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| Syd |
 Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 9:19 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| Jesus Christ, E.T. is a first contact movie; of course it's science fiction. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| lshap |
| Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 9:36 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 12 May 2004
Posts: 4248
Location: Montreal
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E.T.'s got the affectations of sci-fi -- alien, mothership, panicky scientists -- but all those relationships are presented in the context of their affect on the little kid, Elliot.
Is he some metaphor for humanity's innocence? Is he the prism through which the hubris of science is laid bare? Is he the next wave humankind, steered toward its destiny by extraterrestrial wisdom or technology?
No. He's just a little kid who makes a friend and has to outsmart the grownups to save him. It's a buddy flic, not a visionary story. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 9:47 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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| Hey kids, don't shoot your sci-fi wad until we officially get the forum up and running. |
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| lshap |
| Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 9:50 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 12 May 2004
Posts: 4248
Location: Montreal
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| My sci-fi wad is big enough for two forums. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 9:58 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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Quote: My sci-fi wad is big enough for two forums
Which reminds me of THE AMAZING TWO-HEADED TRANSPLANT. |
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| Kate |
| Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 10:50 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 1397
Location: Pacific Northwest
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| Does anyone remember the two-headed monster movie where the guy noticed an ich on his shoulder only to see that it was the eye of the monster? What was that? |
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| Kate |
| Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 11:00 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 1397
Location: Pacific Northwest
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| Another question...anybody remember the weekly "Creature Feature"? The hand slowly disappearing into the swamp followed by the movie? My dad and I watched it religiously, that and Monty Python. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 11:06 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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E. T. is a first contact movie told from the point of view of a child (and of E.T. himself in some scenes, such as the opening). The fact that it's told from that point of view makes it no less science fiction. You can have science fiction told from the point of view of a cat (and it's been done). lshap has an idiosyncratic definition of science fiction which doesn't bear any resemblance on how most people use the term.
I'm curious whether lshap excludes Starman from his definition of science fiction, since it's a similar film. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| McBain |
| Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 11:10 pm |
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Joined: 26 May 2004
Posts: 1987
Location: Boston
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Marc wrote: They are "sci-fi". They're not "science fiction".
But is it a "film" or is it a "movie"? *rolls eyes* |
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A life, Jimmy. You know what that is? It's the shit that happens while you're waiting for moments that never come. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 11:18 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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sci-fi is a futuristic sound system.
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| Sunshine |
| Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 11:19 pm |
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Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 3
Location: La Quinta, California
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Hi, Marantz here. Sorry I couldn't be more active here lately, but I've got Sunshine's gun in my hand right now, so don't fuck with me.
God I love America! |
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Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 11:23 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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The cat's name is Melpomene. Although the character in the John Barnes novel insists on all four syllables (a clue that the author is up to something), the cat doesn't, and I'll probably call her 'Pomene or something similar.
Of course, if she's my muse, my writing will be tragic. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 12:31 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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Mcbain,
you dumbfuck. The "sci-fi" vs. "science fiction" argument is an old one.
Science fiction writers argue that "sci-fi" is a demeaning term that refers to
pop culture entertainments that incorporate aliens, spaceships etc. without any of the science. The "sci-fi" vs. "science fiction" argument has been going on for half a century. Roll your eyes all you want. The rolling doesn't signify intelligence, you're probably just passing out from the cheap beer and skunk weed. |
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| tirebiter |
| Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 1:16 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4011
Location: not far away
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Kate: The film where the guy develops an eye on his shoulder (that later turns into a head) is The Manster (1962). It's an oddity-- British/Japanese, with a soundtrack that a friend said sounded like "a chicken walking up and down the keys of a piano." Sam Raimi later made fun of the eye-on-the-shoulder scene in Army of Darkness, the 3rd Evil Dead movie featuring Ash (Bruce Campbell).
I have a broad view of the definition of SF, sci-fi, science fiction. As Justice Potter said about pornography, "I know it when I see it." |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 2:40 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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I'm looking forward to the sci-fiction or is that science-fi forum. I'm keeping my powder (ground cocanium crystal from the Planet Columblo) unhydrated and ready to take me stars.
This forum is a bit like an interglatic fuel transporter, it has a turning circle of five lightyears and needs a young sun's worth of light, mutable gases to make the leap to hyperspace. Please be patient, its a group dynamics thing. |
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I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it. |
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