Conversation

A storytelling technique some SF writers seem to use is narrative-only world-building. Everything is either an unexplained atom or has minimum viable narrative structure (conflict, climax, ascent/descent). Even if it is nominally pure exposition like encyclopedia entries.
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Douglas Adams makes a little unnecessary story out of say the babel fish causing wars. He’s narrative-only. By contrast, Frank Herbert too has encyclopedia outtakes as chapter heads but they read like history excerpts without stories always attached.
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