(no subject)

[rozk]

There are a very few occasions when conceit takes me more or less into ecstasy. One of those occured this evening when I was looking for BSG plot summaries and discovered that one of the BSG sites is called Big Dumb Object. This is a critical term I created back in 1981 or so - the consensus seems to be that no-one came up with it before me - to cover the phenomenon of sf novels which were set in a vast artefact which was at once setting and McGuffin, like the Ringworld or Rama.

And look, I find myself saying when people use the term in novels, or for websites, my baby is all growed up and walking in the worlds...

Comments

[gloss]

Having just read all around ringworlds yesterday (Varley's stuff tempted me in a used bookstore), I am *all* over this term. Yes.

Also, it kind of applies to Firefly's Jayne.

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

There's a Wikipedia article about the expression. It doesn't credit you, however.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

How do we address that?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I just edited the page. Whether it will stay edited is another matter - Roz, can you remember which article you used this term in?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Never mind, found the OED cite.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

That's interesting - after I posted that it auto-inserted a link from Roz's name to a page about the Midnight Rose anthologies, which is presumably the only entry that mentions her. Something needs to be done about this...

[rozk.livejournal.com]

The article is called 'Science Fiction in the 1970s' and appeared in Foundation Number 22,

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

So edited.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

Congrats!

[Have you seen Stableford's Historical Dictionary of fantasy? He's run my terms right the way through the book. I don't know whether to feel flattered or freaked.]

[autopope.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to popularize the use of Big Smart Objects (see also Matrioshka Brain, Computronium/Limits to Computation). Must remember to credit you with the original that it riffs off.

[paratti.livejournal.com]

Coolness:)

[bookzombie.livejournal.com]

Didn't realise you were the coiner! I've been using the term for years, most recently in a review of Alistair Reynold's Pushing Ice for Vector.

It's such a usefull term!