Blog – Damien Walter

Chani vs Chani

So. Why are the fanboys enraged about Zendaya’s performance as Chani? Sean Young’s Chani in Lynch’s Dune is an archetypal “anima”. Basically, she’s the princess that the young adventurer meets on his Hero’s Journey. Zendaya’s Chani ain’t that at all. Put aside all the complex systems fiction stuff, Frank Herbert’s Dune was a bestseller becauseContinue reading “Chani vs Chani”

What is the difference between fantasy & myth?

What is the difference between fantasy & myth? A common response to our discussions of PHM as MPF was “all fiction is fantasy”. One commenter angrily insisted that “Shakespeare is fantasy”. Incorrect. Fantasy fulfills a psychological need for power, eros, status. A lot of fiction is fantasy, but far from all. Shakespeare is the oppositeContinue reading “What is the difference between fantasy & myth?”

Is God better than the alternative

It’s worth noting that Project: Hail Mary is called Project: Hail Mary. After the Hail Mary (American) football pass thrown in the final seconds to a catcher a loooong way down the pitch in a desperate attempt to win the game. Which is the basic plot of Project: Hail Mary but with a starship insteadContinue reading “Is God better than the alternative”

Reviews vs Critique

Critique and reviews are not the same thing. Reviews are marketing for the corporate entertainment complex. Telling you if something is “good” or “bad” is a way of focusing attention on it. Reviews are from the mass media age, when publishers did reviews to attract ad-soend from entertainment corps. I don’t have any interest inContinue reading “Reviews vs Critique”

Becoming K1

It seems likely that humankind does not survive World War 3 It also seems likely that, with war in Ukraine and Russia, Iran and America, Israel and Gaza and more that we have been in WW3 already for some years. In this episode of the Science Fiction podcast recorded in the early days of Russia’sContinue reading “Becoming K1”

Death Star vs Enterprise

It’s in no way a coincidence that the two biggest scifi mythoi of the 20th century both feature a mythic representation of the same aircraft carrier. The Death Star is the nuclear powered American super-carrier CVN-65 that served in the Vietnam war, launching over 13,000 missions in the war that inspired George Lucas to baseContinue reading “Death Star vs Enterprise”

What is the PROBLEM with transhumanism?

We’re exploring The Machine in the new series of video essays on the Science Fiction channel… …and one upcoming essay in that series is Those Transhuman Bstrds : a history of transhumanity. Here’s a little preview. The modern world is built around a powerful mythic image THE MACHINE We think of reality as a bigContinue reading “What is the PROBLEM with transhumanism?”

All warfare is narrative warfare

All warfare is narrative warfare. The tanks and bombs, or drones and robodogs, the explosions and killings, the military dominance and monopoly on violence are all about one thing. Whose story wins. Imagine you woke up tomorrow and everyone around you spoke German and Japanese. White Americans are the underclass. The history youtube channels allContinue reading “All warfare is narrative warfare”

A prize for rats run by cats

So. Why do I not share the excitement of some for a $3.5M prize for an “optimistic” scifi movie? Well it’s not just that I watched Angela Collier rip the piss out of contest sponsor Peter Diamandis for 100+ supplement a day transhumanist plan to live forever. Diamandis is the chief cheerleader of the loonsContinue reading “A prize for rats run by cats”

Scifi For Dummies

Consumer capitalism makes people dumb THE CONSUMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT (as long as they keep consuming) Consumerism tells you that the measure of EVERYTHING is your emotional response Imagine if we did science this way “Einsteinian relativity didn’t work for me, I’ll be sticking with good ol’ Newton” And we ARE doing science this way,Continue reading “Scifi For Dummies”

One man’s utopia…

So let’s talk more about utopia. Thomas More’s Utopia 🤣 Utopia is a very clever pun coined by More. It is a play on the Greek “eutopia” or good place, with the U making the meaning no place. An imaginary good place. And “topia” is also the root of “topic”, the word for an ideaContinue reading “One man’s utopia…”

The mythic king England needed. To steal.

An interesting thing about the Arthurian mythos is that there is no canonical version. Indeed there’s no especially good King Arthur. Arthur has stayed in existence more for political than literary reasons. England and Britain have a very scrappy history. The Celts were hundreds of tribes that didn’t know they were Celts until centuries afterContinue reading “The mythic king England needed. To steal.”