Men's Discussion

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I don't think the idea (to have a men's forum) has been banned.....just that there doesn't seem to be enough interest. If this (sticky, therefore prioritised) thread starts getting really busy, I expect we'll get a forum.

But in my experience, men's groups don't usually take off.

Don't know if mine fits those categories - it's a Brian Aldiss story about a guy who notices his whole family seems to be living through a weird, stereotyped existence, where everything they say and do seems somehow wooden and artificial. He eventually discovers the truth - he's an alien who (unknown to himself) has been planted in a family to absorb Earthling culture, for use in an intended invasion. But the Earthling authorities have a way of smoking the aliens out - they allow the aliens to infiltrate "dummy" families made up of actors, who deliberately make their behaviour as featureless as possible, which eventually drives the aliens to break out and get caught, because they can't function or remain sane without features to absorb.

My next best story is "The Cold Equations" which tells of a young girl stowing away on a freight ship in spite of notices that stowaways will be executed. To her, that's just a silly rule that there must be some way round, and the story is the conversation between her and the guard who discovers her......the problem is that there isn't enough fuel to carry her extra weight, and there's no way to avoid the whole ship crashing into the destination planet, unless she is removed, which means she'll die in space. They fail to solve the problem because there is no solution.

I don't think they quite fit into "war" or "love." It's mostly the human interest factor that grabs me, both stories are about somebody discovering some profound and devastating fact, both explore how it feels to be thinking and acting in ignorance of that fact. The science fiction aspect is just an attractive backdrop.

Does anybody know the title of that first story?

Don't know if mine fits those categories - it's a Brian Aldiss story about a guy who notices his whole family seems to be living through a weird, stereotyped existence, where everything they say and do seems somehow wooden and artificial. He eventually discovers the truth - he's an alien who (unknown to himself) has been planted in a family to absorb Earthling culture, for use in an intended invasion. But the Earthling authorities have a way of smoking the aliens out - they allow the aliens to infiltrate "dummy" families made up of actors, who deliberately make their behaviour as featureless as possible, which eventually drives the aliens to break out and get caught, because they can't function or remain sane without features to absorb.

Does anybody know the title of that first story?

I'm definitely an outer limits kinda dude. I've not much time for space fantasy or space opera. I like the exploration of ideas.

I don't know it, but you could do a search on Amazon with the author's name. You might be able to recognize the cover art or title of the book.

Thanks.......I tried, but no luck so far. I believe it was an audiobook, which could have been a compilation of short stories by different authors. The official website has a forum, but it's currently closed due to spammers. I'm not even certain it was Aldiss, though that's the way I remember it, and it's the only story I know that I seem to recall as being by Aldiss, and he's in the "perceptive authors" category in my memory banks. I remember only one phrase from the story - "they hardly went out at all" or something similar.

Anthology?

Probably......still haven't found the tale though.

Omnibus?

He edited a science fiction omnibus, but there's only 2 of his stories in there. I seem to remember it was an audiobook, though of course it's got to be in print somewhere as well.

Why is there an internet movie database, but no internet story database?

Ok, I think everyone can see now there's an interest from many of us here in having a forum for men.

Now we'll see if Alex and his staff are taking our request seriously or if they're just mocking us.

His staff can't do anything about making a subforum, only Alex can since he's an administrator. Making this discussion sticky is about the most the mods can do.