As you know, this will be a podcast about exposition which, as you also know, is a method for relaying information to the audience. It’s one of those techniques that’s easy to miss when it works, so we have to look extra close!
Show Notes
- The Planet Construction Kit – Excerpt (scroll down)
- His Majesty’s Dragon, part of the Temeraire series
- Soon I Will Be Invincible
- Old Man’s War
- Terry Pratchett Lives on in the Clacks
- Dresden Files
- In the Pale Moonlight, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- Narrative Roleplaying Games
- The Culture Series
- Should You Show or Tell?
- Neuromancer
P.S. Our bills are paid by our wonderful patrons. Could you chip in?
The think about Terry Pratchett (and Douglas Adams, for that matter) is that they weren’t afraid to do ‘exposition jokes’ (usually in footnotes, but sometimes in the text) where they would explain something that had nothing to do with the story but was funny. Because of this we were much more willing to forgive the exposition because it made us laugh and think about our own world while at the same time explaining a difference that might become relevant later (or might not. Sometimes a joke is its own reward).
Inside Amy Schumer did some great world building slash handling of spec fiction exposition in the time travel sketch –
Future Amy: Amy, it’s me, You. I time traveled from six years in the future.
Present Amy: How does that work?!
Future Amy: I don’t know! How does electricity work? You just pay for it.
https://youtu.be/j5DSSjTeJZE?t=49s (slightly nsfw)