A journey into the wilderness of authorhood
Well, a few discoveries were made. First, the rankings are not based on traffic, but rather links. Second, the vast majority of the blogs in the TTLB system are political blogs, and I have only one link from them. Third, for some reason, even that link is not being counted (and it comes from a blog in the top 50; go figure).
So TTLB is no longer included here. I do still have SiteMeter stats in the footer at the bottom of the page.
It’s been a while since I’ve spent any money on myself, and since I had a couple gift cards to make use of I figured I could have that pleasure while not really spending any money. So I went DVD shopping. I made it into a sci-fi trifecta. One of the movies was so good I’ve already seen it twice, plus one more listening to the director’s commentary.
Before I get to that, let’s review the other two purchases.
STARSHIP TROOPERS: I’ve loved the book ever since high school. I’d actually seen the movie when it was in theaters, and I remembered being disappointed because the story line wasn’t anything like the book. But the special effects were great, and if you could get past the fact that they titled it Starship Troopers, it was pretty okay.
After watching the DVD, I realize that it really bothers me what they did with the story. They Nazi-fied the Mobile Infantry. When Robert Heinlein wrote the story in 1959, he was becoming frustrated with political decisions made by civilians who had no real-world concept of the consequences of their decisions. He viewed decisions which were made “in the name of peace” as actually driving us closer to war.
Wikipedia has this to say about his decision to write the story:
Robert A. Heinlein wrote from a military background because he had been a commissioned U.S. Naval officer upon graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy and served six years. According to Heinlein, his desire to write Starship Troopers dated back to 1958-04-05, when he and his wife read a newspaper advertisement placed by the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy calling for a unilateral suspension of nuclear weapon testing by the United States. In response, the Heinleins created the Patrick Henry League in an attempt to drum up support for the U.S. nuclear testing program. During the unsuccessful campaign, Heinlein found himself under attack both in and out of the science fiction community for his views.
Heinlein stopped work on the novel that would become Stranger in a Strange Land and wrote Starship Troopers sometime during 1958 and 1959. Starship Troopers was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in October and November 1959 as a serial called Starship Soldier. Although originally written as a juvenile novel for Scribners, it was rejected and was eventually published as an adult novel by G. P. Putnam’s Sons. In many ways, Starship Troopers marked a turning point for Heinlein. Beforehand, he had written both adult novels and juvenile novels for Scribner’s. However, following their rejection of Starship Troopers, he ended his longstanding relationship with them, and began writing books with more adult themes.
The premise behind the society that Heinlein created for Starship Troopers was that in order to become a full citizen with the right to vote you had to serve a minimum two-year term of service in the military. Johnny Rico, the lead, joins up against his parents’ wishes because all his friends are joining. And just as he is about to drop out of boot camp and apologize to Mom & Dad, Earth is attacked.
The movie stayed true to this point, sort of. The gist of the story is there, but there is a dark underside added. Propoganda internet-like news items are inserted as chapter breaks. After the attack, things become less subtle. Ghestapo-like uniforms are worn by the intelligence officers. Soldiers are shown giving weapons and live ammo to children. A woman is almost insanely giddy as she oversees a group of children stomping on cockroaches (the enemy are arachnids or “bugs”).
If you can get over the fact that it is supposed to be Starship Troopers and that the director has intentionally reversed the message intended by the book, it’s still a decent movie. But the political message is pretty much in your face. There’s nothing wrong with that, per se. Heinlein put a political message in the book, and it was in your face. But it irks me that they reversed the message.
Aeon Flux: Believe it or not, this movie also has a political twist to it, but it’s more subtle and you don’t really notice it unless you listen to the commentary. I turned off the commentary by the producer and Charleze Theron about halfway through. There were some interesting tidbits regarding the making of the film (like Charleze actually did most of her own stunts, even after nearly breaking her neck ten days into shooting) but I tired of the preaching. There is another commentary track by the director that I haven’t listened to yet.
Commentaries aside, I really enjoyed this film. It was fresh. A bit of a mystery about the society in which they were living (ala Soylent Green only not as disgusting). If you are a sci-fi fan, this is worth the price of a rental, or, if like me you prefer to buy DVD’s, the $10 or so to purchase it.
Aeon Flux UPDATE: I discovered that Aeon Flux was originally an animated series on MTV. I haven’t watched MTV since they quit playing music, so that’s what, the eighties?
Serenity: By far the best sci-fi movie I’ve seen in a very long time. Visually stunning (even the shots of River’s feet as she walks) and clever dialog (think Western in space). And best of all for me is the writer/director commentary track where he talks about both sides of the project. For me, as a writer/photographer, that was just pudding. Love it. Serenity is based on the cancelled television show Firefly, which I had never seen. Now I’m going to have to find out if the DVDs of the series are available. That may be my next purchase for myself, you know, after April.
Did you notice I had more to say about the film that bothered me the most?
