> On 13 Dec 2020, at 14:09, Jeff Zeitlin <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Sun, 13 Dec 2020 12:43:36 +0000, Andrew Long <xxxxxx@me.com>
> wrote:
>
>> <snip/>
>
> Yes, it's still on, and yes, it's been quiet lately.
>
> Question before the house: Consider the SF that you've read: Which
> aliens do you feel are the best examples of what John W. Campbell said
> he wanted in aliens, and how would you describe them in e.g., a
> Contact! article in the old JTAS?
>
> (Campbell is said to have demanded of his authors, "Show me an alien
> that thinks _as good as_ a man, or _better than_ a man, but not _like_
> a man.”)

An invidious task, at best. Those authors who could sufficiently distance themselves from their humanity to do it, mostly found that fans didn’t connect with the alien viewpoint. We *say* we want to be challenged, but do we really? We say that it would be terrible if everyone was the same… well, except for them, over there… and I’m not sure about *them*, either...
However, in no particular order….
Kif
(I’d include K’nnn in the list but we never get close enough to really observe them)
Piersons Puppeteers
Kzinti
Valentine Michael Smith’s Martians (not withstanding the point about K’nnn above, we get to see them through Mike’s eyes)
I’m sure that there must be many more that my age-challeneged brain is slipping over now (Poul and Gordy would have had some; Isaac and Arthur not so much)
I’m afraid that a contact article on any of these is beyond my limited ability to string sufficient words together for.
I find Cherryh’s Compact races to be sufficiently like humanity, but still different to humanity to fool myself into thinking that I might be able to understand them. Mostly theyre’us, with certain character traits exaggerated or suppressed.
SO this bear of little brain is going to retire hurt to the sidelines, and hope to be inspired to some revisits to old favourites after my second cataract operation is done and I can read adequately again.
Regards, Andy

--
Andrew Long
Andrew dot Long at Mac dot com