Trying to cut down “The Cold Equations,” that is. It has serious flaws in it (no surprise, seeing that it was a product of the John W. Campbell-era Astounding Science Fiction). It’s wordy as all hell, which helps some in cutting (pulp fiction, paid by the word, makes for bloated writing), but trying to reduce a 9,800-word story to under 1,600 words is still gonna be very, very ugly.
However, that’s not what bothers me most. What’s really bothering me is that IT’S A BAD STORY. It has plot holes big enough to drive an Imperial star cruiser through, and several other major problems of philosophy and failing-to-think-through-implications as well. Dick Harter wrote a long and cogent critique of the story which I won’t rehash; I’ll merely agree with what he said, and add that given the story’s problems, I strongly dislike the idea of inflicting it on high-school students who aren’t likely to see or understand its drawbacks. I’m afraid it’ll contribute to producing a new crop of Objectivists (a philosophy that’s depressingly common in the sf community), even in the Cliffs Notes version I’m creating.
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