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The Clark Kent Problem: How Changing Assumptions Create Plot Holes In Long-Running Fiction

Superb article @Thande

In particular your point that any sci-fi story written on the assumption that the current scientific theories are correct is more likely to be contradicted than one which just makes stuff up is particular revealing.
 
This was a bit of a long rambling one but as always @AndyC rescues it with his fantastic image choices.

That Skylark of Space cover is hilariously generic mind you - the ship in the book is spherical!

I should say that this was partly inspired by some of @Heavy 's writings in his top ten thread and elsewhere about continuity and comic books.

Youngmarshall said:
Superb article @Thande

In particular your point that any sci-fi story written on the assumption that the current scientific theories are correct is more likely to be contradicted than one which just makes stuff up is particular revealing.
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Or equally so, at least, in the long run.

Alex Richards said:
The fascinating thing really is if any of the slightly wacky out there theories at the moment (string theory, p-branes etc.) will turn out to be correct or not.
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Of course the irony is I contradict myself here because my own science fiction stories (the Surly Bonds/Moonstruck universe) do draw upon p-branes and M-theory - but more because they are a good storytelling device, because they can be interpreted as 'actual scientific justification for OTHER DIMENSIONS' (in the Brandon Sanderson Cognitive Realm sense, not the alternate universe similar to ours sense).
 
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An interesting article, and a good word in against continuity of universe and worldbuilding in general. Odd for us to run it when so much of our stuff is worldbuilding, though.
 
Youngmarshall said:
Superb article @Thande

In particular your point that any sci-fi story written on the assumption that the current scientific theories are correct is more likely to be contradicted than one which just makes stuff up is particular revealing.
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It's still amazing that Alpha Centauri managed the tricky task of staying pretty relevant for so long.
 
Tabac Iberez said:
An interesting article, and a good word in against continuity of universe and worldbuilding in general. Odd for us to run it when so much of our stuff is worldbuilding, though.
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Oh, as said above, I don't actually take any of my own advice on this, the message is just not to get too big for one's boots on it.
 
Heavy said:
Was there anything in particular, or just in general?
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Well, I mentioned comic books as this obviously covers some ground, but I was more thinking of what you've talked about elsewhere about the emphasis on continuity and worldbuilding in some modern media vs self-contained storytelling.
 
Thande said:
Well, I mentioned comic books as this obviously covers some ground, but I was more thinking of what you've talked about elsewhere about the emphasis on continuity and worldbuilding in some modern media vs self-contained storytelling.
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In that case, I genuinely appreciate that you have taken my thoughts in good faith, because I think my position has been misrepresented periodically as, "Heavy hates everything that has fans and worldbuilding because he secretly hates women."
 
'Stuff that sticks around because it's old' sure is a fun thing with comic continuity, especially when it gets to the point where it's just so established that even though it makes little sense - like nobody noticing Clark has Superman's face - people will go "YOU CAN'T CHANGE THAT". Heck, Clark/Superman is now such a well-worn trope, I don't think anyone (who'd consume a superhero story) cares too much. What bugs me is how a space rocket landed in the United States without being detected and the Kents went "yeah uh Martha had a baby" and there were no issues when young Clark had his blood tests & vaccine jabs. HOW?!

Being a Judge Dredd fan is fun here because that continuity works in 'real time', Dredd is always 122 years in the future. The future history creaks quite a bit - there's just eight years to go before an alliance of streets gangs will raid the White House itself, in a US approaching a billion inhabitants! Trial-by-jury ends and Judges begin in twelve years! But the real fun is how the foreign megacities are all based on contemporary politics and stereotypes that went into the future but have since changed - there's still Soviets, Japan's megacity was still a mighty rival of Mega-City One despite the bubble economy popping, Brit-Cit is ludicrously upper-class dominated for our future, the Caledonian Hab-Zone seems to have never had devolution, all South American megacities are poor and corrupt even as real-life South America changes because damn it we've established that...

Sometimes there's explanations for that. Sometimes there's the admirably blunt "drokk you they just become Sovs again".
 
Regarding Supermans disguise, I always liked Christopher Reeve's point that wearing glasses and walking / "carrying yourself" differently would actually fool a hell of a lot of people in real life.
 
Lemon flavoured said:
Regarding Supermans disguise, I always liked Christopher Reeve's point that wearing glasses and walking / "carrying yourself" differently would actually fool a hell of a lot of people in real life.
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It's a fair point, but the thing I was trying to get across in the article was that they didn't really see it as a question that needed answering in the 30s. He's a master of disguise, there, that's it, moving on.
 
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