Kelley,
I just wanted to say I enjoyed Solitaire. It was gripping reading. It annoyed me that I had to put it down to deal with the plumber 😉
Astrid
I’m glad you enjoyed it. Heck, maybe the plumber would like it too. Except she wouldn’t find herself very well represented…
Have you ever wondered why there aren’t more skilled tradespeople in science fiction? You can find a fair number of blacksmiths, etc. in fantasy if you poke around the spaces between the royal folks and the peasants, but there just aren’t that many plumbers and electricians in science fiction.
Okay, I’m being a bit disingenuous, I know — but really, science fiction is all about the übercompetent spacefaring folk, or the übercompetent computer folk, or the übercompetent military folk…. either the on-the-outside individual or someone who is part of a large system. There’s not much middle class on any level of SF these days. I suppose the Fringe or the Sprawl or the Hegemony are much more science fiction’s natural turf, at last in novels — all that irresistible world-building. Short fiction is much more of a playground for other kinds of jobs/competencies/categories…
Solitaire isn’t much of an exception, although at the time it was published there wasn’t a lot of SF out there that posited corporate expertise as the core competency of the hero. Still, Jackal is one of the übercompetent, and she goes from high to low with nary a pause in the middle. So there I am, smack in the mainstream of SF in one way, at least (grin).
So, be kind to plumbers you meet on the way up…?
You wouldn’t want to be kind to my plumber; he is an arsehole; I had to take him to court (and I won!) and now I have to get a restraining order. One of his many sexist sentences were “women don’t understand”, “I don’t discuss plumbing with women”. He was perfectly happy to take money from women though.
I forgot to mention I found the cover of Solitaire interesting. How did that come about? and btw why is it out of print?
Maybe reason no plumbers in SF is because they are so up themselves LOL
When plumbers go rogue…
When I was about 25, a plumber came round to fix the toilet. We got to chatting. He wanted to know what I did for a living. I told him I taught self defence. ‘No you don’t!’ I assured him I did. He picked up his hugest wrench, smacked it into his palm a couple of times, smiled, and said, ‘What would you do if I attacked you?’ I pursed my lips. ‘Left kneecap. Yes, left. I’d break that first.’ He lowered the wrench. ‘Then I’d crush your larynx.’
When he left he didn’t come back. We had to find another plumber.
Hmm. Just a guess, but SF is about the New Thing, the inventor/scientist who makes the Significant Discovery or builds the starship or what-have-you to save the Universe.
Plumbers don’t do that.
But in a way, they really do. Every now and then I get into a conversation with some cultural relativist who goes on and on about some under developed example of “close-to-nature” people and how really we’re no better and probably worse. My first question about the value of such societies is always “What do they do about plumbing?” Usually the response is a glassy-eyed “Huh?”
“If they don’t have a viable system for dealing with sewage, then they can vanish for all I care—and probably will. Disease, you know?”
And that’s like technology, isn’t it?
Seems to me I read a novel all about sewage treatment and such…