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Q&A How do sci-fi stories hold up if their premise or details become discredited?

I've been playing with the idea of writing a sci-fi story that would resemble those written roughly 50-100 years back: Things we normally would laugh out of court today, like Jules Verne's moon tri...

3 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by Henrygale‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T04:02:14Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/16177
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Henrygale‭ · 2019-12-08T04:02:14Z (about 5 years ago)
I've been playing with the idea of writing a sci-fi story that would resemble those written roughly 50-100 years back: Things we normally would laugh out of court today, like Jules Verne's moon trip, moon people or Asimov's Foundation using microfiche.

I'm trying to understand how and why these stories live up so well, and in the face of new knowledge about the world, they still seem plausible. I'm not sure we're just turning a blind eye for the sake of an entertaining plot or story, as it seems it all fits neatly together (and trying to 'update' them would ruin their internal logic and consistency).

Any ideas on how to achieve this type of suspension of disbelief? And is this a legitimate/plausible exercise?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2015-02-09T23:13:32Z (almost 10 years ago)
Original score: 10