posted
Back about 7-8 years ago, I decided I needed to get a domain of my own. For a trivial reason, actually: I wanted the username Lisa. That's always one of the first to go, and it irked me. You may notice that I use starLisa here, because I didn't even bother trying Lisa.
I think my first idea was starscape.com. I thought that'd be cool. I'd just read Replay by Ken Grimwood, and there was a movie in it called Seascape, which inspired me.
It was taken. So were the next several. I finally decided on starways.net, which has been my domain ever since.
And then I was rereading Xenocide or Children of the Mind, and I realized that the main governing body of humanity was called the Starways Congress. I figured I must have unconsciously taken the name of my domain from that.
But then I happened across some of my old John Grimes books, by A. Bertram Chandler. And it turns out there's a Starways Congress in that as well.
I know I read the Grimes books first, but I also know that I read the Ender books most recently. So I have no clue where I got it from, or whether I just came up with it because that's the direction I was going in.
I'm curious, though, whether the Starways Congress in the Enderverse is an homage to the one in the Rim books, or whether it was the same kind of coincidence.
[Edited because the book is Replay, and not Replace. Duh.]
posted
Never read any Bertram Chandler, but "Starways" is an easy word to form; in fact, it was probably floating in the sci-fi community ether. I had NO thought that I was doing anything original - in fact, I intended the meaning of Starways Congress to be instantly apprehended. And it's possible I read something that talked ABOUT Chandler's fictions and simply forgot. Fortunately, it doesn't matter, or we'd be punishing people for using the word "robot" because it was first thought of by Capek. <grin>
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
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posted
I like the word "starways". And you're right, Mr. Card, it's pretty easy to form: roadways --> skyways --> starways.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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