The Importance of Tidal Gradient in Science Fiction

The story that got me first hooked on science fiction was Neutron Star by Larry Niven in which the main character is hired by the puppeteers to take a ship with an indestructible hull. When he starts feeling a pull on either end of the ship and he realizes oh, tides. The ends of the ship are going to because of the steep tidal gradient or gravitational gradient around a neutron star. Oh, that's what tide means. It's not the ocean going up and down. It's the fact that there are things that are affected by gravity differently because of their different orbits. Harrison Bergeron, a dystopian future where everybody who has any modicum of width or