Jottings on science, religion, technology, pop culture and faith from the Antipodes.
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Way, way back as a kid I can remember us owning a couple of the “Terran Trade Authority” books that were packed full of space opera concept art and historical vignettes that tied them all together. (see here also). The best work in the books was, IMHO, that of Peter Elson (some of whose images you can see here)
Anyway, this nostalgic ramblimg was all brought on by this When Space Opera Becomes Art - space opera - io9.
Every now and then something like this comes along while you’re teaching a course on the same thing. Will be pointing students in the Bible in Popular Culture course over here - The Most Exalted Star Wars Religious Art In The Universe.
The New Yorker had short article looking at seven fantasy books you might read after finishing off the well-known staples of Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. You can find the list at Seven Essential Fantasy Reads: Going to Second Base: The Book Bench : The New Yorker. (As an aside, I think I’ve read all of these, apart from “The Name of the Wind” which I’ll go an hunt down).
Setting up a ‘definitive’ list of books or an anthology can be a fraught process though. For example, see the recent reaction to ‘The Mammoth Book of Mindblowing Science Fiction’ (see also: Making Lists: Mindblowing SF by Women and People of Color).
I grew up reading anthologies of science fiction short stories and novellas, which instilled in me a love of tight, well-crafted speculative narratives - something I think has been lost in the grand multi-volume epics churned out by publishers now which seem to pad much of their stories with ‘character development fluff’ (yes, I’m talking about things like the Safehold series). And I love space opera as well as hard science fiction.
So I’m in rapture over the local public library taking my suggestion and acquiring both "The New Space Opera" and "The New Space Opera 2". Picked them up yesterday and thoroughly enjoying them.
Some random pop culture links while I’m clearing out browser tabs.
Firstly, I’m really wondering how this comic book crossover is going to work. ‘Truth, justice and the American way’ and American superhero icons meet THE 99, a comic book which aims to provide Muslim and Arab youth with culturally-relevant heroes whose superhero strengths, actions and virtues personify each of the 99 qualities that Muslims believe are the attributes of God.
More details at:
Secondly, an interesting short article on vampyr lifestyle - see Fangs for the memories - Religion and beliefs - NZ Herald News
Thirdly, Evangelicals In the Star Trek Universe | internetmonk.com (HT to James at Exploring Our Matrix.
And lastly, My iPhone’s bigger than yours - cartoonist Michael Leunig’s take on technology.
I’ve been reading this book over the past couple of days. So far I’ve read the Stargate SG-1 and Babylon 5 essays, both of which are useful summaries. Looking forward to next essay.
A couple of Star Trek links. Pondering when to go myself.
I thought this was very good - a virtual reality love story.
See also YouTube - World Builder (high quality)
Similar in some ways to Grek Pak’s Robot Stories.
Interesting list over at Rant: The 7 Deadly Sins Of Religion In Science Fiction. For all the interesting things people do with religion in science fiction there are some real clangers.
I love anthologies of science fiction short stories - a chance to read new stories by familiar authors, as well as the opportunity to find out about new authors to follow up at the library. Just reading "Year’s Best SF 11" by David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer which was published back in 2006, and really enjoyed the following stories.
A Case of Consilience by Ken MacLeod intentionally picks up on James Blish’s pondering of religion in outer space in A Case of Conscience (See Greenflame: Books from Blogs). You can read it over here.
Secondly, David Langford’s New Hope for the Dead deals with the issue of transhumanist uploading - and more particularly who pays for that, a point I rarely/never see written about in their literature. Again, you can read the story over here at New Hope for the Dead.
I’ve been reading Investigating Firefly and Serenity: Science Fiction on the Frontier edited by Rhonda Wilcox and Tanya Cochran on the train in the past week or so. Some really interesting essays on different aspects of the Firefly universe and well worth a look if you’re interested in looking how people from different disciplines might engage critically with a TV show like this.
I’ve also been reading Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale edited by James South and William Irwin. Again, some interesting material in there.
One thing that comes through from time to time though, is the sense that the occasional author is so caught up in the constructed world that they engage more with the characters as ‘real people’ rather than with the people (directors, writers, actors etc.) who shape that world. A problem perhaps for anyone writing about something they care about deeply.
That said, I’ve asked the library to order Finding Serenity: Anti-Heroes, Lost Shepherds and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon’s Firefly and Serenity Found: More Unauthorized Essays on Joss Whedon’s Firefly Universe.
Right.
Fernando’s post Fernando’s Desk » Why Joss Whedon Is a Better Theologian than Most Bloggers and Preachers linked through to Ryan Torma’s blog (ryan torma: Firefly & Faith) which in turn linked through to Cowgirl Jazz’s blog with lots of Firefly material and to Ryan’s own article “Seeking Serenity: Creating spaces for theological dialogue between churches and young adults through the Joss Whedon television series Firefly and film Serenity“.
Further chasing of links lead to:
Which in turn reminded me of:
And I’ve gone through the blog and now put everything Firefly and Serenity related into a new “Firefly” category with links to resources relating to Firefly, reviews, comics etc.
Has anyone read "Aliens Are God’s Children Too" by J.J. Stewart? Sci Fi Catholic notes in A Little Bit of Christmas… that there’s a sample chapter available at Aliens Are God’s Children Too: Christmas on another planet.
I’m tossing up setting an essay on what the implications for religious faith might be in the face of potential discoveries of extra-terrestrial life, so the idea’s sort of floating around in my head at the moment. (Either that or it’s a side effect of too much Christmas cake eaten with strong blue cheese.)
I’ve just finished (and quite enjoyed) Walter Jon Williams’ novel “Implied Spaces”. Again, it’s a mix of nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, virtual immortality, as well as some stuff relating to discussions about the anthropic principle. (See also Counterbalance’s The Anthropic Principle video material (Real Player, I think)). Plus, it’s got some theological speculation thrown in.
Anyway, in the novel Williams posits the idea of ‘implied spaces’. Drawing upon architecture and the design of virtual worlds this argues that the constraints applied to the desired design produce implied or unforeseen design artifacts. For example, if you want to build a building with a dome that’s supported by arches that will produce certain kinds of spaces in that building as a side-effect. Moreover, this is apparent when designing virtual worlds. If you’ve ever been involved in world-building, say for a role-playing game or simulation - then there are particular ’spaces’ that exist between ’spaces’ that have intentional, focused design in them. And these implied spaces might demonstrate new or interesting landscapes when stuff ‘leaks’ into them from outside or by the constraints that have been applied to them.
Where this is all going is some fairly loose theological thoughts. What implied spaces do we generate in our theologizing? What is created in the spaces between doctrines, for example? And what new theological landscapes need mapping as we seek to link different reflections upon faith and life? And what might we find already there if we do this exploration? What might have leaked from the nice, categorised, and safe(?) landscapes that have been developed over time into these implied spaces?
James points to a number of links over at Exploring Our Matrix: Religiously-Inflected Science Fiction. Of note are:
To which we can also add The Sci Fi Catholic: Sci-fi Essay at First Things pointing to FIRST THINGS: On the Square » Blog Archive » Reel Aliens.
Related links: Greenflame · Science Fiction
I’ve always loved science fiction, but I really, really love space opera. Whether that’s on TV, in the movies, in comic books or novels or short stories, there’s nothing quite like curling up with something like that on a Sunday afternoon or on the train on the way home from work.
So I’m really enjoying Neal Asher’s Polity series with it’s space ships, artificial intelligence, cyborgs, alien invasions, political intrigue, biotech etc. etc. etc. It’s probably on the fringe of moving from space opera to more serious science fiction given some of the deeper themes in it in places, but that’s not a problem. Some of the transhuman and posthuman themes in it intersect with those of Alistair Reynolds
Ah, WarGames. I loved that movie when it came out, but can’t really believe it was 25 years ago. Probably one of the things that influenced my computer science studies a few years later. Here’s a write up on the movie as it hits its 25th anniversary. See WarGames: A Look Back at the Film That Turned Geeks and Phreaks Into Stars
After listening to Steve’s presentation on River as a Christ-figure in the movie Serenity, I felt inspired to walk up to Heroes for Sale and grab the last two parts of the latest Serenity mini-series “Better Days” from Dark Horse comics.
Suffice to say I was disappointed. The story seemed to drag, some of the characterisation and language seemed “off”, and it didn’t really grab me like the first mini-series “Those Left Behind” did. Plus, there’s the sense of “dead men walking” if you’ve seen the film. Still, it is Serenity (and walking up the hill to the shop did clear my head of conference ‘fug’ and stretch my legs after a day sitting listing to stuff).
I also picked up the next issue in Image Comics “Transhuman” series - which deals with venture capital funding in this issue. It’s okay, but again the previous issue was much better.
See also:
Greenflame · Serenity: Better Days
Greenflame · Transhuman - The comic mini-series
Very busy this week juggling SBL + work stuff in the gaps - always a problem when a conference is happening on your own campus.
Good to catch up with lots of different people over the week.
Various random highlights included:
Going to a presentation in an ecological stream and in the question time finding out about Transition Towns (see also Transition Towns New Zealand Aotearoa)
Having Steve (the emergentkiwi) to stay for a couple of nights and enjoying his paper/presentation on female Christic figures in cinema (especially in “Whale Rider”, “The Fifth Element” and “Serenity”).
Seeing a new crop of postgrads (and a few undergrads) from around the country front up and present their research. Some really good presentations today which bodes well for new people coming through in biblical studies in this part of the world.
Doing my paper on “Broadening the application of the co-creator metaphor”, getting some good feedback, and surviving getting into my talk before realizing I was using the version of the paper without the last minute changes I’d made to it the night before. (Luckily I had the new version on me and could grab it without breaking stride too much).
Listening to an intriguing paper after mine on Melanesian perceptions of the world (especially time) and how that shapes the enculturation of the the gospel and teaching theology. Some good material there that would intersect with developing an Oceanian theology of technology.
It’s been a long week so I’m now looking forward to a lazy weekend.
Picked up the following book from a sale pile today at a book clearance store. Hoping to find some time to flick through it at some point - perhaps on the train traveling to and from the SBL international conference in a week’s time. Must have a hunt through the conference programme book and see if there’s anything in there relating to popular culture.
“Living with Star Trek: American Culture and the Star Trek Universe” (Lincoln Geraghty)
Great little article by Sam J. Miller over at mental_floss Blog » Battlestar Galactica vs. Star Trek looking at the difference in anthropologies underlying Star Trek (pretty positive) and the new Battlestar Galactica (pretty negative). Worth a quick read.
Miller argues that Galactica doesn’t hide the warts or flaws in human nature and relationships, or paint a rosy picture of some kind of trajectory towards perfection achievable through the myth of progress. He says of that,
Galactica is sci-fi without that BS. Sci-fi with all the anger and stupidity and sadness that real people experience. Sci-fi without the conviction that we will conquer our own ugliness. Sci-fi for the age of peak oil and 9/11 and natural disasters compounded by climate change to the point where they can completely destroy major cities. Galactica’s message is that unless we come to terms with our own history, we are doomed. Mankind created the Cylons to fight our wars and to do our grunt work for us. Eventually they rose up and wiped out 99.999% of us. This basic lesson is one we still haven’t learned: that exploitation leads to exploitation, that if you oppress someone you sow the seeds of your own oppression. “You can’t play God and then wash your hands of the things you’ve created,†says the Galactica’s commander, William Adama. “Sooner or later, the day comes when you can’t hide from the things that you’ve done anymore.â€
It’s similar to the flaws in humanity that Joss Whedon brought out in Firefly or J. Michael Straczynski kept in Babylon 5.
Hat tip to Exploring Our Matrix: Around the Blogosphere (The End of the Banana Argument)
Related link: Greenflame · Science fiction as safe(?) space to explore unpleasant questions
As a child growing up there were certain TV shows that could only be watched from “behind the couchâ€. You wanted to know what happened, but at the same time the tension (and scariness) of the episode required that some form of retreat or protection was needed. These shows included the (Tom Baker) Dr Who ‘Pyramids of Mars‘ episodes, the UK series ‘Children of the Stones‘, and the New Zealand kid’s science fiction drama ‘Under the Mountain’, based on the Maurice Gee novel of the same name.
Today, we picked up the Under the Mountain DVD of TV series (filmed back in the early 80s). I’m looking forward to moving the couch forward a bit from the wall, and sitting down to watch it with the kids. Should be fun, especially as a couple of the kids have already read the novel.
Also, on a related note - the creator of ‘Black Sheep‘ is going to produce a movie version of the book aimed at teenagers. That should be worth seeing when it happens. More details here.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away Darren wrote in an email “i’ll do serenity asap…â€. That was June 2006.
Now, however, he’s started the great Firefly Study Series and you can find the first parts at:
He’s also noted the link (via Tensegrities) to a series of Firefly clips over at Cowgirl Jazz.
For those of you who are suffering from needing a Serenity or Firefly fix, then Dark Horse’s Firefly/Serenity mini-series “Better Days” is now out. I picked up issue 1 the other day, and it’s a good read if you’re a fan-boy or girl. Actually, it’s a good read for a comic in general - I’ve read some not so good comics recently from the library’s trade paperback/graphic novel selection. If you can do the character’s voices in your head while reading then it really rocks.
More details over at Dark Horse Comics > Profile > Serenity: Better Days #1 (of 3).
Oh, and I see the “Star Gate: The Ark of Truth” is already out on DVD in NZ. Seeing as I’m still finishing off Season 9 of Stargate SG-1 it’ll be a while before I get there, but it’s nice to know it’s waiting for me. Just like I’ll get to “Battlestar Galactica: Razor” when I’ve knocked the last few episodes of Season 3 off. I must admit I’m struggling to be enthralled with the end of BSG season 3 maybe it’s better watched one episode per week rather than three episodes at a time. Currently, I’m trying to avoid Season 4 spoilers - which seems to be harder than it should be - people keep putting them in their blog posts without spoiler warnings!
Over at InsideCatholic.com - Science Fiction and the Areopagus, Mark Shea contends that science fiction (and fantasy) are one of the last places left in the media to explore questions relating to philosophy and religion. And the intriguing proposition that fandom is similar to the Pauline Areopagus.
Such work is, it seems to me, vital. St. Paul did not wait around for the Athenians to come to him. He walked into a city where, as Luke marveled, “all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new” (Acts 17:21), and opened his mouth on the Areopagus. It’s a perfect description of the world of fandom.
Hat tip to The Sci Fi Catholic: Mark Shea Discusses Catholicism in Sci-Fi.
Related links:
I’ve just gotten around to starting to watch the third season of the new Battlestar Galactica. So far, so good - the planet-side setting adds a different dimension to the show for a bit, while the socio-political commentary continues.
Related to this are several links I’ve come across recently.
Firstly, FlowTV - ‘a critical forum on television and media culture published by the Department of Radio, Television, and Film at the University of Texas at Austin’ - recently had a focus on Battlestar Galactica with a selection of articles and posts about the new series. You can find it at FlowTV | “Battlestar Galactica” Issue.
Secondly, I found that link via Confessions of an Aca/Fan: Resources for Science Fiction Fans.
And lastly, Paul Walker, over at Out of the Cocoon had a post Out of the Cocoon >> Science Fiction and the emerging church. I’m not sure I’d agree with his comment that religion is toned down in the new version of BSG, rather that is has become more complex than the religious dualism - humans (religious) / cylons (secular) - present in the original series. Certainly, both human and cylon in the new series seem to have to wrestle with issues surrounding religion in interesting ways.
Related link: Greenflame · The Theology of Battlestar Galactica’s Cylons
Frantic here at the moment. Old job stuff to finish, new job stuff to think about, last week of the school holidays, conference abstract due tomorrow, and going to Dunedin early tomorrow for the bioethics conference (so packing now).
However, still time to note that Dark Horse are finally going to release their next Firefly/Serenity comic book mini-series. Excellent, I can’t wait. See Dark Horse Comics > Profile > Serenity: Better Days #1 (of 3).
The article, ‘Sleep Dealer’ Injects Sci-Fi Into Immigration Debate, is yet another example of how science fiction’s speculative nature provides a space for engaging with questions and issues that challenge and stretch us - in this case a (not-so) futuristic exploration of how Western consumerism might be supported by the creation of virtual ’sweat shops’.
Another recent article picking up this function of speculative or science fiction is Clive Thompson on Why Sci-Fi Is the Last Bastion of Philosophical Writing.
Kevin Kelly, over at Conceptual Trends and Current Topics - Doomsday Art, has an article reflecting on the continuing trend of exploring contemporary concerns through the apocalyptic genre.
The prospect of being the last person(s) on earth is weirdly seductive. It’s not about the end at all. It’s a romantic vision of rebirth, of starting anew, but with more assets and wisdom that the last birth. It’s a romance that will probably continue to generate works of art in all media every year from now on, until …. the end of the world.
Kelly’s musing are prompted by the recent movie, Cloverfield, and these articles, Apocalypse New - TIME and Life After People - TV - Review - New York Times.
I’d also throw in this for good measure: MONDOLITHIC STUDIOS - An Earth Without Us - A Mondolithic Monday Image.
I watched the new Babylon 5 DVD - Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales - tonight and really enjoyed it. Some other reviews I read said they didn’t enjoy the pace of the two interrelated stories on the disc, but I thought the pace was just right for the content being dealt with. The first story is a mix of theology and ethics, while that later concerns, perhaps, the qualities of mercy and kindness (again within an ethical context), and both connect plot-wise to the other. Nice to be back in the B5 universe, nice to see the updated CGI effects (no Amiga graphics here), and hopefully there’s a follow up in the near future (see Babylon 5: The Lost Tales - Wikipedia)
Of course, I’ll be back in the B5 universe for a while now after my folks gave me Babylon 5: The Complete Collection + The Lost Tales DVD set for my birthday. All the B5 seasons, the movies, the spin-offs - Crusade, Legend of the Rangers pilot, and The Lost Tales. A serious amount of shelf-space can be recovered when I get rid of my B5 VHS tapes, plus I also get to see/hear the commentaries and special features. Bliss, indeed.
One thing though. I’ve also having Star Trek cravings for Borg-related episodes. I shall have to borrow the Star Trek Fan Collective - Borg off someone sometime to fix that. Resistance appears futile.
Another thing - at some point I’d like to acquire the Jeremiah TV series. I really enjoyed Season 2 (esp. Mr Smith), but missed most of the middle of Season 1. Season 1 got released on DVD only in the US (Region 1) and season 2 is only available via digital download (and hence not to anyone outside of the US. iTunes link here - but strangely no Season 1 in iTunes. You have to get that via Amazon’s Unbox video). So I don’t think that will happen anytime soon.
Various books on the go at the moment. Some good, some not so. Random comments follow.
“Metal Swarm” by Kevin J. Anderson (Book 6(!) in the “The Saga of Seven Suns” series). Should be right up my alley - ancient powerful alien races continue ancient wars while plucky humans (with strange alien sometime allies) strive to survive. It’s Babylon 5 all over again - even down to the human politics and civil war. But it reads really badly - too many characters to follow and a million very short chapters focusing on different characters means it feels like watching a TV where someone’s changing the channel every 10 seconds. No time for empathy to develop with any of the characters, and by now it feels like it’s just going through the motions. On a plus side you can skip whole chapters and not miss much of the plot. Undecided on whether I’ll read the next book.
“The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief” by Francis S. Collins, the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute. Recommended to me by a non-scientist/non-theologian (in the professional sense) so I’ve picked it up from the library. As usual I’ve started reading from the back, in this case the first few pages of the appendix on bioethics which gives some nice summaries of that field. (See also: Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly . PROFILE . DR. FRANCIS COLLINS . July 21, 2006 | PBS)
“Saturnalia: A Marcus Didius Falco Novel” by Lindsey Davis. Falco novels are like a comfortable old pair of slippers for me. When I don’t feel like reading anything too heavy then I get the next one out of the library. I didn’t really like the last one (“See Delphi and Die”), but you know what you’re getting and I’ve always been interested in Ancient Rome. “Saturnalia” improved on the last book, but still missed something of the dramatic tension present in the early novels. (Related information: Second-born (9) has been devouring the children’s equivalent of the Falco novels - Caroline Lawrence’s “Roman Mysteries” - effectively a ‘Famous Five in Ancient Rome’)-
“Practical Theology: On Earth As It Is in Heaven” by Terry A. Veling. Because it was spoken highly of over at Simply Simon: Practicing theology and Simply Simon: Practicing theology II.
“The Blackwell Reader in Pastoral and Practical Theology (Blackwell Readings in Modern Theology)” by John Patton. Because it was near the Veling book on the shelf in the GSC library, and because it covers a wide range of perspectives on the field.
“Engaging the Online Learner: Activities and Resources for Creative Instruction (Online Teaching and Learning Series (OTL))” by Rita-Marie Conrad and J. Ana Donaldson. A book that collects a large number of different online learning examples and is really useful for showing you what other people have down and why, and also for helping design your own activities and assessements.
I have a real soft spot for Dan Dare (along with the old black and white Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon TV programmes). When I was a boy I remember my Dad finding some old Eagle annuals from somewhere and introducing us to the Dan Dare he grew up with in the UK. And then later I followed, for a while, the rebooted Dan Dare in the early 2000AD.
Now the quintessential British hero is getting year another reboot in a seven issue series. Looks good, though I’ll wait for the trade paperback before buying it. It’ll be interesting to see how the values of the 21st century get worked into the 1950s landscape Dare exists within.
More details on the release here at DAN DARE #1 - NEWSARAMA (with some sample pages).
Official release information at Virgin Comics brings back DAN DARE: PILOT OF THE FUTURE with GARTH ENNIS « Virgin Comics Blog
Reviews of the first issue here at Sunday Slugfest - Dan Dare #1 (of 7) Review - Silver Bullet Comics.
One of the reviewers asks some good questions about these sorts of reboots:
Most of the revivals (thinking of Flash Gordon, Tarzan and Buck Rogers here) fall flat, even with reshaping to new cultural conditions, though some, like the rebooted Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica series seem to get it right. Something to think about.
I’m the only one in my household without a dedicated lunchbox. These look so cool that my situation could soon be a thing of the past.
Dark Horse Comics : Serenity Lunch Box
Dark Horse Comics : Serenity Lunch Box: Fruity Oaty Bar
Now, if only I could get one of these to go with it.
Following on from the animated Clone Wars short format television shows Lucas announces the continuation of animated/CGI developments and a live actor Star Wars spin-off for TV.
I liked the animated Clone Wars series - though it worked better as a series of short episodes rather than all the episodes viewed in one hit as a ‘movie’. However, the only live actor Star Wars TV I ever saw was the horrific Star Wars Holiday Special. Even as a child who was a huge fan of Star Wars I could see how bad it was. (See YouTube for excerpts of it). So who knows how this new series will turn out. Hope it works out.
See E! News - Star Wars TV Series Coming Soon - George Lucas
Ugh! Just remembered the extremely bad Galactica 1980 series too.
As someone who finds the plots threads of new Battlestar Galactic series intrigues (and intersecting with my own research in some ways) I’ve been interested in the various religious themes that come up from time to time (Cylon religion, reincarnation, transcendence). So it was nice to find this Beliefnet interview with a creator of the series: The Theology of Battlestar Galactica’s Cylons — Beliefnet.com
Hat tip to Kevin Kelly — The Technium — Holy Technology
A couple of books on the go at the moment that I borrowed from the library after seeing them on a couple of blogs.
Firstly, A Case Of Conscience by James Blish, which is centred around a Jesuit biologists struggle with finding the perfect, moral alien society that doesn’t have any understanding of God. In a similar vein to later books like Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow and Children of God, and to a certain extent Orson Scott Card’s Speaker for the Dead.
The book is part of the excellent SF Masterworks for Gollancz, a series of reprinted classic or significant science fiction works.
Other related links:
I’ve read some other of Blish’s work before but had never come across this one until I say it mentioned on The Sci Fi Catholic: The Sacred & the Profane (with the follow article The Sci Fi Catholic: The Sacred & the Profane Part 2, Christian Tragedy?)
The second book is As Far As We Know: Conversations about Science, Life and the Universe by Paul Callaghan and Kim Hill, with excellent complementary illustrations by Dylan Horrocks. It’s a collection of edited transcripts of the conversations about science between physicist Paul Callaghan and Kim Hill on Radio New Zealand National: Saturday Morning with Kim Hill.
Found via Physics illustrations published - Dylan’s blog
I’m enjoying both books, and the ‘As Far As We Know“ book is good for dipping into for a quick chapter or two.
As a fan of the Doctor from way back (I think I started watching around 1974) I’m intrigued by this: ‘Christlike’ Dr Who in church service | Metro.co.uk.
Out shopping for birthday presents at the weekend when I stumbled across a copy of Cult Themes - ITV 50 - Classic TV Show Theme Tunes which somehow had to find it’s way into the shopping basket. Some of the tracks are the original TV themes music, others are very good covers (not some guy in his garage with a synthesizer). I’m not particularly interested in many of the non-UK shows (though the Mission Impossible track seems a good rendition), but I’ve been looking for a copy of the Stingray theme music for a while now and there it was (along with the extended version of the UFO theme complete with clicking teletypes).
Listening to the CDs begged the question - did the BBC release a CD with the various incarnations of the Doctor Who theme? There are various MP3 clips over at BBC - Doctor Who - Sounds but no theme music.
Oh, and I’m really enjoying Season 3 of Doctor Who which is finally playing here. Nice to see the Season 2 episode ‘Girl in a Fireplace’ pick up a Hugo Award, and I’ll be trying and track down a copy of my favourite Doctor Who (Tom Baker) story Pyramids of Mars to watch again. Spent most of those four episodes watching it from behind the couch, if my memory serves me right. Far more creepy in places than similar Stargate episodes.
A couple of blogs that explore science fiction and popular culture from a religious perspective that I’ve come across recently.
Books on the go at the moment.
I like the genre of Steampunk - which fuses the historical setting of 19th century Europe with advanced technological visions. Think steam-powered spaceships or Sherlock Holmes stories with mechanical computers thrown in. Elements of it crop up in comic books - the 2000AD series Nemesis was set for a while in a alien society that modelled itself on Victorian Britain and in Star Wars: Dark Empire II there’s a cool steam-powered spaceship - and also in movies like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (based on the comic series), Wild Wild West and Steamboy. Primarily it’s located in books though - Philip Reeve’s Hungry City Chronicles is an example of it for young adult/adult readers, while Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age mixes nanotechnology, AI and neo-Victorianism.
Basically, think airships, goggles, steam-powered computers, clockwork robots and difference engines.
Wired has a nice selection of pictures of contemporary steampunk inspired projects with current technologies - I love the steampunk laptop.
See Steam-Driven Dreams: The Wondrously Whimsical World of Steampunk.
Of course, Wikipedia has an extensive section on Steampunk. I tried Britannica Online, but alas, no information there.
The Warner Brothers BABYLON 5 web site has the trailer up for new B5 movie due out in a month or two. Also available at: YouTube - Babylon 5: lost tales.
There’s also a two part article on the new movie available at:
Gwyneth Jones on developing robot technology | Features | Guardian Unlimited Film talks about how much more prescient the genre of cyberpunk was/is at looking at the future, as opposed to more general science fiction. The article also takes the slant that technology is a value-neutral instrument that only achieves moral dimensions when humans choose to use it in certain ways. I’m not convinced, because I think the socio-cultural forces that shape technological development contain values that are incorporated into the output of that development.
Anyway, the article fitted well with the book below that I’ve just finished reading. I’d give the book a C+, though. Apart from William Gibson’s short story ‘Burning Chrome’ and Philip K Dick’s short story that inspired the movie ‘Total Recall’ I wasn’t gripped that much by it. Maybe get Gibson’s own collection of short stories, also called ‘Burning Chrome’.
Lynn Schofield Clark - While I’m here, update on LOST is a interesting look at how religion has been seen by viewers of the TV show LOST. I don’t watch the programme (the TV ads they had here promoting its arrival turned me off), but I found the article intriguing.
(Hat tip to Tensegrities » Back from oblivion)
Paul Teusner’s ‘What should we read about mass media?“ lists includes this one on his site as well: fishers, surfers and casters » Top 5-10 list from Lynn Schofield Clark.
Links to a two-part post on the creation of immersive story worlds that span soaps, wrestling, and superhero comics. Interestingly, another post on the blog connects the worlds of soaps with comic books more explicitly using the example of DC’s recent 52 and Marvel’s Civil War. Not too surprising really, given that Star Trek and Firefly are probably better classified as ‘space opera‘ rather than hard science fiction. People watch as much for the interplay of the characters as for the speculative devices.
See:
Related link: Greenflame » Dylan Horrocks on comics, games and world-building.
A page has appeared on Amazon for the first installment of the new direct-to-DVD Babylon 5 series: Amazon.com: Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales. So, it should be here sooner rather than later (at least for Region 1 release). Will it stand up to watching in the post-Firefly universe though?
More information over at:
Update
Damaris have released some study resources for Firefly to go with the Serenity resource,
Time Magazine’s Top 10 graphic novels of 2006 - TIME 25 Top Ten 2006
Locus’ lists for 2006 - Locus Online: Locus Magazine’s Recommended Reading: 2006:
Link here to some photos from the set of the new direct-to-DVD Babylon 5 stories currently being produced. In theory, they’ll be out in the US in the second quarter 2007 (and who knows when in Australasia?). The page has some comments at the bottom from JMS too. See J. Michael Straczynski - B5:TLT Pre-Production - Babylon5scripts.com.
More details too at the Babylon 5 Lurker’s Guide page “Voices in the Dark”.
See also the entry on Wikipedia - Babylon 5.
Wired News: Firefly Reborn as Online Universe.
I’ve tended to avoid MMORPGs, but this one might be irresistible.
Some of these are very clever. Some are very funny. Wired Magazine asks various authors to supply six (6!) word short stories. See Wired 14.11: Very Short Stories.
Russell Kirkpatrick is a geography lecturer and writer of fantasy novels from down the road in Hamilton. I’ve just finished reading his “Fire of Heaven” trilogy, which was a good read for the stage I’m at in the thesis (i.e. something with no robots in it that is easy to read). An interesting mixture of “classic” fantasy geography and cultures (e.g. Nordic, Oriental) but will some Maori and Polynesian landscapes, characters and culture woven into it. The books have an element of gentleness to them, amongst the grand epic fantasy stuff, and the characters flaws weave their way into the story well.
Each of the books has some maps in them. As a lover of maps it was great to see the detail in them, and a more realistic view on the way geography shapes the speed and path that journeys take. In the books the black and white printing loses some of the detail but the web site below has them in glorious colour. Excellent.
When I started the books the theistic slant to them was apparent, and by the end of the books there’s places where Christian imagery and allegory are obvious. But they probably wouldn’t be so obvious to someone brought up in a post-Christian world, and the reader isn’t beaten over the head with the imagery like some other authors like to do.
There’s bits of the books, maps and diagrams on the web site plus a blog (to add to my RSS feeds from other fantasy and sci-fi writers) all at RussellKirkpatrick.com.
Now that’s a pretty awesome looking cake - Discworld Cake
Joff alerts me (via email) to the news that JMS will be coming to the Auckland Armageddon in October. See pulpexpo.com - Joe Straczynski - Film and Comic Writer. (Curses! The link disappeared over the weekend)
Related links:
Joff’s experiences of the Wellington expo.
Greenflame: Post-Armageddon.
2002 article - Wired News: Of PowerPoint and Pointlessness on Powerpoint in schools. Via slacktivist: PowerPoint sucks.
Undeniable Facts: Undeniable Friday- a fact a day - Levitating screw.
The announcement of JMS producing new Babylon 5 material on DVD. Series of new short movies/stories set in the B5 universe, using new and existing characters. Can’t wait. See Ain’t It Cool News: New B5
Looks like the new Serenity comic book series from Dark Horse will be called “Better Days”, and will be set before the Serenity movie. It will explore some of the unresolved plots from Firefly and will be written by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews (who did the first series). Can’t wait.
Random links - with a geeky theme, of course.
William Shatner Rocketman - Google Video. Inspirational.
Leonard Nimoy - Ballad of Bilbo Baggins (MZK) - Google Video. Unforgetable.
More from Nimoy and Shatner at Frogstar - Star Trek Fan Page. Outstanding.
Shatner’s rendition of “Rocketman” reminded me of this version, Socketman, written by Unix hackers (available from MDFS::Docs.Humour.Computing.Songs). Unless you’ve been involved with porting code from BSD to SysV (and vice versa) it’s probably lost on you. Still remember the trauma of starting a new job working with SVR3.2 on AT&T 3b2’s, typing “emacs” and it not being there still lives with me.
Also, if you’re up for something really impressive check out Starlords:
Starlords juxtaposes similar pieces of familiar media structures.It experiments with sampling what is normally seen in entirety and in context (the films) and then linking them in time and space to a popular music track normally heard sampled, here played in its entirety. These cultural entities, two of the biggest juggernauts of global propaganda, share similar plots, soundtracks, characters, creatures and actors (Christopher Lee). They have large monetary and business interests as convoluted as the epic digital graphics engines, weaving fantasy worlds of white heroes from humble origins and dark lords with all-encompassing surveillance and power structures.
Hardware Wars (1977), the Star Wars parody that was played in cinema around the world, is now available at HARDWARE WARS - Google Video. (I definitely remember classmates of mine seeing it in Wellington cinemas in the late 70’s.)
Other related links: Grocery Store Wars | Join the Organic Rebellion, Fanboys (2003 NZ short film), and Feel the Force: The Jedi Street Preachers of Auckland (2004 NZ short film). The last two from Peter Haynes at www.haynesfilm.com.
Sitting in the tea room today (drinking coffee) I flicked through a recent issue of the Spiritual Growth Ministries journal Refresh and saw this article - Spirituality and the Science Fiction Atheist by Adrienne Thompson. (SGM Journal Refresh Vol. 5 No. 2 (Summer 2005-6), 14-17).
It’s a brief reflection on the writing of Ursula Le Guin and has a nice quote in it about stories. LeGuin says,
What you get out of that story, in the way of understanding or perception or emotion, is partly up to me—because, of course, the story is passionately meaningful to me (even if I only find out what it’s about after I’ve told it). But it’s also up to you, the reader. Reading is a passionate act. If you read a story not just with your head, but also with your body and feelings and soul, the way you dance or listen to music, then it becomes your story. And it can mean infinitely more than any message. It can offer beauty. It can take you through pain. It can signify freedom. And it can mean something different every time you reread it.
(from interview at CBC Magazine: Meet the Author/Illustrator: Ursula LeGuin)
Thompson’s article didn’t transfer well to the web - some formatting is lost - but the content’s all there.
See also:
Well, it’d be interesting if they get it going, but I imagine it’d have US-only stamped on the delivery mechanisms. See Joss Whedon’s Firefly Season 2.
A click on the “Publish” button in Ecto instead of the “Save” button will have given a odd posting. Apologies to all and sundry.
I’ve been reading several of the books from the British Film Institute’s Modern Classics series while I revised the introductory chapter to the thesis. Skimming through the books on The Matrix (Joshua Clover) and Blade Runner (Scott Bukatman) was helpful in straightening out some examples I wanted to use of cinema serving as an arena for public concerns about technology to be expressed within.
The books are shortish and easy to read - though in a couple of places I needed to decode the film/media studies jargon. Well worth having a look at, if only briefly.
Damaris’ Culture Watch have two new articles up online. The first is a brief study guide for the movie Serenity, and the second a more in depth reflection upon the anime film Ghost in the Shell 2 : Innocence.
See Culture Watch - Serenity and Culture Watch - Ghost in the Shell 2 : Innocence.
Stephanie posts some good thoughts on why there should be no more Star Trek series at TV: The Failure of “Star Trek: Enterprise”.
On my favourite Star Trek movies - definitely ST II : The Wrath of Khan and ST : First Contact.
Least favourite - ST V : The Final Frontier. Every time I’ve seen it I’ve wonder how they could have made Star Trek so bad. Still it does have that great line of Kirk’s - “Excuse me… Excuse me… I just wanted to ask a question. What does God need with a starship?”
Did the quiz “Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in?” which put me in Matrix. Obviously there were no questions about important things like whether you can speak Narn or Vorlon, and whether you’d invite a Reaver to tea.
 |
You scored as Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix). You can change the world around you. You have a strong will and a high technical aptitude. Is it possible you are the one? Now if only Agent Smith would quit beating up your friends. |
|
Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix) |
|
81% | |
|
Deep Space Nine (Star Trek) |
|
69% | |
|
Babylon 5 (Babylon 5) |
|
63% | |
|
Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda) |
|
63% | |
|
Moya (Farscape) |
|
63% | |
|
SG-1 (Stargate) |
|
63% | |
|
Serenity (Firefly) |
|
63% | |
|
Millennium Falcon (Star Wars) |
|
56% | |
|
Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica) |
|
56% | |
|
Enterprise D (Star Trek) |
|
50% | |
|
FBI’s X-Files Division (The X-Files) |
|
44% | |
|
Bebop (Cowboy Bebop) |
|
44% |
Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics)
created with QuizFarm.com
Just found out that Andreas Katsulas, the actor who played G’Kar in Babylon 5, died a fortnight ago from lung cancer at the age of 59. Katsulas also played Commander Tomalak from several episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as featuring in the remake of The Fugitive.
More at: The Official Andreas Katsulas Website and Sci Fi Wire — Babylon 5’s Katsulas Dies.
Inspired by Steve’s use of the book (e~mergent kiwi: spirituality resources) I’m going to use Richard’s Burridge’s “Faith Odyssey: A Journey Through Lent” for my Lenten reflections this year. A quick skim of the back of book shows a significant lack of Babylon 5, Firefly and Stargate references though I might be surprised when I actually read the book.
Pancakes tonight with the kids and their friends too.
One man’s quest to make his own life-sized Dalek. See Relative Dimensions: The Dalek.
Editing a chapter I wrote several years ago on the historical interpretation of the imago Dei. Yesterday I went through the Protestant Reformation, so Luther, Calvin and others like Osiander and Flacius and leading into comparisons with Socinian interpretations (Racovian Catechism), as well as tidying up the stuff around Eastern Othordoxy and theosis. Today it’s Augustine, Aquinas and others like Lactantius, Justin Martyr and Origen.
Anyway, it’s been interesting seeing where my thoughts when years ago and what needs to be reworked now to fit with the thrust of the thesis. It’s like exploring a long, lost continent. You have the myths of what is there but I keep surprising myself with new discoveries while I following up references etc.
BTW - I know the title of the post is from Hamlet and is more about death than the past but it worked for me.
Obligatory space opera reference - Star Trek and Shakespeare.
The Babylon Podcast has started up. This is a good thing.
Also, while link surfing today trying to find an article on science fiction and religion I came across this - Joe’s Store : CafePress.com. A veritable treasure chest of B5 stuff to wear and drink from while watching re-runs. Would go nicely with Shepherd’s Abbey : Out To The Black Outfitters : CafePress.com.
It’s Serenity Day!
The Serenity was released today in NZ (DVD Region 4). A display stand at the door of the local Whitcoull’s had a pile on display with the sign “Get your free gift too.” And so I’m now the excited owner of the “Limited Edition” double-disc edition and I have a Serenity mouse pad to complete my desk. A Serenity poster would be nice for the office too but I haven’t seen any for sale in NZ.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to enjoying the movie again and I’ll actually be interested in the extra features on the DVD this time - unlike many other DVDs I have. (The other exception to this rule is the “I, Robot” double disc set that has some quite good documentary stuff on the second disk - a veritable who’s who from my thesis bibliography.)
At some point I’ll have to watch all the Firefly episodes, read the comics and watch the movie in a marathon to get that real fan boy experience. 
BTW - Steve has a review here. Written from the point of an “outsider” but still contains many good points. See EmergentKiwi: Serenity Film Review.
Article/interview with one of my favourite authors, Ursula Le Guin, at Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | The magician.
I’ve been a big fan of Doctor Who ever since I learnt to hide behind the couch and I really enjoyed the recently rebooted series. So when I saw that Damaris have just published Back In Time: A Thinking Fan’s Guide to Doctor Who I was intrigued. The sample text they have online looks like it has possibilities so I’ll add it to the following list of books to acquire at some time:
Any suggestions to add for Star Trek, Stargate and others gratefully received. (See also: Greenflame: Battlestar memories and Greenflame: On the bookshelf)
The Guardian publish their list of the top 20 books for geeks. Just in time for finding that literary Christmas present for the geek in your life. Check of course that they don’t already own them. I’ve read most of the list (maybe 15 or 16) but not some of them for a while. See : Top 20 geek novels — the results! from Guardian Unlimited: Technology.
Via: Neil Gaiman’s blog where he’s having some trouble trying to phone home with his iPod.
The other day I was re-watching “Kid’s Story” off The Animatrix DVD. Of all the various Matrices (plural?) that’s the one story that gets me every time - in just over 9 minutes it seems to capture many themes that might make it a useful analogy in a religious context. Does the kid have a “conversion” moment or is it a journey? What role does faith serve in appropriating grace? The sense of hope that it leaves rather than (for me) the sense of despair and futility at the end of the third movie. As well as the “putting to death” of the old self for the new.
If you haven’t seen it hire the DVD and watch just that one story. The animation style is great too.
Maybe Stu could do something with it?
Ticket purchased to go to Armageddon (no, the other one) tomorrow. Will probably post about it on Sunday post-preaching at church.
For those of you possessing back issues of the excellent (though now defunct) Reality Magazine check out Stephen May’s “Media Watch” column from Issue 34 (Aug/Sept 1999) where he comments upon his pilgrimage to the same event. (Not online unfortunately)
There’s another advanced screening of Serenity on this Sunday at Village Cinemas on Queen Street (Auckland). Tie in with the Pulp Culture festival also on at the Aotea Centre.
See: Serenity - Special Advanced Screening - 23 Oct.
Also, Serenity interviews here and the River Tam viral marketing campaign for Serenity here.
You can see the first 11 minutes of Serenity as an video stream here.
With Serenity officially out now in the wider world the reviews are out too. See:
Went to the cinema, saw the film, loved it. For the uninitiated - watch all the Firefly episodes in the order on the DVD set, read the comics, go to Serenity. (Repeat)
So much for it being a relatively unknown film. It sold out the Megascreen at the Village on Queen (400+ seats) and we had to queue for ages to get in (some tickets were up for sale on TradeMe too). I can’t remember the last time I queued to get into a film. The clientele looked decidedly geeky (so we fitted right in, though we didn’t go as far as wearing suits and blue gloves like some!). Felt like I was back in a computer science department with some of my old colleagues. A good night out.
Off to see the pre-release screening of Serenity tonight in town. After a day of cold, wet rain, hail and strong winds (& snow in Christchurch) it’s a nice way to end the day - especially as I’m going with a couple of other enthusiasts. Managed to get the first two of the comics that bridge the gap between TV and movie - was hoping the last would be in today in the reorder but no such luck. The comics capture the atmosphere of the show really well, as well as the style of dialogue.
The Ballad of Serenity (Firefly theme)
Take my love, take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don’t care, I’m still free
You can’t take the sky from meTake me out to the black
Tell them I ain’t coming back
Burn the land and boil the sea
You can’t take the sky from meThere’s no place I can be
Since I found Serenity
But you can’t take the sky from me(MP3 version available here)
Had a good weekend when we had two barbecues (one here and one at a friends). On Saturday we hosted the end of season gathering for Mark’s soccer team. 37 people (13 adults + 24 children) came spent the afternoon here - we had sausages on the barbecue plus other good food and drink. Very enjoyable to catch up with everyone and start to think about next season.
On Sunday we headed over to friends at St. John’s for their daughter’s birthday party. Again a nice barbecue and good company. Kim discovered Playstation SingStar which was scary - luckily after my first attempt I was excused from attempting again.
And it was Father’s Day in NZ on Sunday and my family recognised my space opera withdrawal and gave me a couple of Star Trek DVDs to complete my Star Trek movie collection.
It’s Friday, which is normally my evening of space opera - Andromeda followed by Star Trek : Enterprise. But Andromeda finished last week leaving the total amount of space opera across all channels as Doctor Who and Enterprise. TVNZ seems to have dropped the ball on Stargate (Stargate on TVNZ) and I guess in NZ they figure that the science fiction genre has less mileage than yet another reality TV show.
So I’m really looking forward to the arrival of the Firefly movie Serenity in the cinemas relatively soon (10 Nov in NZ - with an advanced screening 19th Sep in Auckland). Here’s a recent Wired article about how fan pressure in response to Firefly’s cancellation helped generate the movie - Wired 13.09: PLAY - Serenity Now! If you’re thinking about going to the film try and get hold of the DVD box set of Firefly and watch the 14 episodes in the order they’re in in the box (TV3 played them all in order too). Firefly had the potential to be really interesting - the right mix of humour and human drama, as well as being a vehicle to explore questions about the world. Dark Horse has produced a comic series that bridges the gap between the TV series and the movie though these might be scare in NZ.
Saw this yesterday which made me smile: UserFriendly April 20, 2005. (I guess Star Wars comics/cartoons are back on the agenda for a while.)
Reminded me of this article from last year in the NZ Listener - Beer and fear by ear by Olivia Kember | New Zealand Listener. Loved the opening paragraph,
It must be the best – it might be the only – use of the New Zealand accent in a Hollywood blockbuster: “I’m just a simple man trying to make my way in the universe”, as delivered by Temuera Morrison’s Mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett in Star Wars 2: Attack of the Clones. Local audiences roared at Jake the Muss in space, but his Rotorua-bred tones sounded, among the fluent American of the rest of the Empire, unmistakably alien. Forget the special effects and the bucket on his head; the very intonation conjured up an origin far, far away.
Read the following essay the other day on the train which seemed to link in with a number of other ongoing threads of discussion out there.
In his essay ‘Web of Babylon’* on the nature of fan fiction Kurt Lancaster ponders the nature of power relationships within publishing and the generations of new micro communities. [Fan fiction is where writers take aspects of an existing literary world - say a television show like Babylon 5 - and create a new but derivative work that expands upon the canonical literature. So you might take character behaviour demonstrated in the TV show but place it into another unvisited context.] So the original text isn’t simply produced and consumed only as directed. Rather as Lancaster notes it is transformed and transforms the readers.
‘Fandom here’, media scholar Henry Jenkins tells us, ‘becomes a participatory culture which transforms the experience of media consumption into the production of new texts, indeed of a new culture and a new community’. Fans may create new cultural texts, but they do not necessarily build a new full-sized community. In anything, what evolves out of their creative productions are micro-communities. (p.309)
Came across this the other day. A Star Wars fan film made, of all places, just down the road (New Lynn is a location). Described as,
a parody of fandom set in the heady days of 1999, a couple of weeks before the release of ‘The Phantom Menace’. The world is excited, people are queuing up, fans are dusting off their old jedi costumes and Jar Jar looks pretty darn cool.In the middle of all this madness, young Star Wars fan Markus walks in a daze. After living and breathing Star Wars for most of his life, he’s having trouble getting his head around something the magnitude of a whole new movie. One of his fondest wishes is that it could all actually be real, that maybe there really are Jedi Knights, Corellian scoundrels and beautiful but deadly mercenaries. And maybe, just maybe, they need his help…
I thought it was funny (but then I’m tending toward “fanboy” status myself for a few things.) Be aware that it is a big download so probably not for non-broadband users.
More info at: Fanboys - A Short Film by Peter Haynes
Came across this today while tracking down information about the Star Wars fan file “Fanboys”.
Not sure if B5 will make it on the big screen. Part of the appeal was 5 years of interconnected stories that built upon each other to produce a “novel”. Exploring a variety of interesting ideas. In a movie there’s no time for that so I expect it will be more of an “action-flick”. Still JMS is involved and the character Galen is there so there’s hope.
Wish I’d been there. Sounds fascinating.
Science & Theology News - News: Sci-fi conference removes fiction from fact.
My fieldtrips for my research often tend to be to the movies. Movies such as the Matrix trilogy, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Star Trek: Nemesis and today I, Robot serve as a source for thinking about human nature in relation to technology.
In her book on technoculture Lelia Green comments on the increasing number of contemporary narratives that are being told about machine-human interaction.
Cyborgs and science fiction form an area of popular culture which seems to have increased in importance as technology has become more integral to our cultures and our communities. This burgeoning interest in narratives about the future, and about parallel universes, may indicate a desire to understand and explore the present. In speculating about others we are also speculating about ourselves.
Furthermore she says,
Through films such as Blade Runner and The Matrix, our society tells itself stories about what it is to be human in a world where humans are increasingly influenced by, and dependent upon, technology and technocultures. Here the myths of loss and longing are played out in the context of technologically driven futures, where machines can feel feelings and have roles with more humanity in them than the �people� characters do.
I’d definitely put “I, Robot” in this category.
Issues to do with dehumanization, human-machine fusion, technological dependence, the essence of humaness, the relationships between the concepts of body, mind and soul, and the place of love all come out in this film. More so, I think, than did in the slower-paced and “deeper” “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” (though there are moments in that film that are equally provoking).
I enjoyed “I, Robot”, both as an intellectual vehicle for my research and as a story. The ending of the movie with it’s “what next?” questions leaves it open for continuing discussion. Hopefully, they don’t make a sequel.
Wired Magazine Issue 12.07 (July 2004) was themed around “Human Being 2.0″ with lots of interesting articles related to “I, Robot”.
I’m in the process of reading the anthology Dark Matter : A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora edited by Sheree R. Thomas. I’m finding it both enjoyable, confusing in places and extremely challenging all at the same time. There are short stories and essays in the collection.
Derrick Bell’s short story “The Space Traders” (1992) has been my favourite so far. A story about an alien offer to the US for technology and resources to solve their financial, ecological and energy problems in exchange for all the African Americans living in the US. Some challenging material on the nature of democracy, business, government, racism, slavery and pragmatism in it.
Samuel R. Delany’s essay “Racism and Science Fiction” (1999) is an interesting read too. (Maybe this was picked up by the Star Trek Deep Space 9 episode Far Beyond the Stars)
If you have a chance track the collection down in the local library.
Just read that Richard Biggs (44), the actor who played “Dr. Stephen Franklin” in B5, died in May 21. Apparently he just got out of bed on morning and collapsed with a tear in his aorta. Survived by his wife and two young sons (2 & 4).
Biggs was one of the B5 cast who always had time for the fans and used his popularity to raise funds for various charities and schools, especially for the deaf. (He suffered hearing impairment himself.)
The LA Time obituary is here: Richard Biggs, 44; Television Actor Known for Featured Roles in ‘Babylon 5,’ ‘Days of Our Lives’.
JMS posted on USENET here: Today We Lost Richard Biggs.
Cleared myself of lectures for a while and marking is still a week or two away so it’s time to have a look at some of the books waiting on my bookshelf.
Participating in God: Creation and Trinity by Samuel M. Powell is part of Fortess Press’ series “Theology and the Sciences”. Looks like it has some useful comments on technology in it.
Light from the East: Theology, Science, and the Eastern Orthodox Tradition by physicist Alexei V. Nesteruk has some extended discussions on the nature of the human person which also looks helpful to the thesis. It’s another in the Fortress Press series.
Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy and Religion in The Matrix edited by Glenn Yeffeth is a collection of essays on topics intersecting with my research interests in virtual reality and AI. Some of the essays have been published elsewhere (e.g. Peter B. Lloyd’s, GLITCHES IN THE MATRIX . . . AND HOW TO FIX THEM) but hopefully it’ll be worthwhile dipping into.
Tip of the ice berg really. If there’s an earthquake (a real possibility here in NZ) I’ll in danger of being pummelled to death by falling books I should have read by now. Also, trying to find time to read Douglas Coupland’s “Hey, Nostrodamus”, the collection of short stories in “Disco 2000″ edited by Sarah Champion, Cynthia West’s “Techno-Human Mesh”, Edward Tenner’s “Our Own Devices” and David Noble’s “The Religion of Technology”.
It’s ten years since my most favourite TV show began to air and gave us a intelligent science fiction as a single continuous story line over five years. Of course, it was buried at 2pm on Saturday afternoons on TV2 - where else would you put intelligent science fiction? And pretty much in NZ at the moment there is no science fiction on TV (apart from SKY-1’s reruns of a few programs and the second season of Jeremiah).
With it being the 10th anniversary of B5 and the release of the 5th season on DVD FilmForce have a really good piece looking back at B5 and the people involved. It’s at: FilmForce: Spotlight: Babylon 5.
As creator, producer, and writer of most of the episodes, J. Michael Straczynski accomplished a miraculous feat - he managed to create a continuity-driven show that had a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end. Even more amazing, he pulled off something even more precious (and rare) - intelligent science fiction for TV. Outside (most) of Star Trek, the television landscape is a virtual boneyard for failed attempts in the sci-fi genre, especially those that tried to comport themselves with a modicum of brains with their brawn.
B5 wasn’t everybody’s cup of tea - it’s pretty hard to start watching in the middle of the second and third seasons (let alone the fourth and fifth) - everything is connected to incidents and references from previous episodes. And the first season dragged in places while they spent time fleshing out people’s characters and backgrounds. Still lots of my friends, many of whom aren’t sci-fi fans, enjoyed watching it for the in depth characterisation and the intelligent sub-plots about politics, racism, faith and religion, and characters struggling with their human flaws.
Of course, now I covet the DVD collections over my perfectly adequate VHS collection. Memo to self : Must be strong
I’ve been spending a bit of time finding some articles for a couple of lectures I’m giving in a week or two on cosmic eschatology (”End times” for the non-theological). My co-lecturer is dealing with personal eschatology and things like heaven and hell, intermediate states (what happens when we die but before the final resurrection) and like. I get to look at the eschatological implications for creation and the wider world, including how eschatology shapes our interaction with the world now with respect to things like mission, social justice and environmentalism.
In reading around I came across the following article by Telford Work called Once Upon a Tribulation originally published in the now defunct Re:generation Quarterly.
Work argues that evangelical apocalyptic fiction and other similar writing acts like a legitimized Harry Potter or Dungeons and Dragons for Christians. It’s the fantasy or science fiction that you can read without feeling guilty about enjoying it.
Read the rest of this entry »
Spent an hour and a half this afternoon watching the documentary Synthetic Pleasures (1996) by Iara Lee as part of my research and also to get some discussion questions for Monday’s lecture on being or becoming human in Western technoculture. Couldn’t get hold of a copy in NZ so ordered it in from overseas post-haste.
IMDB’s plot summary says
Conceived as an electronic road movie, this documentary investigates cutting edge technologies and their influence on our culture as we approach the 21st century. It takes off from the idea that mankind’s effort to tap the power of Nature has been so successful that a new world is suddenly emerging, an artificial reality. Virtual Reality, digital and biotechnology, plastic surgery and mood-altering drugs promise seemingly unlimited powers to our bodies, and our selves. This film presents the implications of having access to such power as we all scramble to inhabit our latest science fictions.
That’s a fairly good summary. In places the movie drags a little and 8-9 years on it’s looking a little dated but there’s some really interesting material in there for discussion. What it means to be human, on the place/role of the body (consumer/consumed), on dreams of immortality and freedom from the flesh, as well as the bizarreness of people in general.
Read the rest of this entry »
A while back (Battlestar memories) I said I’d blog about Babylon 5 and theology. Today as I sat in church we had some Gospel readings from the Passion week and I remembered the B5 episode Passing Through Gethsemane. To me it has much in it that fits with the Lenten season.
Read the rest of this entry »
Finished of watching the remake of Battlestar Galactica last night. On the whole a reasonable job though TV3’s slicing for commercials destroyed pretty much any continuity or tension. I remember going to see the first movie when I was a kid and the old Cinerama theatre in Wellington shook with the “Sensorround” effects.
There were a few retro touches that were nice and you can cope with the switching of genders/ethnicity of some of the characters. What struck me was that it looks like religion may play a more significant part in the new series than the original. It will be interesting to see how they handle it as on the whole sci-fi TV shows don’t handle religion well. (Babylon 5 is an exception that I’ll blog about later on.)
A couple of useful books for looking at the relationship between science fiction and religion/theology are Stephen May’s Stardust and Ashes and Anthony Thacker’s A Closer Look at Science Fiction.
May’s book is the more academic offering a critique of a wide range of science fiction literature and its themes. Thacker’s approach is more useful for discussion material as he takes a theme (e.g. redemption) and then uses science fiction films (e.g. Star Wars) and TV (Star Trek, Babylon 5, Dr. Who) to unpack that theme. Both are written from a UK slant.
Related to this is also Stanley Grenz’s use of Star Trek’s development to trace modern to postmodern shifts in contemporary culture. See Grenz, Stanley J. “Star Trek and the Next Generation: Postmodernism and the Future of Evangelical Theology”, Crux (Vancover), 30(1), March 1994, pp.24-32. (Also part of his A Primer on Postmodernism”).
Came across this today at the Damaris web site while searching for a book on science fiction and faith.
Matrix Revelations: a thinking fan’s guide to the Matrix trilogy.
Seems they have a book which
examines the Matrix phenomenon, with in-depth analysis ranging from the science fiction and comic book influences to the philosophical and religious themes that underpin the films.
I see also they have information about using the Matrix trilogy as a discussion tool for small groups with material you can download (including a sample chapter).
While I think that too many Christians have an uncritical view of the films, seeing all the Judeo-Christian symbolism without the other philosophical and religious themes, there may be something here for them to begin to engage more critcially. It may also open the door to thinking about looking at engaging other films too.
Just been listening to an interesting programme on Science Fiction and what it tells us about our human hopes and fears on National Radio via a RealAudio link. There’s a selection of NZ news and reports plus the live feed at the top for those of you who are overseas and missing out on familiar voices.
Delayed coverage is also available on an XTRA web site
XTRA: Broadband: News: National Audio
Useful too if your PC interferes with AM radio reception.
“God be between you and harm in all the empty places where you must walk.”
From Babylon 5, “A Distant Star” (Season 2)
Henry Jenkins’s writing on the Matrix films talks of transmedia storytelling. The interweaving of cinema, home video/dvd, tv, the internet, video games and books to create narratives that go beyond a single, static portrayal. In fact, stories get added to by the individuals and communities that hear/watch them and then are spurred into creative response. In a consumerist sense he says,
In the ideal form of transmedia storytelling, each medium does what it does best–so that a story might be introduced in a film, expanded through television, novels, and comics, and its world might be explored and experienced through game play…. Reading across the media sustains a depth of experience that motivates more consumption…. Offering new levels of insight and experience refreshes the franchise and sustains consumer loyalty.
I found it interesting in that in effect a community hermeneutic is developed where internet communities comment on, adapt and critique the Matrix world in its various incarnations, developing their own interpretations and reinterpretations of the story.
It doesn’t seem new to me in the sense that people of faith have been doing this sort of thing ever since we could tell stories. However it may have some useful ideas for interacting with contemporary culture.
Technology Review: MIT’s Magazine of Innovation - Why the Matrix Matters
I’ve been reading and thoroughly enjoying Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy at the moment. Somewhat appropriate give Mars’ current proximity to Earth.
The books are science fiction but are not beyond the realms of our current technology. As well they deal with many issues to do with the creation of new societies and cultures mixing a varieties of religions, ideologies, individuals stories and environmental issues. If you have a spare week or three they’re a good read.
More about them at: The SF Site: Kim Stanley Robinson Reading List
Also check out the following for more current information about Mars.
