wrongly) that we've got the basics mapped.