To make this interesting, I will prioritise the toughest questions. The “50k Q&A” is almost a youtube tradition now. As the Science Fiction channel is just a smidgeon away from 50,000 subscribers, this is your invite to ask questions. Questions can relate to any of the video essays or podcast commentaries, to any of ourContinue reading “50k Q & A”
Author Archives: Damien Walter
The 1970s science fiction classic that actually deserves a reboot
Watch the FULL video version on the new Science Fiction (video) Spotify channel : https://open.spotify.com/show/7lMNsoZctViqbqv8atqpK2?si=9a474bb8a9d74147
Why was the 1970s a classic era for science fiction cinema? I’m guessing many 1970s scifi movies are forgotten, by anyone who wasn’t there to see them. Dark Star. Silent Running. Rollerball!
The 70s produced so much great scifi cinema it’s hard to list it all.
And even when it wasn’t great, it was still interesting. It’s like every scifi movie in that decade was a unique experiment, always different, always new. And then one movie came along that ended the golden decade for strange, cool scifi movies.
After Star Wars every science fiction movie was trying to be a scifi blockbuster.
And Hollywood’s search for the next big corporate entertainment franchise meant that everything would eventually get a reboot. Sometimes that worked. And sometimes it didn’t. And it didn’t work enough times that, I for one, live in dread of Hollywood rebooting another 70s science fiction classic. But.
There is one movie from that golden decade which, the more I think about it, actually does need a reboot.
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Watch the FULL video version on the new Science Fiction (video) Spotify channel : https://open.spotify.com/show/7lMNsoZctViqbqv8atqpK2?si=9a474bb8a9d74147
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The 1970s science fiction classic that actually deserves a reboot
Why was the 1970s a classic era for science fiction cinema? I’m guessing many 1970s scifi movies are forgotten, by anyone who wasn’t there to see them. Dark Star. Silent Running. Rollerball! The 70s produced so much great scifi cinema it’s hard to list it all. And even when it wasn’t great, it was stillContinue reading “The 1970s science fiction classic that actually deserves a reboot”
Rings of Power : the corporate forgery of JRR Tolkien
It’s symbolically appropriate that Fake Tolkien returns in 3 days with its lead actor stuffed into a fake hairpiece. It’s difficult to have a discussion about the moral travesty of Fake Tolkien because we live in a time and place where the crime has been normalised. Imagine pointing out a theft in a society whereContinue reading “Rings of Power : the corporate forgery of JRR Tolkien”
Buenos Aires was a false flag
You only need to know one fact to get Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers BUENOS AIRES WAS A FALSE FLAG Yes. The “bug attack” that incited the whole war? THAT WAS NO BUG ATTACK. The Arachnids were waaaaaaaay over on the other side of the galaxy and weren’t doing anything to anyone. The FASCIST government ofContinue reading “Buenos Aires was a false flag”
Total Recall feels like…
For my money Total Recall is the best Philip K Dick adaptation. No doubt Blade Runner is a much better movie. But Total Recall FEELS like reading a PKD novel. Everything is artificial. Hyperreal. Claustrophobic. Paranoid. At least when it’s not busy adding to the body count. On my recent rewatch for The Verhoeven ParadoxContinue reading “Total Recall feels like…”
Literalism
One of the odd things about science fiction, given how far from real it is, is how literally some people take it This is new. Elizabethan audiences watching Shakespeare’s King Lear, or Greek audiences watching Oedipus Rex would all have understood these were not literally stories about specific historical kings but symbolic stories about themesContinue reading “Literalism”
Ken MacLeod on The Culture of Iain M Banks
SF author Ken MacLeod on his lifelong friend Iain Banks.
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The Culture essay MEMBER PREVIEW
The 3 Body Problem, Problem
Does it matter that the Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin is a work of propaganda? I think it does. But it’s going to take 2 hours to explain.
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Dune part 2 is the savior of science fiction
Dune is the Star Wars killer – https://youtu.be/JPOsoph3TCY
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Prof. Elana Gomel on Stanislaw Lem
00:00:57 Introduction
00:03:39 Professor Elana Gomel
00:09:55 Charles Dickens as scifi writer
00:14:17 Stanislaw Lem and The Other
00:18:59 Anti-Humanism
00:22:46 Lem vs the SFWA
00:26:27 Beyond Humanism
00:28:12 LEM and Posthumanism
00:33:37 Fear of the Posthuman
00:38:00 Lem’s criticism of non-existant novels
00:40:41 Lem on AI
00:47:08 Philosophy of Posthumanism
00:51:02 Monster Fantasies
00:54:47 Dangerous utopias
00:58:34 A new mythos of time
01:03:37 Why does Elon Musk like simulation theory?
01:08:08 The dangers of Messianic myths
01:11:09 Darko Suvin and socialism
01:14:24 Communism was oppressive and boring
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Greatest scifi novel https://amzn.to/3GZgL9r
First scifi novel https://amzn.to/41DazgK
Worst scifi novel https://amzn.to/3S045FO
Most overrated scifi writer https://amzn.to/3NIchI9
Damien Walter 