Talk:Cities in Flight

Stargate Atlantis
I think the connection between his flying, space bound cities is definitely a source of inspiration for the city-ships of the ancients, the picture of them on the book cover looks strikingly like the TV series depiction and this should be notable enough for mention. --Preceding unsigned comment added by Robert Waalk (talk o  contribs) 01:34, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

history scheme (Spengler)
this article totally ignores the historigraphic nature of the the planning of the books * which is explicit in the appendix * the novels trace historic trends that are closely analogous with actual events * 184.74.94.228 (talk) 21:58, 24 August 2013 (UTC) grump

Plot summary of 'Earthman, Come Home'
I just read the book and the plot summary presented here seems to be a bit jumbled up. But then again, it points out differences in different versions of the novel, so the plot may actually be correct for a different version from the one that I read (SF Masterworks).


 * NY was never part of the march on earth; it just steered the planet through the system and was instantly carried further away due to its immense speed and momentum
 * the special escape-decive was not used in the battle at earth but before, after NY could not pay for repairs and right before ending up in the jungle
 * the part where NY installs spindizzies on He occurs in the middle of the book, before the jungle
 * I might be wrong, but I think NY went to the Smaller Magellanic Cloud, not the Greater

Again, it's well possible that the plot is correct for other, or the original version of the novel (or its constituting short stories). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.149.232.211 (talk) 14:07, 30 September 2016 (UTC)

Bindlestiffs/ bindle stiffs
Bindlestiff is used here to refer to a city that robs or otherwise attacks another city - like a hobo robbing another hobo's bindle, and is considered here to be anathema. New York (technically) becomes a bindlestiff when they deliberately collide with (IIRC) "Lincoln-Nevada" (the Vegan Orbital Fort) to prevent it attacking Earth. In what articles I've seen on hobos, it seems to just mean a hobo that uses a bindle, with no negative connotation, but in Time Enough for Love, Heinlein has the protagonist pretending to be a hobo (and seemingly having spent time as one, from his familiarity with it), and discretely disposing of his original clothes once changed into local ones, as he doesn't want to be taken for a bindle stiff. Anyone got any info on this? Philculmer (talk) 08:39, 10 September 2017 (UTC)

technology list
Should include the 2D explosives (where the blast force spreads only in a plane), used in the Acolyte city graveyard... AnonMoos (talk) 09:58, 25 February 2020 (UTC)

End of Universe
The article says "in other words, the colliding universes will end in a transition in between the Big Bang and Big Crunch." This is poorly written. (a) The transition must be the other way around. (b) The notions of Big Bang and Big Crunch don't seem to be accurate descriptions of a collision of universes. Zaslav (talk) 18:16, 10 July 2021 (UTC)

Merge from Spindizzy
I've serious concerns whether Spindizzy is notable enough for a stand-alone article; my BEFORE shows a few mentions in passing but nothing very substantial. Instead of trial by fire at AfD I'd suggest merge and redirect this here. Thoughts? Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 07:46, 2 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Ping User:Daranios, User:TompaDompa, User:Mark McWire, feel free to ping anyone else you think may be interested. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 11:22, 23 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Hello! I've no opinion on merge/keep yet after a first look, but thanks that we are doing this in the form of a merge rather than a deletion discussion. "The Rise and Fall of Gyro-Gravity" seems somewhat significant to me and does not lend itself for a merge all that well, linking the spindizzy to real-world, if likely flawed, experiments. "Cities in (White) Flight", on the other hand, has short, but in my view not insignificant treatment, as it compares the use of the spindizzy in the novel to real-world societal developments; but in way which could be covered here in Cities in Flight just as well as in a separate spindizzy article. Daranios (talk) 14:42, 23 December 2021 (UTC)
 * I would, if a merger is needed, the article Spindizzy merge with Heim theory or Anti-gravity, since its a description of a fictional application of this physical concepts. --Mark McWire (talk) 10:21, 24 December 2021 (UTC)
 * I would probably just have merged it here WP:BOLDLY myself (and brought it to discussion only if challenged, since it seems to me that it shouldn't be particularly controversial). I don't see Heim theory or Anti-gravity as appropriate merge targets unless WP:Reliable sources on those particular topics make specific references to the Spindizzy. TompaDompa (talk) 14:01, 25 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Support merge as initially proposed; Cities in Flight provides context for Spindizzy, which is not sufficiently notable outside of the series. Klbrain (talk) 13:30, 27 February 2022 (UTC)
 * ✅ Klbrain (talk) 08:39, 1 October 2022 (UTC)