Review of “The Professional Approach” (1962)
Charles L. Harness (writer), Theodore L. Thomas (writer).
Read in 2022.
Patent prosecution with a “pounding heart”.
This is a rarity: An informed application of real patent law to hypertechnology, in this case a durable form of paper. It’s dull, in part because it actually includes all the cynicism, technical ignorance and naïve speculation of real patent lawyers. The story’s attraction lies in the fact that, rather like The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838), it focuses directly on the literary interface between fantasy and reality, and does a more credible, sfnal job of it.
References here: Accelerando (2005).