tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post5684913408470741415..comments2024-03-29T06:22:47.638-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: Dune the movie: Lynch vs Villeneuve vs Frank Herbert... and us.David Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger87125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-14236339328402708192021-12-01T11:41:58.507-08:002021-12-01T11:41:58.507-08:00It's the old Chinese curse again "May you...It's the old Chinese curse again "May you live in interesting times".<br /><br />It's difficult to make an exciting film (or book) about nice normal people. Villains or mixed-up hero-villains make a much more exciting read. Even as a kid, I soon figured that the best place for adventures was on the pages of a book, and that they would be far less enjoyable to live through than to read about. <br /><br />Incidentally, I quite like the ending to the Costner film. It tied in neatly with the earlier scene where the Holnist soldiers indignantly reject "Universal Soldier" in favour of the far gentler "Sound of Music". Clearly many of them (even ones who were there voluntarily), saw it as only the least-worst of a bad set of options, and would have opted for another way of life had one been offered. Hence their behaviour at the end. <br /><br />I do wonder though about the aftermath - whether some bright spark might try to put the Holnists on trial for War crimes", forcing them to take up arms again in self-defence. But Costner was smart enough to stop before that problem could arise. Mikestonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06553603072804759589noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-81011398842691972032021-11-22T02:41:08.302-08:002021-11-22T02:41:08.302-08:00One of the services offered by this print on deman...One of the services offered by this print on demand company is called print on demand personal manager. If you have a person in your organization that needs a certain amount of work done, but you do not have the time or manpower to do it, you can assign this person <a href="https://cdsc.libraries.wsu.edu/scalar/tips-and-trick-for-perfect-fit-dress-shirts/tips-and-trick-for-perfect-fit-dress-shirts" rel="nofollow"><b>print on demand services</b></a>. <br />henrythomas4554364https://www.blogger.com/profile/18114475629480263818noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-1599804508161636882021-11-22T02:41:01.137-08:002021-11-22T02:41:01.137-08:00One of the services offered by this print on deman...One of the services offered by this print on demand company is called print on demand personal manager. If you have a person in your organization that needs a certain amount of work done, but you do not have the time or manpower to do it, you can assign this person <a href="https://cdsc.libraries.wsu.edu/scalar/tips-and-trick-for-perfect-fit-dress-shirts/tips-and-trick-for-perfect-fit-dress-shirts" rel="nofollow"><b>print on demand services</b></a>. <br />henrythomas4554364https://www.blogger.com/profile/18114475629480263818noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-29780368049684109012021-11-06T12:31:25.897-07:002021-11-06T12:31:25.897-07:00onward
onwardonward<br />onwardDavid Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-4801798335947089022021-11-06T11:58:53.256-07:002021-11-06T11:58:53.256-07:00Lucas's "Hero's Journey" blather...Lucas's "Hero's Journey" blather was retro-fitting. But sure, there were lots of overlaps in the 1st firlm. So? I despise Campbell's campaign to corrall storytelling into rigid chutes and boxes.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-63365009013596898872021-11-06T11:53:12.424-07:002021-11-06T11:53:12.424-07:00Jon S:
he [George Lucas] was trying to make somet...Jon S:<br /><i><br />he [George Lucas] was trying to make something fun to watch, like the old Saturday serials at the movie house. The grandiose overarching plot came much later, and was largely invented by fans.<br /></i><br /><br />The first part, sure. But wasn't it Lucas's own obsession to treat Campbell's "Hero's journey" as a step-by-step "must follow" manual as to how every story should be written, and to therefore shove his existing plot and characters into that paradigm?Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-31776223812650264362021-11-06T10:56:33.298-07:002021-11-06T10:56:33.298-07:00Yeah, at the time SW was produced, a LOT of core s...Yeah, at the time SW was produced, a LOT of core story elements defined in layer movies hadn't been figured out yet, such as Luke and Leia being siblings.Ilithi Dragonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10300247936272572280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-42164111983731716662021-11-06T10:40:22.001-07:002021-11-06T10:40:22.001-07:00Y'know, I also enjoyed the first book in the s...<i>Y'know, I also enjoyed the first book in the same way that I enjoyed the first Star Wars movie, but I'm coming to understand that both authors would probably be disappointed with me.</i><br /><br />Only the new revisionist Lucas would pretend disappointment. He stated at the time that when he made <i>Star Wars</i> (with the unacknowledged but definite help of Marcia), he was trying to make something <i>fun</i> to watch, like the old Saturday serials at the movie house. The grandiose overarching plot came <i>much</i> later, and was largely invented by fans.Jon S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/13585842845661267920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-79570154742077236042021-11-06T10:11:51.869-07:002021-11-06T10:11:51.869-07:00I tend to agree with the ent's critique of the...I tend to agree with the ent's critique of the mythical skiffy FTL future. 186000 miles per second; not just a good idea, it's the Law! I want to see SF that takes the known science _seriously_. FTL is a cheat, and I'm bored with it. There's plenty real that provokes the sense of wonder. <br /><br />As for "the man-made world of culture is vastly overrated and mostly made of bullshit": in Cordwainer Smith's "Game of Rat and Dragon", a pin-lighter's feline partner telepathically signaled to him precisely that view of human culture.Paradoctorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04821968120388981470noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-23029128042313545302021-11-06T08:02:53.661-07:002021-11-06T08:02:53.661-07:00I can't rightly explain why I "got" ...<i>I can't rightly explain why I "got" the rest of Dr Brin's series (and want more!) instead of complaining that turning Sundiver into the Uplift Saga is a kind of reverse alchemy, turning gold into lead.</i><br /><br />Probably because it wasn't a bait-and-switch affair. <i>Sundiver</i> isn't particularly different in theme/ethics/philosophy than later works. The universe gets deeper and more complex later as more is revealed, but last in the series doesn't feel like a different setting with the same names.<br /><br />Also, there's a noticeable absence of plot-spackle covering gaping holes in the setting…Robertnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-88152133820359450702021-11-05T19:17:48.004-07:002021-11-05T19:17:48.004-07:00Der Oger:
Dune is like as if Asimov and Leni Rief...Der Oger:<br /><i><br />Dune is like as if Asimov and Leni Riefenstahl had a love child, raised in a hippie community led by Phillip K. Dick and Opus Dei Warrior Nuns on LSD.<br /></i><br /><br />Wow!<br /><br />The only thing missing there is a reference to Ayn Rand. :)<br /><br />(Though, if Dr Brin is correct, it's also like if Leni Riefenstahl said, "But I was trying to show how <b>bad</b> Naziism is!")<br /><br /><i><br />Though I enjoyed the first book, I nowadays think had there been no sequels, I'd see it much more critical.<br /></i><br /><br />Y'know, I also enjoyed the first book in the same way that I enjoyed the first <i>Star Wars</i> movie, but I'm coming to understand that both authors would probably be disappointed with me. In both cases, the writer seems to have eased us to his larger universe by beginning with a crowd-pleasing adolescent boy's action-adventure story taking place within that world. Both writers seemed to want to then get to the <b>real</b> story he wanted to tell, which has little to do with the fun aspect of the first episode.<br /><br />One might notice the same pattern in Dr Brin's <i>Sundiver</i> relative to the extended "Uplift" saga. I can't rightly explain why I "got" the rest of Dr Brin's series (and want more!) instead of complaining that turning <i>Sundiver</i> into the Uplift Saga is a kind of reverse alchemy, turning gold into lead.Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-90604582108644013522021-11-05T17:19:06.875-07:002021-11-05T17:19:06.875-07:00No discussion of 'Loony Doons' humour woul...No discussion of 'Loony Doons' humour would be complete without a reference to <a href="https://calvinanddune.tumblr.com/" rel="nofollow">'Calvin and Muad'dib'</a> Tony Fiskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578160528746657971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-25660811486949950952021-11-05T15:38:20.181-07:002021-11-05T15:38:20.181-07:00Ack. I gotta learn to read the links first before...Ack. I gotta learn to read the links first before making posts. :(A.F. Reyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08102355714883828348noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-28023135125303998062021-11-05T15:34:55.813-07:002021-11-05T15:34:55.813-07:00Larry Hart: re: "when the 1980s movie was in ...<i>Larry Hart: re: "when the 1980s movie was in the works, I saw something on a bulletin board on the nascent internet"</i><br /><br />I remember my college "newspaper" at the time published some quotes before the movie was released.<br /><br />I believe one of them was Baron Harkonnen saying, "The Fremen have an expression: revenge is a dish best served cold. <br /><br />It is very cold in spice."A.F. Reyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08102355714883828348noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-7705687060935109232021-11-05T15:29:15.323-07:002021-11-05T15:29:15.323-07:00Dune is like as if Asimov and Leni Riefenstahl had...Dune is like as if Asimov and Leni Riefenstahl had a love child, raised in a hippie community led by Phillip K. Dick and Opus Dei Warrior Nuns on LSD.<br /><br />Though I enjoyed the first book, I nowadays think had there been no sequels, I'd see it much more critical.Der Ogerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00977602334642769985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-81716449210700063472021-11-05T15:27:32.657-07:002021-11-05T15:27:32.657-07:00The lasguns in Dune aren't really lasers. I th...The lasguns in Dune aren't really lasers. I think he just picked that name so readers would get an idea of what the thing was. Or perhaps he just said 'F the physics, it's a laser. Because I think it is in one of the last three books where you learn that the Holzman Field Effect is the core technology behind the lasgun, shield, and their FTL drives. And also that the Holzman dude took credit for something his wife discovered.Lawrencehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01897088393026835108noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-89092814043252099182021-11-05T15:14:41.724-07:002021-11-05T15:14:41.724-07:00"The shocking realization I had that made me ..."The shocking realization I had that made me the way I am, rather than the way I was raised to be, was that the man-made world of culture is vastly overrated and mostly made of bullshit."<br /><br />If I stipulate that as anyone on the other side of a midlife crisis might have to.(I've had <i>four</i> of those in the last six years!)... <br /><br />Then I can't help but wonder, what with the cattle and much draftier clapboard house, whether my great- and great-great grandfather's subsistence farm in in Utah Territory 12-14 decades ago, along with the separatist millennialism so common to Western American settlements throughout Utah and Washington Territories back then... <br /><br />Wasn't that condition made up of far more of the aforementioned ingredient?<br /><br />And if g-g-g-Pappy was wrong... couldn't I be wrong about by own... um... stuff?Robhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07541997928359883625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-25512779724787201172021-11-05T14:43:37.013-07:002021-11-05T14:43:37.013-07:00Apologies
I had a brain fart about the numbers of ...Apologies<br />I had a brain fart about the numbers of the lead effected - there are about the same in percentage now as they were - but they are now in "more likely to vote" categoryduncan cairncrosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14153725128216947145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-16457723447959297762021-11-05T13:00:31.827-07:002021-11-05T13:00:31.827-07:00Hrm. Of course Treebeard is dyspeptic, growling th...Hrm. Of course Treebeard is dyspeptic, growling that, since his own side is unsupportably crazy, everyone must be.<br /><br />In fact though, I also think MATRIX is more likely than Star Wars! A platonic 'cave of delusions" is more likely than whatever drug trip Lucas turned his originally fun fantasy into, featuring far more deliberate death (largely at Yoda's pudgy hands) than any other cosmos ever imagined.<br /><br />Star Trek... well, given that we are already halfway to that world, though lacking transporters and warp drive, the ent's growl is typically ingrate for all the comforts and freedoms and pleasures and opportunities this halfway there civilization has provided him... rather than making him kibble.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-80990234745070205632021-11-05T12:56:04.278-07:002021-11-05T12:56:04.278-07:00https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/04/opinion/america...https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/04/opinion/american-politics-optimism.html<br /><i><br />Any or all of that is possible. But whatever the case, we don’t see ourselves striding toward a better tomorrow. We see ourselves tiptoeing around catastrophe. That was true even before Covid. That was true even before Trump.<br /><br />Was it one of the dynamics on display on Tuesday in Virginia and New Jersey, where voters abruptly cooled on Democrats and warmed to Republicans? We seem to be unhappy with and unsure about whoever’s holding the reins, which we then pass to their opponents, so that we can become unhappy with and unsure about them. Our cynicism begets our seesaw.<br /></i><br /><br />There's some truth there, but I perceive an asymmetry which never gets mentioned in analyses like the one above.<br /><br />The country becomes disenchanted with Republicans when they are in charge because of what they do with their power. The country then becomes disenchanted with Democrats when they are in charge because Republicans manage to keep them from <b>using</b> power. <br /><br />The so-called see-saw back and forth between throwing one or the other party out of office is driven by disenchantment with <b>Republicans</b> do either way. When Republicans are in charge, we are horrified with what they do and "throw the bums out." Then when Democrats are in charge, we are horrified by the incivility and obstructionism of Republicans until we "throw the bums back in" to keep them from being too angry.<br /><br />This doesn't sound possible--why don't Democrats just do what Republicans do when out of power?--but the difference is that Democrats want to govern and Republicans don't. In order to <b>pass</b> legislation, you need both houses of Congress, buy-off from the opposition to avoid a filibuster, and a willing president. In order to <b>obstruct</b>, as we saw in 2009, all you need is 41 Senators. That's how Republicans have their way when Democrats appear to control government.Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-61665982433906611232021-11-05T12:46:07.566-07:002021-11-05T12:46:07.566-07:00Treebeard:
I used to buy them when I didn’t know ...Treebeard:<br /><i><br />I used to buy them when I didn’t know any better, but now I save my money. We have more than enough illusions already; when I want to escape, I go into nature, not deeper into man-made fake worlds. The shocking realization I had that made me the way I am, rather than the way I was raised to be, was that the man-made world of culture is vastly overrated and mostly made of bullshit.<br /></i><br /><br />???<br /><br />Aren't you the one who insists that Western culture is lacking in respect for Teutonic mythological archetypes?Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-78559501778637461542021-11-05T12:27:11.987-07:002021-11-05T12:27:11.987-07:00DUNE is a fantasy-laden echo of FOUNDATION. So was...DUNE is a fantasy-laden echo of FOUNDATION. So was STAR WARS and other goofy space romps like it. However, FOUNDATION itself was an interpretation of the Visigoths coming over the seventh hill, with the twist that psychohistory had had time to germinate, and Chaos finally had a worthy dance partner. Hominins fashion new creations that threaten yet also redeem - shades of FRANKENSTEIN. Rise of the Toolmakers.scidatahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07152319593457629592noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-41659496530092443162021-11-05T12:23:02.150-07:002021-11-05T12:23:02.150-07:00Treebeard: Your words inspire me to take a walk ou...Treebeard: Your words inspire me to take a walk outside and breathe some fresh air, so the other thing I feel today reading this is gratitude. Thank you for the reminder to relax and look around at the real. :-) <br /><br />But I still like the movies and talking about the interesting ones. I like the man made world of culture and don't intend to stop doing that.Rob Perkinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15618647194288598056noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-41099264710000058462021-11-05T12:01:44.257-07:002021-11-05T12:01:44.257-07:00Oops! I forgot that DOON actually had sugar '...Oops! I forgot that DOON actually had sugar 'desserts' long ago. I have them in THE ANCIENT ONES!David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-39670630688215477362021-11-05T11:59:21.637-07:002021-11-05T11:59:21.637-07:00Let's not forget the Kumquat Haagen Daz from T...Let's not forget the Kumquat Haagen Daz from The Harvard Lampoon's masterpiece, DOON. <br /><br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Lampoon%27s_Doon<br /><br />"Arruckus...Doon...dessert planet."GMT -5 8032https://www.blogger.com/profile/04677459423995332529noreply@blogger.com