Confession: Science Fiction Writer Quiz

[mabfan]

Okay, here's the truth: I'm not actually an answer to the "Which Science Fiction Writer Are You?" quiz.


And here's the story. This quiz is an old meme, which was first developed by Paul Kienitz a few years ago. When he first developed it, a lot of us on SFF Net took the quiz and were amused to find which writer we apparently were. (Most of us taking it were writers.) Only two authors who were actually answers took the quiz, and neither one got himself. (Jerry Pournelle got Robert A. Heinlein, and Gregory Benford got Arthur C. Clarke.)

The actual possible answers to the quiz are:
a: Isaac Asimov
b: Alfred Bester
c: Arthur C. Clarke
d: David Brin
e: Octavia E. Butler
f: Philip José Farmer
g: Gregory Benford
h: Frank Herbert
i: Samuel R. Delany
j: Jerry Pournelle
k: Mickey Spillane
l: Ursula LeGuin
m: Stanislav Lem
n: William Gibson
o: Olaf Stapledon
p: Philip K. Dick
q: Hal Clement
r: Robert A. Heinlein
s: E.E. "Doc" Smith
t: James Tiptree, Jr.
u: Jules Verne
v: Kurt Vonnegut
w: H.G. Wells
x: Cordwainer Smith
y: Ayn Rand
z: John Brunner

Anyway, after I saw the meme show up again in the past few days, I couldn't resist. I emailed Paul and asked him if he would mind if I hacked the answer box, making it look like I had gotten myself. Not only he did say yes, but he helped me figure out how to get the picture to load correctly.



From your comments, a few of you seem to have figured out my joke. I tried to make it clear by putting in the line about having to put the novel on hold to write a short story, but I imagine it was buried enough that not everyone saw it.

For those of you who thought I had really gotten myself as an answer, bless you. I can only wish one day to be as well known as the writers who are really on the list.

As for my real answers: the first time I took it, a few years ago, I got Robert A. Heinlein. Yesterday when I took it again, I got Hal Clement. What this means, I have no idea, especially as the novel I've been working on is a lot more Heinleinesque than Clementine.

Comments

[zmook.livejournal.com]

:-P

I saw the comment about putting the novel on hold, but I just figured that meant the quiz author was particularly well informed. I mean, you have to be pretty nerdy to write a "Which Science Fiction Author Are You?" quiz in the first place.

[terri-osborne.livejournal.com]

Oh, I knew you'd inserted yourself into the quiz when I looked at the URL for the picture. ;)

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Likewise. Given that practically everyone whose posting I saw had posted the result with the link broken, the mere fact that you were showing an image at all was enough to make me check your code.

Thanks for publishing the full list of authors: that's fascinating. I wonder what I'd have to do to be John Brunner? (Just tried again, tweaking a couple of answers, and got Cordwainer Smith: flattering, but no...)

[sdelmonte]

Pournelle must have been hugely flattered that the test tohught he was Heinlein. And happy it didn't think he was Niven. :)

[lisafeld.livejournal.com]

*blush* Next thing you know, I'll be thinking there are three L's in gullible...

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

. . . if I point out that there ARE three L's in "gullible", am I simply gullibly falling for what you're saying?

[lisafeld.livejournal.com]

Aye, that you are. :)

Mickey Spillane?

[cogitationitis.livejournal.com]

What sort of SF writer is Spillane? I usually think of him as a mystery writer.

Re: Mickey Spillane?

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

As far as I know he is a mystery writer. I'm not sure why Paul included him on the list; maybe it just seemed to fit the answers.

[dianora2.livejournal.com]

I had figured as much; the novel line did indeed give it away. You funny.

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

I'd figured it out; I just chastised myself for not thinking of it first. :)

I tend to compare much of my work with Poul Anderson, but alas, he wasn't on the list.

[seborn.livejournal.com]

I should have known something was up just from a random internet quiz spitting back an accurate answer.

wait. If I'm Gregory Benford, and he's Arthur C. Clarke, am I actually Clarke?

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

I didn't think you would have actually taken the time to set it up.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

It actually didn't take that much time; I copied and pasted the code for the real answer, found the pieces in the code that were the picture and the sentence, and then simply replaced them.

The hard part was getting the picture to come out right, so I emailed Paul and he helped me with it. (I wasn't going to do this without his permission.)

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Did you use it anyplace else?

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Nope; I just used it here.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I think getting Hal Clement is about as good a complement as you could get. I miss the guy.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I miss him too. He was a gentleman.