atw: Re: "Sturgeon's Law" - Word of the Day from the OED

I don't think Sturgeon (a science fiction author) meant it as a
proclamation. In a later interview he referred to it semi-humorously as
Sturgeon's Revelation:

   "... which was wrung out of me after twenty years of
   wearying defense of science fiction against attacks of people
   who used the worst examples of the field for ammunition,
   and whose conclusion was that ninety percent of sf is crud."

His point wasn't the sour one that 90 percent of everything is rubbish. He
meant that it's unfair to judge any field (books, movies, TV, technical
manuals, shareware) by its worst examples. It's the excellent 10 percent
that matters.

Stuart

austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 21/02/2006 10:44:23 AM:

> I'm surprised that's not called Nielsen's law - he has a proclivity to
> proclaim in those terms.

**************************************************
To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to 
austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to 
austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject field.

To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 
"unsubscribe" in the Subject field.

To search the austechwriter archives, go to 
www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter

To contact the list administrator, send a message to 
austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
**************************************************

Other related posts: