Author Archives: Damien Walter

The MCU are making a pivot. From the super-science hero, powered by scientific discovery. To the super-magic hero, powered by the mysteries of magic. WandaVision and Loki were the build-up. Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness is the pivot point. It’s part of a culture wide obsession with magic, fantasy, escape…and power. A special episode of the Science Fiction podcast asks the question…

…what is the meaning of magic?

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Advanced Scifi & Fantasy Writing
https://damiengwalter.com/advanced-scifi-and-fantasy/

The Rhetoric of Story
https://damiengwalter.com/the-rhetoric-of-story/

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Questions from listeners of the Science Fiction podcast answered by Damien Walter.

00:00:00 Introduction
00:04:47 Will humans and machines eventually meld?
00:12:09 Where to go after reading everything by Iain M Banks
00:17:33 Three underrated, thought provoking science fiction novels?
00:25:36 Is Philip K Dick considered a good writer or more valued for his ideas?
00:27:16 What is William Gibson’s best novel?
00:35:36 Has an NFT ever sold for more than it was bought for?
00:39:21 What is your next story about and when is it coming out?
00:47:40 Why are most science fiction fans on Facebook communists?
00:53:52 How will scifi shape science in the future?
00:58:48 What is the most exceptional medium of science fiction?
01:04:37 Can a story exist without human beings in it?
01:08:33 What are some of science fiction’s constantly recurring flaws?
01:15:50 Has self-publishing contributed to the decline in the quality of science fiction?
01:22:08 What modern science fiction has the power of 1984 / Brave New World?
01:26:30 What do you think about YA scifi and gamelit?
01:30:58 What makes a story believable?

Follow the the Science Fiction podcast and become a member https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/

Advanced Scifi & Fantasy Writing
https://damiengwalter.com/advanced-scifi-and-fantasy/

The Rhetoric of Story
https://damiengwalter.com/the-rhetoric-of-story/

Join the discussion on the Science Fiction community https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197

Read my top science fiction to rewire your consciousness https://amzn.to/3gQqfGR

So. Star Wars just went woke did it?

But…wait…

Isn’t Star Wars the story of a army of male CLONES fighting for an authoritarian, colonialist Empire?

versus

An intersectional alliance of diverse species with capital ships commanded by sentient LOBSTERS???

How much more woke can scifi get?

Er. Star Trek’s original multiracial crew? Marvel’s encoded counter cultural messages? HG Wells anti-colonialist novels? The existentialist skepticism of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley?

The truth is..scifi has always been woke.

00:00 Diamond Disney
04:20 Welcome to the Science Fiction podcast
05:53 The woke mind virus of Elon Musk
10:39 Scifi has always been woke
16:22 The CEF (Corporate Entertainment Franchise)
19:36 Centralized vs Decentralized Culture
22:50 Disney can’t serve both sides of the culture wars
26:51 The only good side in the Culture War is…

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Hard SF begins in the realm of pure logic, extrapolating scientific ideas into credible near futures. But the greatest Hard SF by writers like Arthur C Clarke, Ursula Le Guin and William Gibson weaves stories of poetic beauty.

00:00 Writing Hard SF
01:38 The problem with Had SF
03:51 Thinking about thinking
06:39 What is Hard SF?
10:51 Hard SF : Ideas
12:27 4 stages of ideation
20:23 Hard SF : Toolkit
22:30 Toolkit ONE – Character
26:26 Toolkit TWO – Structure
29:24 Toolkit THREE – Novum
32:10 Toolkit FOUR – Metaphor
34:14 Toolkit FIVE – Symbol
37:05 Toolkit SIX – Subtext
40:52 Toolkit SEVEN – Allegory
43:54 Toolkit EIGHT – Myth
49:08 Toolkit NINE – Theme
50:38 Toolkit TEN – Emotion

Follow the the Science Fiction podcast and become a member https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/

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Read the classic of hard SF https://amzn.to/3jJNWCb

Read my top science fiction to rewire your consciousness https://amzn.to/3gQqfGR

There are many challenges between Denis Villeneuve and completing one of the few truly great science fiction movies ever made. Can Denis capture Paul Atreides transformation of consciousness on screen? Can his Feyd-Rautha compete with Sting stepping out of a steam shower? And most of all…can Dune part 2 overcome the problematic writing of Frank Herbert?

00:00 Play that funky music Denis
02:20 The only great science fiction movies
04:14 The problematic writing of Frank Herbert
06:46 Offences to the purity of Dune
08:02 Can Dune part 2 TRANSFORM our consciousness?
10:16 The Water of Life
11:49 The Fremen
13:21 Chani
14:47 Feyd-Rautha
18:07 The Sandworms of Arrakis

Follow the the Science Fiction podcast and become a member https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/

Join the discussion on the Science Fiction community https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197

Read my top science fiction to rewire your consciousness https://amzn.to/3gQqfGR

Many creators have contributed to the Blade Runner mythos. Philip K Dick’s original novel and the directorial talents of Ridley Scott and Denis Villeneuve are widely recognised. But the screenwriter of the Blade Runner movies provided their mythic magic – Hampton Fancher.

Fancher encoded the Blade Runner mythos with psychological symbols drawn from the work of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. The first Blade Runner uses Freud’s concepts of the Doppelganger and the Other. Blade Runner 2049 is structured around the Persona, Shadow, Anima and Self – Jung’s Archetypes of the Unconscious.

This episode of the Science Fiction podcast re-publishes The Hidden Meaning of Blade Runner 2049, with an extended addendum on archetypal storytelling, answering some of the most frequently asked questions arising from the original essay.

00:00 An addendum to my most questioned essay
01:56 Thank to members of the Science Fiction podcast
04:42 Why archetypes?
06:43 Where does Gandalf live?
09:10 All of these stories are within you
12:29 Switching of the psychological architecture of our self
15:00 Mapping the Unconscious
23:16 Story is the gateway to the Unconscious
26:42 The Archetypes of the Unconscious
34:39 Blade Runner and BR 2049
39:30 The spiritual experience of stories

Watch the original video essay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5fbQ4hf068

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Listen to the storytelling of Clarissa Pinkola Estes: https://amzn.to/36Njm81

In retrospect, TRON was the moon mission for CGI. A project of questionable value in itself, with the real aim of advancing the technology. Honestly, I can’t remember much about the story of TRON. But boy, those light cycles! Those are seared into my long-term memory from childhood. And they still look amazing 40 years on.

Follow the the Science Fiction podcast and become a member https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/

Join the discussion on the Science Fiction community https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197

Read my top science fiction to rewire your consciousness https://amzn.to/3gQqfGR