Reading Aldous Huxley's classic Brave New World I was struck by how utopian his dystopia is. Huxley
does not present a world that is obviously wrong from the inside, since the
inhabitants suffer from the same corruption that plagues their society. It is
only from the perspective of an outsider, or someone imperfectly adjusted to
the system, that one can see just how out-of-sync the society is with human
nature. This makes for an interesting angle and a welcome contrast from other
dystopian fiction where the systemic problems are apparent to all yet the
characters feel powerless to do anything about it. However, from the
perspective of a prediction of the future, Brave
New World comes across as overly optimistic. It should be noted however
that Brave New World takes place so
far in the future (around the seventh century A.F. - After Ford, Henry Ford
that is) that any assignments of optimistic or pessimistic are in truth
entirely useless. All is speculation, beyond that there is little we can say.
From Relativity to Rambling Thoughts
What follows are my own train of thoughts spurred on from
reading Einstein's Relativity: The
Special and the General Theory. I use these ideas as jumping off points
into the highly speculative which is not covered in the book.
In his book, Einstein explains how the special theory of
relativity comes about after taking seriously two positions about the nature of
reality and following both of them through to their logical conclusions. These
are the constancy of the speed of light in
vacuo and that of relativity: the idea that there is no preferred reference
body of uniform motion in the universe, such that the physical laws are
independent of such motion.
Thoughts On: Arrival
Much was made of Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of Ted Chiang's The Story of Your Life. I thought it was OK, but I didn't really
enjoy it as I hoped I would or as enthusiastic reviews had led me to believe I
might. From a science-fiction aspect I found the movie interesting but
unchallenging. Conversations with others after the film led me to believe that
this may be mostly to do with an unusual familiarity on my part with some of
the subjects the film deals with.
Hidden Lore in Avatar
James Cameron's Avatar
is a bit of a forgotten pop-cultural relic. No doubt this will soon change with
the eventual release of Avatar 2 and
subsequent sequels. I say forgotten because outside of its impact at the
box-office and on spearheading the 3D theatre experience, it is seldom
discussed. In an age that has no shortage of big bombastic blockbuster
spectacle franchises, this should not be unexpected. I don't think you can
point to Avatar's lack of
'stickiness', for lack of a better term, in people's minds as a specific
failing of the film in comparison to other franchises. Franchises like Star Wars became popular in a time where
such films were an incredible rarity and more modern franchises like Harry Potter released films in quick
succession after each other at regular intervals. And all of these 'sticky'
franchises had countless merchandising: toys, cereals, lunchboxes, cartoon
spin-offs, etc. that kept them present in the minds of the public. So Avatar's lack of 'stickiness' could
easily be due to its self-imposed hibernation, rather than resulting from any
lacking aspect of the film itself.
But because Avatar
has been forgotten, there has been little digging into the lore of it that
usually accompanies such large spectacle films (although admittedly such
speculation tends to cluster around franchises after they have more than one
film rather than around singular event-style films). Avatar was also saddled with a straightforward story that didn't
give audiences much to chew on after the euphoria of the visual spectacle had
worn off. This has caused many to ask what could possibly be worth exploring in
the world of Avatar to warrant Avatars 2, 3, 4 and 5. However, as with
any nascent imagined universe, there are countless possibilities still out
there and avenues to be explored. In this space I want to pick up on a few
interesting wrinkles hiding just under the surface of the world presented in Avatar that could make the world
potentially worth revisiting.
Game Pitch: Grub
A distant planet.
Two competing species - predator and prey.
An unexpected visitor - man.
Two competing species - predator and prey.
An unexpected visitor - man.
Digital Puppetry: A Star Wars Story
Sat in the theatre watching Rogue One: A Star Wars Story for the first (and still only) time, I felt my stomach lurch as Grand Moff Tarkin appeared on-screen. Viewed only from behind his artificiality was immediately apparent to me - the waxy skin, stringy strands of hair and wholly unconvincing lighting had me worried. Still, seen from behind only at a distance I could argue that I was merely over-reacting, that it wasn't as noticeable as I perceived it to be, and, so long as he never turned around, I could avoid letting it interfere with my ability to appreciate the movie. But I was afraid he was going to turn around, trained as I was on cinema and the inability of filmmakers everywhere to show the slightest modicum of restraint in such things. Hence my stomach lurched. And then, Tarkin turned around.
Star Wars and Adjusted Expectations
Herein I use Star Wars to refer to the entirety of the franchise (the films and ancillary media) rather than the original film from 1977.
When I first learned that Disney had acquired Star Wars from George Lucas I was incredibly excited. Finally the films could break new and unexpected ground free from the shackles of Lucas' very flawed vision. I imagined Star Wars brought to life through the lens of my own preferences, the ideas suggested to me by the early conceptual artworks from the original trilogy. I imagined a dark contemplative fantasy, perhaps exploring the question of why the dark side of the force was seemingly so much more powerful than the light side, hinting at an ultimately evil order at the seat of power. I imagined a minimalist musical score, perhaps haunting electronica, juxtaposed against technology so advanced and ancient that its purpose has been long forgotten. I let my mind run wild, and then I realized the ridiculousness of my thinking and reigned in my imagination. As I reflected on the Star Wars films, I recognized that I did not appreciate them so much on their own as I appreciated what they brought to life visually and what those visuals suggested to my own imagination. I didn't care for the narrative or even the characters, I wanted something closer to Dune perhaps, with some of the aesthetic and production values of Star Wars (or rather, the production values that a Star Wars film could afford). It occurred to me that if those at Disney felt as I did they would not have purchased Star Wars at all. If all one is interested in is the promise of Star Wars then one can go ahead and make their own take on the thing, keep it original and avoid all criticism of straying too far from the proven formula. To purchase Star Wars is to signal a keen interest in what Star Wars is and what it promises. What it is may be many things to many people, but to most certain things are common: a throwback pulp-serial adventure, a pastiche of genres, a classic good vs. evil story, wrapped in the latest filmmaking spectacle and technology. Realistically I had little interest in Star Wars as understood by most of the audience and therefore little reason to be excited by it. So I adjusted my expectations and came to expect little other than repetitions of what had been done with the property before.
When I first learned that Disney had acquired Star Wars from George Lucas I was incredibly excited. Finally the films could break new and unexpected ground free from the shackles of Lucas' very flawed vision. I imagined Star Wars brought to life through the lens of my own preferences, the ideas suggested to me by the early conceptual artworks from the original trilogy. I imagined a dark contemplative fantasy, perhaps exploring the question of why the dark side of the force was seemingly so much more powerful than the light side, hinting at an ultimately evil order at the seat of power. I imagined a minimalist musical score, perhaps haunting electronica, juxtaposed against technology so advanced and ancient that its purpose has been long forgotten. I let my mind run wild, and then I realized the ridiculousness of my thinking and reigned in my imagination. As I reflected on the Star Wars films, I recognized that I did not appreciate them so much on their own as I appreciated what they brought to life visually and what those visuals suggested to my own imagination. I didn't care for the narrative or even the characters, I wanted something closer to Dune perhaps, with some of the aesthetic and production values of Star Wars (or rather, the production values that a Star Wars film could afford). It occurred to me that if those at Disney felt as I did they would not have purchased Star Wars at all. If all one is interested in is the promise of Star Wars then one can go ahead and make their own take on the thing, keep it original and avoid all criticism of straying too far from the proven formula. To purchase Star Wars is to signal a keen interest in what Star Wars is and what it promises. What it is may be many things to many people, but to most certain things are common: a throwback pulp-serial adventure, a pastiche of genres, a classic good vs. evil story, wrapped in the latest filmmaking spectacle and technology. Realistically I had little interest in Star Wars as understood by most of the audience and therefore little reason to be excited by it. So I adjusted my expectations and came to expect little other than repetitions of what had been done with the property before.
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