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#16 |
Evangelist
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#17 | |
Sir Penguin of Edinburgh
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I was quoting Larry Niven. He said that The Inferno was the first SF in that it was based in the most up to date understanding of the world at that time. |
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#18 | ||
New York Editor
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Quote:
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______ Dennis |
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#19 |
Wizard
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"The Illustrated Book of Science Fiction Lists" by Mike Ashley suggests the following ten candidates for earliest SF works:
1) 'The Epic of Gilgamesh' - c.2100 BC 2) 'The Odyssey', Homer - c.750 BC 3) 'The Birds', Aristophanes - 414 BC 4) 'Timaios' and 'Critias', Plato - c.350 BC 5) 'Heliopolis', Iamboulos - c.260 BC 6) 'The Argonautica', Apollonios - c.250 BC 7) 'Somnium Scipianus', Marcus Cicero - 45 BC 8) 'Facies in Orbe Lunare', Plutarch - c.100 AD 9) 'Of Marvels Beyond Thule', Antonius Diogenes - c.100 AD 10) 'Alethes Historia', Lucian of Samosata - c.170 AD |
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#20 | |
Wizard
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It's possible to find loose connections between any films - perhaps it could be argued that Jurassic Park has a mad scientist (or at least a scientist who does a mad thing), and Metropolis has a mad scientist too - but then so did Frankenstein which predates Metropolis. And, in purely cinematic terms, Jurassic Park and Metropolis don't seem to have much in common. So, I'd contend the SF tropes in Metropolis were not themselves original; and the cinematic influence of Metropolis is not apparent in "every" big-budget sf movie - all imho of course ![]() |
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#21 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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Of the movies you mentioned, The Incredible Shrinking Man certainly breaks every tenet of the aforementioned template... although it could arguably be covered under "technology run amok," as that caused the crisis of the story. Many of the other "B" horror movies of that same era, like Them, similarly use the "tech run amok" element to create their menace, and have no other connection to SF. Others that break those tenets might include Gattaca, Soylent Green, and Vanilla Sky. They are part of a separate movement in SF, represented by movies like Solaris, where technology and futuristic elements clearly take second place to the characters and their stories/motivations. Of the others, they are obviously not "like" Metropolis, but they still use at least a few of the elements that were iconic to that movie. As time went by, other elements were added to the list of SF "icons," such as space travel in aircraft- or boat-like ships, ray guns, and aliens. ET borrowed from 2 of those later elements, plus the orchestral score. Labs with incomprehensible displays, flashing lights and computers, were all prominent in Jurassic Park, Solaris (both versions), Fantastic Voyage, Alien, and The Andromeda Strain. Alien included a menacing robot. Again, I'm not suggesting that these movies deliberately borrowed from Metropolis... just that those iconic elements of SF that they used were largely created for Metropolis originally. |
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#22 |
Grand Sorcerer
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Next
I did not address Next... personally, I'm not sure if subjects like people with unique mental powers could be considered SF or fantasy (like traditional superhero powers). If you consider it to be SF, then yes, it also breaks the aforementioned tenets. Next is less the iconic SF movie, and more the iconic adventure movie (main character with unique abilities saves the day), which is the way I would consider it.
Last edited by Steven Lyle Jordan; 02-09-2008 at 09:23 AM. |
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#23 |
Grand Sorcerer
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#24 |
Grand Sorcerer
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More trivia probably known to most of you:
1. Andre Norton is a pen name for Alice Mary North. She wrote other books under here own name but considered that the audience for SF wouldn't buy books written by a woman. 2. Not a singe SF author predicted that the first moon visit would be televised. Dale |
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#25 | |
New York Editor
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She was born Alice Mary Norton, and legally changed her name to Andre Alice Norton in 1934. "Andrew North" was a pen name she used, as was Andre Norton and Allen Weston. ______ Dennis |
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#26 |
Wizard
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The shortest SF story is "Why Booth Did Not Shoot Lincoln" by Ed Wellen; it appeared in Orbit 15, Damon Knight (ed.) in 1974, and is completely blank.
(Does anyone get it?? ![]() The shortest SF love story ever written is the cleverly titled "The Shortest Science Fiction Love Story Ever Written" by Jeff Renner ("F & SF", March 1964). It's 9 words long. Last edited by Sparrow; 02-09-2008 at 02:54 PM. Reason: Possible explanation added |
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#27 | |
New York Editor
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![]() ______ Dennis |
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#28 |
Grand Sorcerer
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SF can be credited with the creation of the 20th century "superhero" genre. Prior to 1900, detectives, cowboys, soldiers, and myths (like Paul Bunyan) dominated adventure stories. The growing popularity of SF in literature and movies led to the first heroes with "superhuman" abilities based on elements taken from science fiction, including alien origins or artifacts, advanced gadgets or tools, and powers obtained from lab experiments (or accidents). Their popularity in turn crowded out most non-superhero characters, and forced others to be altered to suit the new SF geist.
The first superhero costumes drew heavily from illustrator Alex Raymond's costume designs for the Flash Gordon newspaper strip, featuring capes, boots, chest insignias, bright colors and swashbuckling lines. |
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#29 | ||
Recovering Gadget Addict
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#30 | |
New York Editor
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It's a novel about a space liner falling into a black hole. Only it isn't, quite: as Malzberg explains, the writing techniques required to truly describe the experience won't even exist until the late 24th century, so it's more of a series of notes toward what such a novel might be... Lots of fun in an odd handedly brilliant package. ______ Dennis |
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