Monday, December 06, 2004

Michael A. Burstein's "Seventy-Five Years"

Posted by Trent Walters at 6:15 AM
Mr. Burstein has written a Mundane tale involving a more equitable society through law. He extrapolates what problems might occur with our society if we decided not to reveal census reports over successively longer intervals, with politicians claiming this was in the public's interest when in fact it's personal interest. Burstein draws a parallel to today's copyright problems which have left copyright now perpetually in corporate hands.

"Seventy-Five Years" is not Burstein's best work, I'm sad to say since it is Mundane. In the first scene, little plot or character enter in--what setting there is becomes irrelevant. The ensuing verbal tennis match and one-up-manship carry some interest although the power lies almost too much on one side. Because negligible time is spent on character, the ending doesn't quite come off, but it's still an important message, and I'm glad he's getting out to the public.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Where does this appear?

Martin

12/06/2004 07:09:00 AM  
Blogger Trent Walters said...

January 2005 issue of Analog. Thanks, Martin.

12/06/2004 11:39:00 AM  
Blogger goatchurch said...

I've read it and I think that "Seventy-five years" (which is 5 pages long) is by far the best story in the issue, light though it is. There are some unspeakably bad stories here, in my opinion. Just random garbage with breath-taking cliches. Over and over again, the same old convenient worm-hole star travel devices and self-contradicting technology that never even slightly challenges the structure of society.

If Mundane is worth anything, it's got to be a force that rules out most of these crusty, pointless, decaying cliches of the genre and makes room for some new stuff that's actually got some life in it.

12/07/2004 02:05:00 PM  

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