As writers we can’t control the real world. At best we can observe it actively. We can control the internal tensions of the aesthetic objects of our making. Any of the “commercial writing tricks” to control reader reaction are a waste of time because they are attempts to control the real world, which is impossible, and distracts from the time spent controlling internal tensions which – while they do not control audience reaction – are the workable points at which it is moored.

Samuel Delaney, in “Quarks”, 1969/1970, p. 32 in The Jewel-Hinged Jaw. Notes on the Language of Scienve Fiction, Revised edition, Wesleyan UP, 2009.