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On the day I started writing
this article, a warm fire crackled in the hearth, snow fell outside the
window, and a cup of English tea steamed at my elbow. A setting like that
— a cozy, human spot with friends and family near by — really puts
me in the mood for just one thing: Science Fiction. You heard right. Science
Fiction. Of course, I don't mean just any Science Fiction. I don't
mean the sort of thing where characters named "Zargon" from places called
"Hydra-Gamma III" listen to bald-headed creepozoids in silver BVDs rant about
"pure logic." No, the kind of science fiction I'm thinking of is different.
Warmer. Richer. More human. On this kind of science fiction adventure, you
don't want skin-tight leotards and chrome bikinis. You want big wool
sweaters, hiking books, English tweed and pith helmets, with ankle-length
skirts and parasols for the ladies. Yes, this is a special brand of science
fiction — my favorite kind. Ever since I was a kid, I've always loved
the sort of movie where a proper Victorian professor journeys from the
smoke-filled adventurer's clubs of London to some impossible lost world in
his own gilded or wrought-iron invention. The kind of story that somehow
seems to bypass some of the dead-ends of certain other science fiction; seems
to allow us to ponder the kind of mysteries science fiction explores so well
without asking us to leave our roots in the past behind. I loved it then,
and I still love it today. It's a strange little corner of film fantasy to be sure, with an exceptionally interesting historical yarn behind it — but Fireside Science-Fiction is no mere relic of filmdom's past. New pictures are being made once again, with a new level of sophistication; exciting titles like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Jackie Chan’s Around the World in Eighty Days. Given this latter-day resurgence, the time seemed right to showcase the genre at this year’s Imaginarium. As a primer, then, we offer this introductory article—a concise examination of every major movie in the cycle, in hopes of providing a Time Traveler’s sense of where we’ve been…and where, with today’s advanced storytelling techniques, we might be going. So if you’re game, strap on your backpack, crank up your Rumkorpf lamps, and follow me into the thrilling, gaslit world of Fireside Science Fiction. |
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contact us at imaginarium@cornerstonefestival.com or 920 W. Wilson, Chicago, IL 60640 © 2004, Cornerstone Communications, Inc. |