Lots of things to talk about this week but first let’s get the obvious out of the way.
Thank you Lord that the reading of Frankenstein is over and with that strong fundamental base of Science Fiction literature we can now progress into more interesting and most importantly less linguistically complex material.
That said I’m not trying to diminish the literary complexity of writing such brilliant short stories as “The Comet” and “Who Goes There”. I found that the story about the comet striking New York City with deadly gas is incredibly and beautifully written. I found the estrangement of the protagonist at the beginning really threw me off the trail. For some reason I assumed that when Jim said the president had told him to do something in the vaults, that we were talking about THE PRESIDENT not just some random guy.
This quickly put me in the mindset of the otherworldly scene that was to follow even as the events unfolded explaining that Jim was in fact just a bank clerk and the president was the president of the bank. What I found the most valuable and interesting element of this short was not the carnage and science fiction element of the story as described by the writer, but rather the true story of the man Jim Davis hidden amidst the text. Somehow this catastrophe became a backdrop for a window into racial prejudices and in an extremely powerful way it was more impactful because of this hidden agenda.
It made me feel like I was transplanted mentally into the thought processes of Jim Davis’ character and his life struggle with racism against him. It was weird because it at once made me, a white suburban kid from NOVA who is removed from any sort of racial tensions, identify with Davis and his daily struggle in life.
I also could not but help make a connection with the comet story and its resemblance to the alien landscape presented on 9/11. It really mirrored the conditions present in the story and in simple ways showed how when things go haywire that race and creed seemed to fade and people just wanted to not be alone.
The revelation of two people as possibly the only humans left on the planet completely changed the dynamic of the story into a man vs. nature struggle with the only two representatives of humanity as a new Adam and Eve.
The comet left me wondering why DuBois didn’t write a full novel about this? I think he has hit on literary gold and whilst I have not researched this I can only hope someone has or will do one of two things, make this a full length novel, or some sort of series on the SYFY channel.
I know SYFY is a blasphemous term especially the SYFY channel in this class but all I can say is watch BSG and if you tell me that they don’t know how to make the most compelling TV show ever and I’ll call you dead wrong. On this topic I was wondering if people think that science fiction television shows are a positive or a negative for the genre of science fiction in a broader intellectual base. Personally whilst there is plenty of crap out there I think the few shows that shine through on occasion make it all worth while and can really deliver some powerful and also meaningful stories, i.e. BSG, Firefly, Alphas etc…
I wrapped my final thoughts into one brief synopsis and commentary on “The Thing” and “Who Goes There”
Synopsis: Monsters from space that change shape into any animal it touches is a sinisterly genius plot. Add to that the human drama element of 7 guys stuck at the south pole with no help for thousands of miles and you have some extremely intense verbal exchanges.
I’m not sure but the story from “Who Goes There” literally can almost be read as a script to “The Thing”. The movie is incredibly gripping and so is the short because the dramatic points are exactly the same. The story seemed really gritty and personal as no one is pulling any punches verbally and just say what they think. I found it refreshing when taken in comparison to Shelley’s Frankenstein and Victor never stopping to use common sense to solve his problem.
Final note: Kurt Russell with a beard, toting a shotgun, a flamethrower and a lot of profanity makes a dang good movie. Not to mention the black man with the greatest voice ever Keith David. (Sorry Morgan Freeman but a TV show about the cosmos does not make you the best voice over guy ever, despite your glorious career you just don’t cut it)
I know it’s difficult to respond to a really long post like this with lots of differing topics but there was a lot of really entertaining and interesting things to read, watch, and digest this week. I would hope people can hone in on one of the things I mentioned and maybe challenge my conclusions or concur with my assessment of THE THING and the short stories.
Thanks for reading,
Mike Carroll