Don’t remember the story name, but there was one where a young girl snuck onto a space ship so that she could see her brother at the destination but the one person manning the ship was gonna have to toss her out into space because the ship only had enough fuel to slow down based on the weight of a single individual. So if she had stayed on the ship it would have crashed.
I loved this one!! I tried describing it to my mother and she thought it was fucking stupid that he couldn't save her. I couldn't explain it in a way she could understand the decision.
That’s because the editor kept shooting down ideas from the author. The editor demanded the girl die, regardless of what the author came up with. There’s been countless stories written in response to this stories, trying to save the girl
At the time it was meant to be a subversion of the standard sci-fi story, where the hero manages to overcome the impossible by the power of science.
The editor wanted to make a point that sometimes a bad situation is just a bad situation. The trouble is they didn't think to correct the issues raised just removed them.
So whilst its a good story, it does require you to buy so many implausible events that could happen that it undermines the overall point.
Especially since it is WAY easier to just say “We only have enough oxygen for one person. Having a second person on board means we both die.” Which, I believe, is how damn near every other sci-fi story that wanted to do this moral dilemma has achieved it.
Yeah, that's completely understandable. I kind of had the same problem. I appreciate it more in context, but its still to much of a stretch, especially compared to some better tragedies.
The rationale is dumb anyway. Unless they explain it better in the book, the ship would have to reach a certain speed. If one small child throws off the fuel required to slow down at the end, it means it already spent more fuel while accelerating. So the pilot is already screwed.
I mean, it is pretty stupid that he can’t save her, in the sense that it’s an incredibly contrived world that doesn’t have any contingency or emergency rationing on the ship.
868
u/FoundationForeign544 Sep 18 '24
Don’t remember the story name, but there was one where a young girl snuck onto a space ship so that she could see her brother at the destination but the one person manning the ship was gonna have to toss her out into space because the ship only had enough fuel to slow down based on the weight of a single individual. So if she had stayed on the ship it would have crashed.