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"One could imagine a very ascetic sort of life ... where the body is ignored. This is something I've played with in my books, where people hate to be reminded sometimes that they have bodies, they find it very slow and tedious."
- William Gibson
 |
| Space-Tanned | ||
| The characteristic darkening of the men of the spaceways. |
As far as I know, this is the first use of this phrase.
| Hilary’s space-tanned features hardened; the light gray of his eyes darkened. |
| From Slaves of Mercury,
by Warren Hammond. Published by Astounding Stories in 1932 Additional resources -
|
If you find yourself present at a murder on a space ship, you might well be brought before the captain - a space veteran who has spent many hours gazing out the glassite windows of his ship, exposed to the ravening electromagnetic radiations of the spaceways. As in Edmond Hamilton's 1936 story Murder in the Void:
There is another illustrative use in Static, a short story by Kent Casey in May, 1938 Astounding:
(For those who don't know, a "shavetail" is a newly minted second lieutenant, deriving for the word for a newly broken-in pack mule.)
Edmond Hamilton used a variant on this idea in his 1940 story Revolt on the Tenth World:
When they entered the lighted cabin of the craft, which was crowded with piled sacks and metal cases, a wiry old Earthman got up, stretching and yawning. His sparse hair was pure white, his face bronzed and seamed like leather by long exposure in space to unsoftened radiation.
By the time Robert Heinlein uses it in his 1941 novel Methuselah's Children it has lost its hyphen - see space tanned.
On the other hand, maybe Venusians tan more easily than Earthmen...
Half an hour later, in the captain's office, the veteran, space-tanned Venusian who was master of the Vulcan faced Rab Crane.
Young shavetails* - hadn't even got a space tan yet - insisted on being chummy...
Jimmy Crane’s voice was hoarse with passion, his worn, space-bronzed young face quivering...
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| Spaceships Should Last So Long |
| Space Station Shutters |
| MIT Proposes Space Bubbles To Combat Climate Change, Misses The Point Of Space Bubbles |
| Study Reveals Effect Of Space Travel On The Brain |
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'... the two pairs of waldoes in the screen followed in exact, simultaneous parallelism.'
'THE SPACE VESSEL was traveling swiftly… For over five thousand years they had Voyaged on and on.’
'They circled the vast audiences, dancing, twittering, chirping...'
'The sun-quilt was a patchwork of colors and materials on the inward side, but silvered on the outward side...'
'Jim, I saw them reduce four of my doctors and nurses into those little cubes!'
'Fats Jordan was hanging in the center of the Big Glass Balloon, hugging his guitar to his massive black belly above his purple shorts..'
'When confronted by hills, or rough terrain, it did not stop, but simply slowed until the task demanded equaled its steady power output.'
'... the brain is no longer subjected to the accustomed pull, and it expands slightly in all directions.'
