Accurate Portrayal Of Frontier Planets
POSTED BY: DakotaSmith
UPDATED: Thursday, June 10, 2004 13:04
VIEWED: 25056
PAGE 7 of 8
Quote:
Originally posted by Zicsoft:
Well, I've never been to Dallas or San Antonio. But I have been to Austin, and it seemed to me that the interpenetration of urban and rural was pretty heavy. And Austin's a fairly big city, with a social and cultural rep that easily as big as Dallas's. I think residents (even urbanites) of a state like Texas might have a greater sense of what rural living is like than does a state like California, where I've spent almost my entire life. We have a rural element too (I think we do more farming and ranching than Texas does) but rural and urban California don't interconnect the same way.
You certainly have a point there. Much like on Firefly, the "Country" in many Texans is more a matter of culture, than anything dictated by necessity. They feel that it is a matter of pride to hold on to that culture, though they, like me, may have lived in large metroplexes all their lives.
For example, it's still a matter of pride for many people in the city to buy a piece of land out in the country. Or a better example might be the owning of a big pickup truck, though they may only drive it to and from the office, guzzling gas. Like Mal's revolver, or Zoe's gun, it's not practical or efficient, but it matters to them.
I guess it might similar to a young Black person affecting an "Urban" way of talking and dressing, though his or her parents may actually be quite successful, like Dion's boyfriend in "Clueless." Working too hard to act and appear lower than they actually were brought up. And when White kids from Nebraska try that stuff, it's even weirder!
Just my dos pesos,
Rex!
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Quote:
Originally posted by Zicsoft:
Well, I've never been to Dallas or San Antonio. But I have been to Austin, and it seemed to me that the interpenetration of urban and rural was pretty heavy. And Austin's a fairly big city, with a social and cultural rep that easily as big as Dallas's. I think residents (even urbanites) of a state like Texas might have a greater sense of what rural living is like than does a state like California, where I've spent almost my entire life. We have a rural element too (I think we do more farming and ranching than Texas does) but rural and urban California don't interconnect the same way.
You certainly have a point there. Much like on Firefly, the "Country" in many Texans is more a matter of culture, than anything dictated by necessity. They feel that it is a matter of pride to hold on to that culture, though they, like me, may have lived in large metroplexes all their lives.
For example, it's still a matter of pride for many people in the city to buy a piece of land out in the country. Or a better example might be the owning of a big pickup truck, though they may only drive it to and from the office, guzzling gas. Like Mal's revolver, or Zoe's gun, it's not practical or efficient, but it matters to them.
I guess it might similar to a young Black person affecting an "Urban" way of talking and dressing, though his or her parents may actually be quite successful, like Dion's boyfriend in "Clueless." Working too hard to act and appear lower than they actually were brought up. And when White kids from Nebraska try that stuff, it's even weirder!
Just my dos pesos,
Rex!
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In response to the ANTI-TRAIN argument.
If we lived on a newly terraformed planet vast distances from each other would you rather have:
A. 1 spaceship which can leave the planet whithout you.
or
B. 1 train which is not going anywhere except where the track is.
If you hijack the train, the train is still there... If you hijack a space ship you are out the goods and the spaceship. It's alot more to lose.
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Great thread, good plost & replys from all of you.
TRAIN ISSUE, Mag-LevTrains are more than possible...
We allmost have spray-on magnets now,
the cost of using a "cheap" road bed, say concrete, & then spraying with a magnet for a train track, would be reasonable in price.
upkeep woule be negligable.
Now all you have to do is propel the train, with the repulsion field cause by the magnets of the same charge overcoming most of the friction & drag.
Easy one.. (much cheaper to push somthing with natural forces doing most of the lifting work than pay for the fule nessisary to lift it off the ground repeatedly.)
AUTOS VS REVOLVERS
Auto = stamped metal. (mostly needs machines)
Revolver = machined metal. (can be done with hand tools)
Just look at the industrys that have been hand tooling guns now, under-developed countrys.
I know in Afganistan during Russia's time there, they had craftsmen hand tooling out Anti-tank rifles, among other things...
Why? No infastructure. Just like a the outer worlds on Firefly.
(good point on the functioning revolvers, that are a hundred years old, wt origional equipment)
Re-loading.
I garuntee that people with very little money would be re-loading their own shells. I've done it myself. Fronteer people would do it because it's practial.
(Btw don't revolvers handle special-(higher wt grain count of gunpowder)-loads better?
On a bulged case (misfire) in a revolver..
If I'm not mistaken you are talking about the case on the brass round. Would that not just make one of the revolver's (shell openings) un-usable? Ooh, so I can only re-load 5 more shots till I get a chance to work on the gun.
Would this not effectively dis-able a Auto?
GUNS IN SPACE
Yes ammo caries it's own oxidizer.
Guns would work about as well in space as they do in the extreme freezing temps, on this planet.
Check out how the Russians, Swiss, & Fins, deal with it. (I'm not shure actually. Anyone?)
In B52's they didn't oil & lube the machine guns, because the lubricant would freese & lock up the guns.
So I would think that a gun that had no lubricant would do fine. The extreme's of temp are really no worse off than what they go through on this planet.
I think that the main problem would be in having it in the sun & then in the shade, so that the metal would be exposed to rapid heating & shrinking.
So Jayne having his gun in a space suit to fire it in vacume makes a certain amount of sence. Jayne uses his gun on the ground. It's lubed so that it will fire under normal circumstances. Jayne put the gun in the suit to protect it from the cold, to keep the lubricant from freezing & locking up the gun.
ON "Retro" CLOTHING
I live in the city, yet I wear Chaps (leather coyboy leg protectors), every day.
I ride a motercycle. Similar needs will be met by similar solutions.
i.e. (The basic design for a spear has not really changed for a LONG d*mm time... you need to poke somthing hard & make it hurt? Put a knife on a pole)
The outdoors, ranching & farm living demand...
(Function over form)
I love the show, I reciently explained it to a gamer friend, it's "A Far-Trader Traveler Game!"
bkb
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Trains vs Planes:
Having only seen the Train Job ep once, perhaps I'm forgetting an important detail. But what makes anyone think the settlements on that planet were particularly far apart? If you were settling a recently-terraformed colony with a few small towns... wouldn't you want to build them fairly close together? In that scenario, I could easily picture a rail line connecting them. Especially if it's a fast maglev-type train.
Revolvers vs Autos:
I can't comment on modern revolvers vs automatic weapons. However, various folks have commented on the charging sound the Firefly weapons make when they fire, like they don't use the same firing mechanism as modern weapons anyway. If that's the case, any comparison to modern weapons in terms of power, craftsmanship, reliability, etc. probably doesn't apply directly.
Note: Rewatching Serenity, I noticed that the weapons in that ep seem to make a traditional gunshot sound when fired, but in later eps they sound distinctly different. Do you think that's something they changed from the pilot, or are they deliberately showing different types of weapons?
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Quote:
Originally posted by TinyTimm:
Elbow length gloves. Incredibly silly but popular.
LOL! Years ago I read in some "behavior" book for young ladies that the lower the bodice, the longer the gloves.
m.
------------------------------------------------
"But ... not boring, like she made it sound." Wash, in ARIEL
"None of it means a damn thing." Mal, in OBJECTS IN SPACE
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I'll be a testy SOB and just come out and say it: The folks that bellyached about the "sci-fi/western" elements being unrealistic and ill-thought out apparently lack two brain cells to rub together to actually think about the issue for a moment, let alone the imagination to just enjoy it for what it is.
I mean, hell, realistic belivability never got in the way of Star Trek or Star Wars.
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Ah. 4-siders. I've got a blue one that I've nicknamed "Ranger Killer" because I roll it frequently when writing Galaxy Rangers fanfic. Each side represents a Ranger, and the dice determines who "gets it" if I can't decide.
Space Western seems VERY familiar after playing in that universe. "Hillbilly talk" in Firefly? After you've heard Jerry "Lenny Brascoe" Orbach let loose with a John Wayne impersonation, Nathan Fillion sounds perfectly normal.
(Gotta wonder if Joss ever watched Galaxy Rangers. Mal and River resemble Zachary and Niko...most of the time it's passing, but sometimes it's creepy).
Fashion...it's part of the look. Most "Space Western" sticks to the combination of fashion and set design, but kinda stops after that. Firefly has a LOT more Western than most of the fusions I've seen, and that's actually pretty keen. Besides, the fusion of Chinese and American looks GREAT.
OK, the rural parts. I so agree with that. If the first poster's grandma has a cell phone, I might be the person who got it running. Landline phones are pricey out there, even with the government subsidies on them. Customers come into our shops often after the competition or landline company tell them that it'll cost them some obscene amount to get basic phone service (not even long distance or the frills)! More than once, I've had the manditory "physical address" read something like "Double-wide trailer three miles off gravel road, two miles south of town hall."
No shit.
Co-founder of the Evil Writing Crew - causing hell, one hero at a time!
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Quote:
Originally posted by Evans:Quote:
Originally posted by TinyTimm:
Elbow length gloves. Incredibly silly but popular.
LOL! Years ago I read in some "behavior" book for young ladies that the lower the bodice, the longer the gloves.
Sounds like a plan to me!
Jeff
Who has silly little fetishes...
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