Re: Books (was Re: [Epic] Nukes in Epic universe)

From: A. Allen McCarley <allen_at_...>
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1997 19:28:15 -0600

> Your joking aren't you? The old SciFi pulp novels and even the stuff
> from the sixties use that term frequently. It later replaced by
> "blasters" which allowed hack writers to assume and advanced weapon
> technology without requiring them to be creative enough to invent one.
> Oops! I'm preaching again. Sorry about that.
>
> danlobb_at_...

Are you sure they used the word "lasgun", or was it just "laser" or
even "laser gun?" I remember reading a lot of old pulp novels and
60's literature that used the term laser. This fell out of favor as
more and more of the general public began to realize what a laser
could and could not do, and, as you say, the term "blaster" became
popular as no one really had to define what a blaster was. (Incidentally,
the word phaser was invented because someone pointed out to Roddenbery,
at the last minute, that a laser simply couldn't do what he was asking
it to.)

However, Dune is the only place I actually remember seeing the term
lasgun. If I'm wrong, please correct me. I love digging up and reading
old science-fiction.

By the way, I assume that a lasgun is *not* a laser, since no matter
how much energy you feed back into a laser you do *not* get a
thermo-nuclear blast.
Received on Tue Jan 28 1997 - 01:28:15 UTC