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The Author's Ordeal

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The Author's Ordeal
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First published in Science Fiction Quarterly (May 1957 issue) by Isaac Asimov, this Poem is a humorous take on his writing habits.Presented in AABB rhyming structure, the poem is also a Homage to Sir William Schwenck Gilbert's poetic style. It borrows heavily from "When You're Lying Awake" (also known as "the (Lord Chancellor's) Nightmare Song"), written for Iolanthe. In this work, Dr Asimov declaims about troubles and mistakes that stem from writers being distracted by their incessant need to write. However, bright sides; despite the mess you've left behind, the story has wholly left your mind, and on paper now resides.This poem has been reprinted three times; Earth is Room Enough (1957), The Far Ends Of Time And Earth (1979), and The Complete Stories, Volume 1 (1990).
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Dropped link to PatterSong: Not a Feature - ITEM
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Damsel in Distress
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Damsel in Distress: The Science Fiction outline described by the poem adds a female character explicitly to encourage the male heroes to action, revising the number of crew members to include a woman for the men to rescue.
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Dedication
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Dedication: Dr Asimov prefaces this poem with an apology to W. S. Gilbert.
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Sincerest Form of Flattery
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Sincerest Form of Flattery: The apology at at start of the poem admits that Dr Asimov was imitating W. S. Gilbert when he was composing this poem.
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Subspace or Hyperspace
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Subspace or Hyperspace: In the Science Fiction outline, the heroes use hyperspace to quickly travel between star systems, but find themselves in the wrong galaxy.
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Genius Slob
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Genius Slob: By the time you have finished a manuscript, you'll have lost your car, sense of time and fashion, and convinced everyone that you're crazy.
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The Smurfette Principle
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The Smurfette Principle: Out of the five heroes (no more, no less), one of them must be an attractive (and scantily clad) woman who must be put in danger before the heroes try to escape.
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Another Dimension
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Another Dimension: In the Science Fiction outline, the heroes use hyperspace to quickly travel between star systems, but find themselves in the wrong galaxy.
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Books on Trope
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Books on Trope: Turns the exercise of writing a Science Fiction story into a nightmare of obsession and distraction until you can finally finish the manuscript.
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Second-Person Narration
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Second-Person Narration: "You" are a Science Fiction writer, distracted from day-to-day things like conversations, traffic lights, and other cars by your new story. Getting caught up in the third-person perspective of the story, you cannot escape the obsession until after you've completed the outline, and you "wake up" in complete disarray.
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Homage
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Homage: This poem takes Sir William Schwenck Gilbert's humorous rhyming, drawing upon "When You're Lying Awake" (also known as "the (Lord Chancellor's) Nightmare Song"), written for Iolanthe. It treats the concept of writing as an obsessive need that distracts from mundane needs such as hygiene and conversation, until you hold the completed manuscript in hand.
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Always Male
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Always Male: (Conversational Troping) The poem recommends four male heroes be used (only four and no more), with the addition of one female heroine to inspire them to violence.
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Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!
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Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: In this case, the "shiny" is the new Science Fiction plot in the author's head. It is sufficiently distracting that a traffic accident is caused when you sideswipe another car.
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Humans Are Warriors
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Humans Are Warriors: In the Science Fiction outline described by this poem, humans are powerful warriors, especially when they're trying to rescue their women.
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 The Author's Ordeal / int_c2393191
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Show Within a Show
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Show Within a Show: The poem outlines a Science Fiction plot to show the obsession with writing, to the exclusion of everything else.
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Mars Needs Women
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Mars Needs Women: The sole woman on the team is lusted after by the aliens because she is conventionally beautiful. The poem points out that this needs to be glossed over before the audience realizes that the aliens wouldn't care about her appearance.
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The Madness Place
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The Madness Place: Rather than engineering things that disregard the laws of physics, this poem describes how the obsession of writing can cause the same sort of casual disregard for food, people, and traffic lights. Authors cannot leave until the manuscript is complete.
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The Author's Ordeal

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American Literature (# to D) / int_37d39253
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Homage / int_37d39253
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