What I’m Reading, October 8, 2014

Why Nobody Ever Asks If Irony Has Ruined Science Fiction, Charlie Jane Anders, io9, September 29, 2014

Every few years, there’s another essay insisting that irony is ruining culture. Hipsters and postmodernism have created an insincere world where nothing means anything. But you never hear anybody insisting that irony has ruined science fiction. That’s because irony is part of the creative life-force of the genre.

We tend to talk about irony in terms of a disconnect between a stated expectation and what actually happens — in other words, as a kind of failed futurism. But irony, more broadly, is about dislocation. And the description of types of irony in the introduction to the book Irony in Language and Thought (ed., Gibbs and Colston) seems like it could be a list of science-fictional story setups: “coincidences, deviations from predictions, counterfactuals, frame shifts, juxtapositions of bi-coherences, hypocrisy, etc.”

Anybody who writes about history, and then tries to imagine history continuing into the future in the same bewildering, illogical, bendy fashion is going to bake a certain amount of irony into the cake. That’s partly because storytelling is about humans, who use technology in ways that its creators never expected, and make choices that no rational observer would expect. The law of unintended consequences is fundamental to narrative irony.

The ironic twist is also part of the DNA of SF, from War of the Worlds onwards — H.G. Wells’ disease-ex-machina ending only really works as irony, rather than as straightforward narrative: they’re too big and powerful for us, but in the end they’re unexpectedly defeated by the tiniest of creatures.

Henrique Alvim Correa [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons


Photo credit: Henrique Alvim Correa [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Share

SciFi Glory that Never Was

Via mashable.com

Via mashable.com

I’m actually a fan of David Lynch’s Dune, despite its many flaws. (A lot of people seem to like that Sting was in it, for whatever reason.)

The 2000 television miniseries made up for some of the deficiencies of Lynch’s version, but added in new deficiencies of its own.

The Children of Dune miniseries was much better (I especially liked the Godfather-esque montage at the end of the first episode, with a song in the actual made-up Fremen language.)

Simply knowing that another version of Dune—directed by Alejandro “Free SXSW Hugs” Jodorowsky, designed by H.R. Giger, and featuring Orson Welles as Baron Harkonnen and Salvador-fucking-Dali as Emperor Shaddam IV—could have existed but never came to fruition makes me ponder the value of everything that has happened in human history from that point in the 1970’s onward.

At least there is a documentary about how the movie did not get made.

The movie business is finicky. Remember how Saw had six sequels?

At least Giger went on to give us Alien.

Photo credit: Via mashable.com.

Share

The strangest science fiction film you will ever see

And I’m posting it to my blog!

Since I won’t be blogging for a few days on account of being near a beach, I present Fantastic Planet, or La Planète Sauvage, a 1973 animated film by French animator René Laloux. The trailer is at left, if you don’t want to watch the whole thing. It is, simply stated, a mindfuck (via Wikipedia):

The film depicts a future in which human beings, known as “Oms” (a homonym of the French-language word hommes, meaning men), are creatures on the Draags’ home planet, where they are seen as pests and sometimes kept as pets (with collars). The Draags are an alien species which is humanoid in shape but a hundred times larger than humans, with blue skin, fan-like earlobes and huge, protruding red eyes. The Draags also live much longer than human beings – one Draag week equals a human year. Some Oms are domesticated as pets, but others run wild, and are periodically exterminated. The Draags’ treatment of the Oms is ironically contrasted with their high level of technological and spiritual development.

The movie is pretty damn dark. It opens with a group of Draag children (who are around 50 feet tall) toying with a human female and her baby. Eventually, one of them picks up the woman and drops her to her death. One of the children keeps the human baby as a pet, and, well, you can see where this is going. It’s fair, in my opinion, to call this a science fiction masterpiece, in its own strange way.

(Alternate English and French versions on YouTube.)

Share

In space, no one can hear you scream, still.

By now everyone has probably seen multiple Prometheus trailers. My favorite is actually still the first teaser trailer, which has almost no dialogue and a lot of loud, scary sound effects:

Maybe it just fits with my ADHD.

What I did not realize, until someone helpfully posted it to YouTube, is that the original trailer for 1979’s Alien used the same creepy sound effect, and it is just as scary. I’ve seen Alien dozens of times, and this still creeps me out:

Less than three weeks to go!

Share

Next Stop, Delta City: How Robocop Predicted the Future

Robocop movie poster, Copyright 1987, Orion Pictures [Fair use], via WikipediaPaul Verhoeven’s Robocop (1987) was a stupid, silly, implausible, satirical, strangely-brilliant, unsettlingly-prescient movie about a cyborg police officer created by a corporation angling to take over Detroit’s city government. What’s interesting is that part of that premise might be happening now. What’s disappointing is that it has nothing to do with cyborgs:

Detroit is a city in flux. There are bright spots — pockets of development, a vibrant art scene, sophisticated restaurants, and a growing number of community gardens — but signs of life are overshadowed by miles and miles of blight. Last May, the state turned Detroit’s public schools over to an emergency manager, a businessman named Roy Roberts with a long history in the auto industry and financial markets.

***

Could Detroit become the first major city in America to have all of its public services privatized? Signs are pointing in that direction. The question for those living on the precipice in the Metro Detroit area is whether to stay and turn things around or leave before they get worse.

Continue reading

Share

I forgot a few very obvious “Hunger Games” influences, may the Great Geek God forgive me

I am embarrassed to admit a few omissions from yesterday’s post about influences in The Hunger Games. In order to shore up my geek creds, let’s just go ahead and list them here and pretend this never happened, okay?

The SPOILER ALERT from the previous post remains in effect.

  • Running Man Theatrical Poster [Fair use claimed]“The Running Man” (movie): The 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie offers a disturbingly-prescient view of today’s reality TV lineup, with the only difference, really, being that no one actively tries to kill anyone on actual reality shows today (that we know of). Arnold, as a convicted (but innocent) criminal, doesn’t have much choice but to participate in “The Running Man,” in which he must escape various celebrity “stalkers,” portrayed by real-life sports celebrities like Jesse Ventura (wrestling is sort of a sport) and Jim Brown. If he wins, he gets all manner of fabulous prizes (or does he???) Much like The Hunger Games, the game takes place in a large arena with various resources scattered about. It has a smarmy host who seems kindly but is actually a monster (Richard Dawson, soon to be channeled by Stanley Tucci). The biggest difference is likely to be in the fact that “The Running Man” is very, very ’80s.
  • “The Running Man” (novella): Where the 1987 Arnold movie errs on the side of cheesiness, the 1982 Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman) novella is dark. Dark to the point of being downright cynical. The Ben Richards character doesn’t enter the game because someone coerces him, but because he needs money and really has no other options. Instead of a game arena, the game is played out in the real world in a dystopian future U.S., and in addition to “hunters” tracking him, anyone else can bring him in or kill him. He wins money for every hour he stays alive, and if he can survive for 30 days, he wins the grand prize of $1 billion. Much like The Hunger Games, the “Games Network” is ubiquitous in society, and there is even a mention, after televisions become required in all households, of instituting a requirement that they always be on. In a strange foreshadowing of today’s YouTube culture, Richards must make a video recording of himself every day and mail it to the Games Network. This keeps the audience updated on his doings and, of course, allows the powers that be to track him. In a final bit of foreshadowing, easily the most troubling of all, Richards brings the Games Network down, literally, by crashing an airplane into the Games Building. The novella ends with “…and it rained fire twenty blocks away.”
  • “The Long Walk:” This is another Stephen King book written as Richard Bachman and first published in 1979. It is set in a dystopian alternate United States controlled by a military dictatorship of some sort. Young men volunteer to participate in the annual “Long Walk.” The prize for the last man standing is, essentially, everything. Winners supposedly receive whatever they want, which must be tempting in what is described as a desperately poor and subjugated society. Losers “buy a ticket,” a term whose meaning is not made clear at first (I’m getting to that). The “Walk” starts at the Maine/Canada border and proceeds south for as long as it takes. Walkers must maintain a pace of four miles per hour, monitored by trained soldiers accompanying them on half-tracks. If their pace drops below that, they receive a warning. If they walk for an hour with no subsequent warning, the warning is removed. They get three warnings, and on the fourth warning they “buy their ticket.” The meaning of this becomes clear several hours into the walk when someone on his third warning gets a Charley horse and drops back. Despite his pleas, his ticket is called, and a soldier approaches him, pulls out his carbine, and shoots the man in the head. This being Stephen King, the carbine fires with sufficient power to eviscerate the man’s skull. Of course, all of this is televised. The remainder of the book is a psychological study of (a) the effect of nonstop walking under penalty of messy death, and (b) the factors that would possibly compel people to volunteer for this event.
  • “The Lottery:” A 1948 short story by Shirley Jackson, this may be the most disturbing of all, because it offers no hints at all that it is going somewhere creepy. Early on in the story, it might as well just be a standard small-town America story. Everyone is preparing for a big event, “the lottery,” held every year. The heads of the town’s families draw slips of paper from a box, and the family that draws the slip with the black spot is “chosen.” The members of that family draw slips of paper again, and the person who gets the one with the black spot wins, so to speak. The rest of the town then stones that person to death. It is fair to say that, based on the tone of the rest of the story, the reader does not see this coming.

I’m heading to the “Hunger Games” movie in a few hours. I’ll let you know how it is.

Photo credit: Running Man Theatrical Poster [Fair use claimed] via Wikipedia.

Share

Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease may “Prometheus” be good…

The official trailer for “Prometheus” came out last week, and I must admit that I am very excited.

The initial teaser trailer, released on December 22, 2011, was like brain foreplay for fans of the original “Alien”:

The “official” trailer came out last week to the collective squee of millions:

Finally, the “international” trailer pretty much rubs the awesome in our faces:

I have to allow for the possibility that this movie will not be good, or that it even might suck. Ridley Scott might have given us the original “Alien” and “Gladiator,” but he also gave us “Robin Hood” and “Hannibal.” I’m enough of an “Alien” fan, though, that I even went public with my excitement about Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, a film that took two incredible science fiction icons and turned them into a slightly higher-budget Jason Voorhees.

“Prometheus” has a remarkably solid cast, probably the most solid of any film in the franchise since the original. I’m not a fan of Michael Fassbender (he gets on my nerves for some reason), but I can’t deny the guy can act. I’m glad to see Noomi Rapace get a chance to reach a wider audience, especially now that most Americans picture a different actress when they think of Lisbeth Salander. I will watch anything with Idris Elba in it, just sayin’.

Of course, I am assuming that “Prometheus” actually is a prequel to the “Alien” movies. The director and producers have been extremely coy about that issue. Anyone who has seen the original “Alien” will recognize the derelict ship and the Space Jockey’s chair in the new trailers. Then again, that last Aliens vs. Predator movie seemed to want to set up the Predators as the race that piloted the derelict, although it could have been an homage. I suspect “Prometheus” will pull a reboot and ignore the AvP movies entirely (and justifiably). The project began with the idea of a prequel telling the story of the Space Jockey’s race, and that appears to be where this film is headed.

I can delve more into the “Alien” films, but for now just enjoy the anticipation of “Prometheus.”

Also, “enjoy” might not be the right word for this, but marvel that someone actually took the time to compile all the “kill scenes” from the first four films:

Spoiler alert: although I disagree with the math, they find the total score to be Aliens 53, Sigourney Weaver 17.

Share