all the news that print will fit.
|
|
| notes from underground - societal whispers all the news that print will fit. |
|
|
Tuesday, September 14, 2004 np: moody synth music as you might have guessed from the np, i've been watching a john carpenter film. namely escape from new york. this was my first time seeing it and even though this is a bit of a clunker thing to admit (in that i'm behind the times), i'm slowly becoming a fan of carpenter's work. escape from new york is a fantastic film and certainly got me thinking about all those other dystopian, futuristic books and films that i've always enjoyed so much. so i thought i'd take the time to lay out a few recommendations. note that all the links are to amazon pages. if you're buying things through amazon, don't forget to click through the link on this site. starting in october (during the 4th quarter of the year), i'll be re-starting my holiday fundraiser for a worthy cause. last year the site raised $70+ for the triad health project, a fantastic AIDS charity here in guilford county. i'm not sure what organization i want to work for this year. i may even end up using THP again, but i'll let you know in october. so click those amazon links, especially for your holiday purchases. -- blade runner is an amazing film and definitely one of the high points of ridley scott's career. it is truly the best adaptation of a phillip k. dick story (with spielberg's the minority report running a close second), even if it does take some liberties with the plot. it's dark, uncomfortable and paranoid, but so was phillip dick, so there you go. the dispossesed by ursula k. leguin is an amazing novel about an anarchical society and a man who steps up to challengs its isolationist existence. first off, it's really interesting to see how leguin pictures an anarchist society functioning. she also ends up probing the unquenchable thirst of humans for posession and power over others, even in the face of a supposed utopian existence. a very provocative novel. the moon is a harsh mistress by robert heinlein sets up another interesting society, this one run on our own moon. the moon starts off as a prison colony, only to find its non-prisoner inhabitants feeling cheated and used by the earth governments. they end up starting a revolution to form their own government. heinlein's politics are a bit obvious, but they make for a really compelling read even if you don't agree. the writing style even forges its own way through the ideas in what is one of my favorite sci-fi books of all time. neuromancer by william gibson is one in a million. written in 1984, he pioneered the concept of the matrix (although different than what the movie the matrix envisioned) and brought science fiction down to a whole new level of dread, depth and power. it is a stunning read and gibson should be held in the american canon of literature for it alone. dark city is a movie on its own. it's a bizarre ride that somehow takes nighthawks at the diner and turns it into a world of humans at the whim of an unreal force of observers. a film you simply have to see to understand. cube is a film i rented on an off chance. i rented it the same night i rented pi and i know the guy behind the counter thought me some math geek. cube, despite middle of the road acting, gets by on the sheer force of its unbelievable plot. five strangers wake up in a bizarre maze of cubes, some booby trapped, others not, with no visable way out and no food or water. we never learn why they're there, and truly we don't know if they ever get out, but what happens between the beginning and the end is one of the most thrilling, suspenseful sci-fi films of the past decade. -- then of course, there's the hardy boys #99: dungeon of doom in which joe and frank become embroiled in an all too real game of wizards and warriors in an abandoned mine outside of town. they have to solve riddles, avoid traps and win a fencing fight in order to out the badies! and of course, it gave D&Ders a reason to feel better about themselves. hey, frank and joe think you're okay. put down that 5th snickers bar and chin up, brave apprentice! good times, my friends, good times. posted by J. Neas | 9/14/2004 10:43:00 PM
Comments:
Post a Comment
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
