Re: Science Fiction

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Greetings, all.

Yes, Vonda McIntyre is the author of the Starfarers series.

Along those lines (futuristic anthropology as connected to alien contact):
A.C. Crispin's (co-authored with various people) "Starbridge" series
about a school that trains beings of many different species how to be
"interrelators," that is, communicate with different species (and act as
diplomats in some cases). Excellent series. Very anthropological (in a
good way).

Note: it seems to me that many sci fi books worth their salt would likely
expand the function of anthropology and likely give it a new name (or
subsume it under another field altogether). So I think that both the
Starfarers and the Starbridge series are useful even though they don't
use the word "anthropologists" (well, given the meaning of "anthro" it
just doesn't fit outside of the human species, right?) or even fit
exactly into our present-day perception of the work that anthropologists do.

On Tue, 22 Nov 1994, Cal Eastman wrote:

> hmmm SF (speculatoive fiction, or sci-fi) is at its best when it ask what
> why and maybe.... its is the fiction of exploration of ideas... a sort of
> narrative philosophy...
>
> anthor in sf:
> i just read teh starfareres series by , damn..i cant recall her name..its
> late and ive lent the books out) but its a four book series, with one
> character who is an alien contact specialist...of course as this is
> humanitys first contact, she doesnt have a lot to work with in terms of
> theory, but it is very anthro in flavor...
> o yea her name is vonda mcintyre (i think)
> peace
>
> Boom shiva
> mahalinga nataraj
> :)
> (puffiness 4evah)
>

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