Tuesday, December 8, 2015

The Fiction of Ideas

Benny Davis

The Fiction of Ideas



Science Fiction is one of the most popular genres in the history of storytelling. Specifically because of its ability to delve so far from reality and into the realm of one’s adventure fantasies.

Take for example, the movie “Heavy Metal”. While it may be a cartoon (among MANY other things), it represents an intriguing fantasy that most people have all the time. If you don’t believe me, look at the way it is structured, as well as the countless parodies of it, including the one in “South Park” by Matt Stone and Trey Parker. What man would not want to appear in a distant world and be suddenly surrounded by beautiful women?

A series I recently began watching, called “The Man in the High Castle”, is a much different form of science fiction. One might call it Political Sci-fi. It is a story in which the allies lost World War II, and now the Nazis and Japanese have divided rule over the United States. But one character discovers a film reel; a film that shows the allies winning the war. It sparks a revolution, and she goes on a quest to find out where the film came from and what it means, and if there is a chance of overthrowing the axis government.

The series is based on a book by Philip K Dick. After watching some episodes, I am now very interested in how the book was written.


-Benny Davis

No comments:

Post a Comment