Talk:Danny Dunn

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	Literature Portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Novels, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to narrative novels, novellas, novelettes and short stories on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit one of the articles mentioned below, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and contribute to the general Project discussion to talk over new ideas and suggestions.
Stub	This article has been rated as Stub-Class.
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the importance scale.
Assessment comments This article has been rated for quality and/or importance but has no comments yet. If appropriate, please review the article and then leave comments here to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article and what work it will need.

[edit] Archway paperback series

In looking at the pages for the books, all are missing the Archway paperback reprint series of Danny Dunn from the 1970s. I'll have to review my copies at home to make sure I have the right info, then update. These reprinted the entire series and numbered them, but in a different order from the originals. I have all but 2. --emb021

[edit] "New" sci-fi elements

The following text was added to the main article on November 17, 2006:

The series is notable for putting entirely new possibilities in science fiction, such as that a spaceship could be powered by antigravity repulsion(Danny Dunn and the Anti-Gravity Paint) instead of rockets, That invisibility could be acheived by devices, rather than creams or serums(Invisible boy), or that extraterrestrial messages could be transmission picture messages saying that they are coming in peace(Voice from space) rather than being a voiced message saying ... I don't know, "Invasion immenent. Earthlings, prepare to die!!!"

The problem is none of those elements were remotely new. Space propulsion by anti-gravity is almost as old as science fiction itself, featuring in H.G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon. Invisibility devices were a common trope even in the 1920's, and the "shocking" discovery that the message from space was peaceful was already a cliché by the 1940's. --Suttkus 18:31, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

A background theme to many of the Tom Swift Jr books of the 50s was their 'space friends' who they had contacted via radio and help out. They never met, but several of the books had plots that tied heavily to them. --emb021 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 136.182.158.153 (talk) 15:12, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Excerpted in 1960's reading textbook

Excerpts from "Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine" were printed in a 1960's hardcover reading textbook, "More Than Words" that featured science-based stories. The excerpted version was called "Meet Minny" (the name of the computer). The excerpts included Danny trying to use the computer to speed up his homework, but he soon found out that the time needed to program it to do the job kept it from being worthwhile. TDHudson 21:51, 6 February 2007 (UTC)