A post from 1000 miles away

I just had some general thoughts about world building that I figured I would include here in my blog. I might end up including some of these thoughts in my essay but that will be much more formal and this is kind of a good venue for me to think out loud. If you really think about it world building is essential to any sort of fantastic story. When dealing with a comedy or drama that is situated in “real life” no world building is required just some character building. With a story like Lord of the Rings there is plenty of mythology and lore that goes along with the story. With the books there are prequels that were written to expand on the world of middle earth, and in the movies the first 15 minutes of the first film are dedicated to establishing what happened with Sauron, the ring and everyone else hundreds of years prior to Frodo and friend’s adventures.

The same thing can be said for Star Wars where after Lucas created Episodes IV-VI. He then made the prequels, there were books written that took place between the episodes, videogames that took place thousands of years before the movies and so on. An interesting thing about the Star Wars universe is that Lucas Arts has something called the Holocron and it is the assembled universe. If something is written about Star Wars , say a book by someone other than Lucas, they have to have it approved by the Holocron in order for it to be worked into the canon.

In any world building scenario consistency is so important, as it helps to make that created world or universe more real, making the reader or viewer that much more engaged. It is hard to imagine something like Lord of the Rings without all the back story that has been created. By world building an author creates a much more rich experience. This is not to say that world building doesn’t happen in Science Fiction, I am sure it does, but the effort that goes into the world building is crucial to having a better product in the end.

Battle of the Shapes (and lines and points too of course)

This might have been one of the most original ideas I had come across in a long time. An entire book about geometric shapes that were characters is very different. Trying to picture life going forward only in 2 dimensions is really bizarre and as a shape no less, not even stick people. I didn’t even know a book like this existed, but that doesn’t make it any less awesome. Aside from the polygonal characters the whole idea of more sides makes for a better person reminded me of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World ,where your designation whether Alpha or Epsilon determined your place in the world, pretty much all science fiction stories that have a class system remind me of that book though.

I enjoyed the subtle comedy about how women have accidentally killed men because they are lines and appear as a point to the men who are shapes, and the men just don’t see them coming. The idea of the third dimension coming and visiting the second dimension was interesting. I did some research and apparently physicists and mathematicians find the book interesting for the fact that it makes a good argument for the idea of other dimensions. The sphere finds it ridiculous that there could be more than three, while the dot finds it absurd there could be more than one.

I feel a bit silly about not having ever heard of this book before, as it seems influential now that I look into it. I don’t know enough about science to delve into the stuff that would excite physicists about this book, but the scenario where the sphere moves the square into the third dimension has to make you think. If there were other dimensions and we could move through them to get from one place to the next, we could travel awfully far in space and what not. Here this will illustrate my thoughts better. I swear Hugo Weaving used Sagan as his inspiration for Agent Smith‘s voice. Until next time!

Remarks on Filming

I had mentioned last entry that I would write something concerning our filming process. If anyone has had the chance to watch the mini-dvd we gave out they will see a small clip  with myself, Chris, and my wife who is applying that awesome beard I wore. When we did filming for the movie the main difficulty we had was in the light placement and how much room we had to work with. Where the lights were placed ultimately led to the problems we had later with the green screen popping in while we did editing (this was due to a colour change of the green screen because of darker shadows). We continue to use the woodshop as it is a place that provides us with a location to film and not have to be worried about any  excess noise coming into our shots.

Aside from all the laughing that takes place while doing some of the more ridiculous scenes, one of the major things that takes up time is the actual editing of the movie. I believe we mentioned last class for every hour we spend filming or on set translates to at least an hour or 2 editing. I hope Chris posts some of the bloopers or parts of the movie that we had to leave out due to time constraints. We had originally had introductions for both the Back to the Future III clip, as well as a further explanation about the movie Sphere which was all but left out of the presentation.

The process of coming up with what to include in the movie is interesting as well. We have to use what we know from pop culture to kind of fuel what extra things we’d include in the movie, as well as the blog write up. As far as the overall design we go for a PBS style documentary as they always seem to have interviews intermixed with imagery and music. this is actually our second attempt at a documentary style project the first of which we did last semester that can be seen here. It made it somewhat easier this time in planning as we saw places we could improve namely how to make the interviews flow a bit better.

So that’s about it. Not a whole lot to say about it but I thought it’d be nice to share some of the background stuff about our filming experience on the project. Until next time and my thoughts on The Coming Race.

Jules Verne: Submarines, Science and Space

This blog entry will be both for Caleb Spragg and Chris Wetmore and will cover the research done for aspects of Jules Verne’s career, the book 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. You may want to read this post after you have attended our presentation this afternoon.

The Book

This part of the blog entry will cover our thoughts of the book both as a piece of literature and as a piece of pop culture history. Although the book may be known for Verne’s forward thinking of science, it is ultimately made popular by the great adventure story that it is. The perhaps popular misconception that the Nautilus is under the ocean 20,000 leagues, is alleviated by the end of the novel (or even before the book starts depending on one’s knowledge of nautical measurements) and the reader can appreciate how far the characters have traveled. By travelling 20,000 leagues, this is equivalent to circumnavigating the globe at the equator 2 1/2 times. Although they all travel together for this time and experience some fantastic things together, ultimately freedom is the most sought thing by Ned Land, Arronax and Conseil. It is interesting to see how the narrator is conflicted with this quest for freedom though as he is so interested with seeing more and more of what the oceans have to offer.

Another aspect of the novel that is interesting historically is the use of Captain Nemo as an Anti-Hero. He certainly saves the men who are thrown overboard from the ‘Abraham Lincoln’ although afterwards keeps them prisoner. His dislike for humanity (or at least some countries) does not paint him as the traditional protagonist. There is nothing presented in the novel to indicate why Captain Nemo would view whales as evil creatures but he refers to them as this after slaughtering some later in the novel. It has also been his ship that has been attacking in some form other ships at the beginning of the novel. However near to the end of the story the reader finds out that he has been using his wealth to help the poor and oppressed. It is through these dichotomies that Captain Nemo is definitively an Anti-Hero.

In popular culture the story of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, has been remade and adapted in various efforts, many of which were part of our childhood growing up. Let us look at a quick rundown; Super Mario Bros. Super Show had an episode titled 20,000 Koopas under the sea, then the real Ghost Busters episode 20000 Leagues Under the Street, and 20000 Leaks Under the City an old Teenage Mutant Turtles Episode (all via YouTube). this is just a small smattering of of parodies as it were, there have been skits on SNL (which are not posted online), various film versions, as well as some more recent parodies in television shows. Obviously this book itself has had an affect on media today, let alone the technical aspects of what Verne writes about.

Vernes Career and Research for the project

Some of the difficulties that came up with researching for the project involved simply not knowing enough about science. Some of the technical aspects that are mentioned in 20,000 Leagues under the Sea we simply did not have enough experience with to know whether or not the science was closer to real or simply made up. We went with Verne’s consistency as what we were familiar with was science fact to our knowledge. Regarding Verne’s career, it was interesting to learn that he began his career as a playwright after moving to Paris to become a lawyer. His success as a playwright however, was limited and he moved on to writing short stories and eventually longer tales. His first work was 5 Weeks in a Balloon which garnered him much praise from the literary community. Other popular works include From the Earth to the Moon (1865), Around the World in Eighty Days (1875), A Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1871) and most notably 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Many of these works were made into film.

We will post another entry this evening after our presentation that will talk about some of the difficulties we had in filming as well as some of the enjoyable parts about making a film project.

What a creepy doctor

So I’ve read this story twice now and it just creeps me out about a guy who makes a man from spare parts. Does anyone remember Weird Science? Yeah this is way weirder… maybe not but still strange. The whole idea of taking the body parts of dead people and re-animating them is really bizarre, and certainly still in the vein of science fiction. I haven’t heard of any modern day Lazaruses let alone a bunch of body parts coming back to life. No matter what, as hard as I try to think about what I imagined the characters as in the original text I always think of Robert De Niro as the monster, whatever I thought of the first time I read the book is gone now.

Other than the fact that the story kind of makes me uneasy in the beginning, the same feeling I get from war amps robots or drugged muppets, the rest of the story is really quite good and I can’t help but feel bad for the monster and the doctor at the same time. The monster in his  or it’s childlike ways is simply lost and looking for companionship and acceptance. The scene with the Swiss family up in the woods is the catalyst to his slip off the deep end as well as my favorite scene in the whole story. While Victor I feel bad for because his science, through the monster, ends up killing Victor’s brother and then later his wife Elizabeth (by choking), although the film’s depiction of her death is much more heartrending (oh no a pun!) a-la Lloyd Christmas (minus the doggy bag).

I must say I am looking forward to the presentation today to simply see how the science of this story compares with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea which is the novel myself and Fantastic Frick will be covering. Well that’s it for now. Till next time.

The Blog is back!

Ok so I guess that wasn’t my last entry, as I will now be using this blog for my new English class about Fantastical literature. So since we were talking about Avatar way back when class began I guess I’ll start there. I was told by one of my classmates that someone has posted on their blog a portion of the dialogue or script from Pocahontas, replacing characters  from that story with ones from Avatar or something to this effect. I had noticed the same similarity between these two stories as well. Granted I didn’t notice until after I had seen the movie which happened to be the same night as the first day of class which is fitting I suppose.

The first few readings from that first week of class were certainly not what I was expecting, especially all the astronomical calculations, and general lack of Sci-Fi that I am used to. I never thought we’d be watching PBS specials starring Carl Sagan either (who by the way is an excellent singer). Once we got into Gulliver’s Travels though, I was in familiar territory, at least thanks to NBC’s version starring Ted Danson. That third book was a fairly interesting read, and I really enjoyed the discussion in class as to whether or not what was in the book should be classified as Science Fiction.

At first glance I would say no way it was science fiction it was more fantasy, but once I tried to put myself in the shoes of someone who may have been reading it at the time it was released would have absolutly considered it as science fiction. By today’s standards it seems a bit silly and it may have seemed that way to people of Jonathan Swift’s time as well. Alright I’m gonna go read some more blogs for some inspiration. Until next time.

This will be my last entry. Stop.

Before I get started on this last entry I just wanted to throw this out there. This blog assignment was my kryptonite. As much as I hate due dates, I’ve realized from this that not having a due date is much harder as really there is nothing keeping me in line to write stuff on here. I guess I “lack discipline” as the governor of California says in one of his old movies.

So I was debating between my last entry being about Udolpho or God is. Well I had to go with God is. simply because I really, really enjoyed reading it. It has been a long time since I began reading a book and actually had a hard time putting it down. I wrote my essay about it and was somewhat frustrated that I didn’t really get a chance to express my personal opinion of the book, so I am doing that now in this blog. Anyone within the sound of my typing should take the time to read this book.  Probably my favorite thing about it, is that Richards calls out all those people who say religion is dumb, or faith is useless and dominates them through sound argument.

There has a portion of the book around page 54-70 I think. It was a collection of all these things that had happened to him or those he was close to. After I read it I called my mom and told her she had to read it. I just couldn’t keep it to myself it is an excellent read. Richards goes from telling stories like you are sitting over lunch with him, to intelligently forming arguments around arguments given by people like Bill Maher (who I find by the way a complete failure in his comedic profession).

I don’t have a ton to say about how good it is, just that it is. So read it if you didn’t already for this assignment it is worth it.

Letters…

                  Ok so here is the Pamela post and all Pamela related stories ie: Shamela and Anti-Pamela. Maybe this entry is too late to be marked I don’t know but I am gonna go ahead and get it out there anyway. One of the reasons why I never wrote anything in the first place is I really did not know what to say about Pamela. It along with the other stories comprise over 600 pages of letter writting. Granted with the parodies they are making fun of the style, it was in a sense, more of the same.

                  Oh before I go any further I did get to go see 2012 and it indeed turned out very similar to what I was expecting, but worth the money to see it in the theatre. So back to the task at hand. I really didn’t want to come and write this blog entry and make it some big whine & cheese festival. Looking back on past entries it looks like I am some negative person with how I look at the books. That’s not true though I found faults with the other books, I did enjoy them. Take for example Robinson Crusoe, it is a really good story, and I enjoyed his character. With Pamela though, I couldn’t find a connection from myself to Pamela, Mr B or what have you. The structure didn’t help me either, I didn’t like reading letters over and over. To me a letter in a book seems like it should be seperate in a sense, maybe something that is referred to, but by having it as the constant means of narration was just too much. I know that Prof. Jones really likes this book (as far as I can tell) but it was too big and too much of the same to make me keep my interest.

                  The rags to riches love stories from this era have always been a turn off for me. I’ve never read Pride and Predjudice or Sense and Sensibility, but the plot loosely seems similar in that a poor girl ends up having some rich dude fall for her. I CAN’T STAND these types of narrative, I can’t even watch them and that only lasts a couple hours. By the way, those caps were’t me shouting so much as being used for emphasis, gotta reserve the italics when referring to actual works. As far as the parodies go, You kind of have to appreciate the source piece to enjoy it being parodied, at least thats how I feel. Like Star Wars and Spaceballs, if you don’t like Star Wars, you probably won’t appreciate Spaceballs as much.

                 Apparently back when this book came out it was all the rage, so maybe I have just been spoiled by my generation of action movies and complex stories. Reading it now though it plays like a 5 hour You’ve Got Mail and honestly who wants that, it’s just too much. Stories about romance don’t need to be epic in length, at least for my demographic. I couldn’t imagine hanging out with a group of my friends discussing this book,nor can I imagine someone my age discussing this book with friends when it was a new novel, but I guess they did.

                  I’m trying to figure out a closing bit for this entry but what can I say? Maybe I should give props to it if it spawned all those other similar stories, just to recognize where that style of story came from but I can’t verify that assumption. It was too much letter writting about a relationship that seemed unoriginal to me. I think I have one more blog post in me before Friday, hopefully I can get it to count towards my grade and not just write it for my health. Till then.

Some short story stuff

                 With just having finished my essay a few days ago, I figured I had better take some time to do some more blog posts before the end of the term. In the essay I wrote, I focused on the short stories that were assisgned from about a month ago and I had never written any blog posts about them so I decided no w would be a good time. Probably the thing that really jumped out at me when I was reading and rereading some of the stories were Sarah Wilkinson’s pieces. Not only were they very sinilar in the title, but characters and plot were also very close. Certainly they were their own stories but it’s kind of like Roland Emmerich. Sure the guy makes great popcorn movies but ultimately they turn out the same. Independence Day, cities are destroyed (by aliens), Americans unite to save the what is left of the planet. Day After Tomorrow, cities are destroyed (by mother nature), Americans unite to save what is left. 2012 I haven’t seen yet, and I am actually going to go see it tonight but I assume it ends (and likely begins) the same way.  I wish I had the time to go look up and read some of Wilkinson’s other work to see if all her stories are about a young woman being courted, who is then attacked by a villain, and then ends up being saved by a ghost. Sure some of this is classic stuff now (except maybe being saved by a ghost, not exactly a common plot device today), but because it’s the same author and it was quite some time ago, it looks like a bit of a rehash. Maybe she needed money or something I dunno. Like Emmerich though I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy the stories they were well done and were both good reads, I am just stating something I noticed about them.

                 I really enjoyed rereading A Relation of the Apparition of Mrs Veal, mostly for the conversation that was had between the 2 characters, as well as the Sixth Sense-ish ending. The first time I read it, I really didn’t give it the attention it deserved, but after reading it again I can honestly say I liked it.

                 I’ll be sure to post something else tonight, probably about all the Pamela stuff since I haven’t written anything yet, I’ll have to see what I can muster up though as it wasn’t eaxctly my favorite part of the course, by that I mean it was my least favorite section of the course. Well until then blog and blog readers.

Time to play catch-up

                  Well it sure doesn’t seem like a month since the last time I wrote on here but I guess it has been. I think for this post I’m going to talk about Rasselas, I haven’t written anything about Pamela or the other epistolary novels, but honestly there were enough pages filled with boring letters in the first book let alone 2 other novels written the same way that I just didn’t know what to write. I’ll certainly get around to them before the semester ends, but I have to cook up some ideas of how to go about discussing them. When I began reading Rasselas I was pretty excited, with the opening description of Happy Valley it seemed like I was getting into a book that I could really enjoy like Crusoe, but unfortunatly it didn’t stay that way.

                 When Christopher and I were working on our project together, this concept of Orientalism was fairly interesting and we enjoyed our time researching, acting, and putting the movie together. The book however was in a sense anti-climatic when compared to the ideas given on Orientalism, at least according to what we found. As soon as the adventure of the Prince, Princess and the Poet got underway it was finished. The rest of their adventuring was more of an intellectual sense and that’s kind of boring. It seems like Rasselas, for all his gusto, kind of forgot what motivated him to leave Happy Valley. He was so excited about what Imlac had told him with his many adventures, but when he got to his first large city that was good enough for him and the exploring stopped.

                        I don’t want to turn this into a plot summary (although the plot is fairly paper thin) but Cairo seems to have been filled with intellectuals who want to essentially talk about how to find lasting happiness in life. Now don’t get me wrong, the idea can certainly lead to interesting conversation, and I would be totally up for the discussion with some people some time, but it doesn’t exactly make for an engaging story. This may be due to the extremely elevated language used by the characters during their conversations. I honestly felt like Johnson pulled out all the stops and included every quote he had ever come across that had to do with the philosophical discussions carried on by the characters in the novel. Or maybe I am wrong and the man is an absolute genius, by not only writting the book in a week, but coming up with all the stuff in their off the top of his floppy wigged head.

                     The book wasn’t all bad, the bit with the abduction and the Arabs in the desert had potential but fell flat when the abductors were gentlemen and happened to be no threat at all. I did appreciate the Prince’s thirst for knowledge, one that was not easily quenched, something I do feel is missing from the attributes of many an individual. There were even some lines of text that I thought were very clever in their execution. The biggest problem was a lot of the stuff in the book could have just been included in a text book or something, the plot had no real bearing on what was actually happening to the characters and was just used as a vehicle to get these various ideas across. I guess it could be that the concept of the novel was a new one and the concept that they were to entertain as opposed to educate may not have set in yet. Overall not a terrible book, but I doubt I’d have the urge to ever pick it up again.