"Larry Niven - Limits" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niven Larry)

system and to write stories within it. The project was to become a book,
Harlan's World: Medea. When the book appears, Harlan will assuredly tell the
tale of Medea's creation in detail; and so I need not.

But my patience is legendary-read: half imaginary-and I don't write
stories to be read only by an editor. "Flare Time" must be ten years old by
now. I managed to get Harlan's reluctant permission to publish
"Flare Time" in a British anthology, Andromeda, and, some years later, in
Amazing Stories. I took the right to publish it here.


I like bars. Gavagan's Bar, Jorkens and the Billiards Club, the White
Hart, Callahan's Saloon: I like the ambience, the decor, the funny chemicals.
I wanted one for my own.

I wanted a vehicle for dealing with philosophical questions.

I wanted to write vignettes. How else would I find time to write
anything but novels?
 I found it all in the Draco Tavern. The chirpsithra In particular claim
to own the galaxy (though they only use tidally locked worlds of red dwarf
stars) and to have been civilized for billions of years. It may be so. If
confronted with any easily described, sufficiently universal philosophical
question, the chirps may certainly claim to have solved it. Best yet, the
Draco Tavern reminds me of those wonderful multispecies gatherings on the old
Galaxy covers.~


On the subject of limits:

We are the creators. A writer accepts what limits he chooses, and no
others. Often enough, it's the limits that make the story.

And we know it. In historical fiction the author may torture probability
and even move dates around if it moves his main character into the most
interesting event-points; but he would prefer not to, because events form the
limits he has chosen. In fantasy he makes the rules, and is bound only by
internal consistency. In science fiction he accepts limits set by the
universe; and these are the most stringent of all; but only if he so chooses.

One penalty for so choosing is this: the readers may catch him in
mistakes. I've been caught repeatedly. It's part of the game, and I'm willing
to risk it.

I've also been known to give up a law or two for the sake of a story.
I've broken the lightspeed barrier to move my characters about. I gave up
conservation of rotation for a series of tales on teleportation.

You'll find fantasy here too; but observe how the stories are shaped by
the limits I've set. Most of my stories have puzzles in them, and puzzles