# Yet another SF Short Story ID thread. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 26, 2016, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-sf-short-story-id-thread/760965 "2016-07-26T18:53:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-sf-short-story-id-thread/760965/1 "2016-07-26T18:53:03Z")
I invoke the famed SF SS identification powers of the SDMB, does anybody remember a story where a lone astronaut lands in a planet where the plants emit some kind of allucinatory effect that makes him see them as women? he ends up er… pollinating them. Also, anybody knows who said something like “A book is an SF book when it says ‘Science Fiction’ in the cover” ? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-sf-short-story-id-thread/760965/2 "2016-07-26T19:35:08Z")
Probably not what you’re thinking of, but the classic “Martian Odyssey” (Weinbaum) has plant-like creatures that can hypnotize animals (and humans) into seeing attractive things. One astronaut sees a famous actress, and is only saved by his alien counterpart. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-sf-short-story-id-thread/760965/3 "2016-07-26T19:46:29Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Probably not what you’re thinking of, but the classic “Martian Odyssey” (Weinbaum) has plant-like creatures that can hypnotize animals (and humans) into seeing attractive things. One astronaut sees a famous actress, and is only saved by his alien counterpart. Nope, It wasn’t “Martian Odyssey”. The protagonist had an FTL space ship, and his name was (I think) Randy. ---
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-sf-short-story-id-thread/760965/4 "2016-07-26T22:20:23Z")
Could be \* The Pollinators of Eden \* by John Boyd ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-sf-short-story-id-thread/760965/5 "2016-07-26T23:05:34Z")
> [@Damfino](#): > > Could be \* The Pollinators of Eden \* by John Boyd Nope, it was short story, nothing like novella length and it was a somewhat comedic story. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-sf-short-story-id-thread/760965/6 "2016-07-26T23:20:34Z")
Bit of a stretch but “Child of Mind” by Norman Spinrad has the plants but instead of hallucinations, they summon up “actual” women, tailor made to the fantasies of the three crew members. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-sf-short-story-id-thread/760965/7 "2016-07-27T11:04:35Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > I invoke the famed SF SS identification powers of the SDMB, does anybody remember a story where a lone astronaut lands in a planet where the plants emit some kind of allucinatory effect that makes him see them as women? he ends up er… pollinating them. > > Also, anybody knows who said something like “A book is an SF book when it says ‘Science Fiction’ in the cover” ? Norman Spinrad said “There is only one definition of science fiction that seems to make sense: ‘Science fiction is anything published as science fiction.’” And I’d have guessed it was _The Pollinators of Eden_ as well; maybe there was an earlier short story Boyd expanded? ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-sf-short-story-id-thread/760965/8 "2016-07-27T14:21:44Z")
Definitively not “The Pollinators of Eden”, there was just one astronaut, I remember the story had a comedic tone, and in the end he gets rich by planting “gardens” in different worlds and selling the plants “services”, he gets called “Randy green fingers” and it’s implied that there is a coarser version of his nickname where what is green is not precisely his fingers. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-sf-short-story-id-thread/760965/9 "2016-07-27T14:36:43Z")
But in either case, he’s still Randy? ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-sf-short-story-id-thread/760965/10 "2016-07-27T14:46:58Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > But in either case, he’s still Randy? I don’t know, how randy can he still be after all those hard years of pollinating? ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2025, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-sf-short-story-id-thread/760965/11 "2025-08-10T18:33:57Z")
Found it! it’s **Planting Time** by Peter Adams and Charles Nightingale, I read it as “Epoca de Siembra” in the spanish language version of Brian Aldiss anthology “Galactic Empires, vol I” in 1986 or so. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2025, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-sf-short-story-id-thread/760965/12 "2025-08-10T19:49:22Z")
Damon Knight once said that science fiction is what I point to when I say “this is science fiction.” Samuel R. Delany once pointed out that this was the only accurate definition since it’s impossible to come up with one that includes all you consider science fiction while excluding everything you don’t think is SF. ---
**Author:** ![Reno\_Nevada\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecc23a/32.png) [@Reno\_Nevada\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada_Jr)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-sf-short-story-id-thread/760965/13 "2025-08-12T22:44:22Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Samuel R. Delany once pointed out that this was the only accurate definition since it’s impossible to come up with one that includes all you consider science fiction while excluding everything you don’t think is SF. Well, and if _I_ came up with such a definition, it would certainly not work for _you_. Somebody out there thinks _Lord of Light_ is science fiction, and somebody else thinks it isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-sf-short-story-id-thread/760965/14 "2025-08-12T22:49:13Z")
Yes. Because, as Chip said, there can’t be a definition that includes everything you consider SF and excludes everything you don’t. I personally use the definition that “Science fiction is a form of fantasy that assumes the fantastic events have a ‘scientific’ explanation.” But some people get very upset if you suggest science fiction is a form of fantasy at all. And I’m sure there are counterexamples to my definition. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-sf-short-story-id-thread/760965/15 "2025-08-12T23:07:38Z")
Science fiction and fantasy are certainly akin, and both (along with alternate history) fall under the umbrella of speculative fiction. But the line between the two can certainly be blurry. Key, I think, is to not regard the classification as one or the other to be pejorative. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-sf-short-story-id-thread/760965/16 "2025-08-12T23:34:15Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > But some people get very upset if you suggest science fiction is a form of fantasy at all. The vast majority of science fiction is fantasy. Which leads to so many people today believing that many of the pure fantasy elements could or might happen some day. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2025, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-sf-short-story-id-thread/760965/17 "2025-08-12T23:53:23Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > Found it! Congratulations! ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-sf-short-story-id-thread/760965/18 "2025-08-13T00:05:37Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > I personally use the definition that “Science fiction is a form of fantasy that assumes the fantastic events have a ‘scientific’ explanation.” That’s not definition too, but I agree that there are probably counterexamples. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-sf-short-story-id-thread/760965/19 "2025-08-13T00:16:00Z")
> [@Reno\_Nevada\_Jr](#): > > Somebody out there thinks _Lord of Light_ is science fiction, and somebody else thinks it isn’t. You had to poke that scar, didn’t you!?! That is one of my absolute favorite books of all time and while I agree that it straddles the line (I would call it science fantasy), what I can’t stand is: I CAN’T GET IT ON KINDLE! I find it increasingly difficult to read paper books, but I recently gave my copy to ZakSon and I want to reread it to refresh for the inevitable questions, but the Universe has told me “NO”. 😡 ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2025, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-sf-short-story-id-thread/760965/20 "2025-08-13T00:19:15Z")
I think that’s always been true (both parts) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-sf-short-story-id-thread/760965.md?page=2)