Low brow culture choices

[altariel]

From communicator. My choices in bold.



1. Scully or Buffy? Although I'd pick BtVS over The X-Files.
2. Travel: faster than light, or through time? Although Mr Altariel tells me they amount to the same thing.
3. Travis II or I? In time, we all come to Greif.
4. Star Trek or Star Wars?
5. Hogwarts or Narnia? "Despite," says Mr A., "the Great Betrayal."
6. Sword or Sorcery?
7. Clarke or Asimov?
8. Terminator I or II?
9. Crichton or Kryten?
10. Telepaths or psychopaths? Ooh yes.
11. Slaughterhouse 5 or Babylon 5? It's not really a comparison of like things, I think.
12. Werewolves or Vampires? Mr A. violently disagrees.
13. 1984 or Brave New World?
14. Androids or Elves?
15. Cyberpunk or New Wave? Er, only because I don't rightly know what the last one is.
16. Spock or Spike?
17. Blade Runner or Total Recall? How can this be a dilemma? Blade Runner or Brazil: that would be hard.
18. Alien or Aliens?
19. Alternative history or Political allegory? The former can contain the latter.
20. Conspiracy or Catastrophe? Preferably plague.
21. The Shining or Carrie?
22. Leonard Shelby or Truman Burbank? Mr A. says, "Neither."
23. Slartibartfast or Saruman? Harsh. But Saruman is my least favourite character in the book.
24. Horror or Angst?
25. 'Terra is my nation' or Terry Nation? But Chris Boucher really.

Comments

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

The defining work for New Wave SF (in the way Neuromancer was for cyberpunk) was J G Ballard's The Terminal Beach. If you're curious, try to find Ballard's Vermillion Sands instead. It's not as hard-core New Wave, but has the rather significant advantage that it's actually readable.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Calle. Various people have suggested I might like Ballard. (I didn't get on with Neuromancer, but I like cyberpunky stuff visually.)

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

Oh, I really didn't mean to infer that there are any similarities between Neuromancer and The Terminal Beach. Except on the level of them both consisting of words.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Oh, I meant that since I hadn't much liked written cyberpunk, perhaps I would like New Wave stuff more (particularly as the Ex-Communicator had set them up as a binary).

[communicator.livejournal.com]

I think the New Wave was a bit like Modernism in mainstream literature. It introduced a more fluid style based on transformation of consciousness, and subjectivity. It was the sixties soft-SF revolution. Michael Moorcock and Brian Aldiss are others. I find some of it quite impenetrable, but compared to traditional SF there is a bigger emphasis on writing stylishly, and less on science.

A short story you might like a lot (I do) is 'The Heat Death of the Universe' by Pamela Zoline, about the relationship between entropy and housework.

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

Another thing that separated the New Wave writers from those that came before them was an emphasis on "Inner Space" (which, I guess, is pretty much the same thing as the transformation of consciousness you mention) rather than physical outer space and its spaceships.

[communicator.livejournal.com]

And raising controversial issued to do with sex and politics

BTW - for altariel1 - I found 'Heat death' online

http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/zoline/zoline1.html

[altariel.livejournal.com]

That was extremely good.

[gfk88.livejournal.com]

5 What was the Great Betrayal ?

Oh, and: Poirot or Miss Marple ? Or maybe: Poirot or Holmes ?

[altariel.livejournal.com]

The Great Betrayal was when a young Mr A. realized that the Narnia books were Christian allegory.

Poirot or Miss Marple ? Or maybe: Poirot or Holmes ?

Miss Marple and Holmes.

[gfk88.livejournal.com]

****the Narnia books were Christian allegory****

Yeah - that was a sneaky trick. A young gfk88 got it hopelessly muddled and thought CSL was offering us a completely new religion instead.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Whereas given my R.C. brainwashing upbringing, I knew they were allegory from the moment I started reading them.

[kerravonsen]

Not allegory. Parables.

Meaning that they work as Story whether or not you get any extra meaning out of them. Allegories are clunky in comparison.

(puts away Lewis-waving banner)

On the other hand, I really don't know what that means in terms of the inspired craziness of Chesterton...

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Hm, I think I was reading them as allegory as a child. I was transposing the story I was reading directly onto the Christian story (encouraged by the teacher who read TLTW&TW in class). I don't know if Lewis intended them to be read as allegory or parable, though.


(puts away Lewis-waving banner)

No need - I loved them as a kid and continue to love them.

[communicator.livejournal.com]

A young gfk88 got it hopelessly muddled

That's cute.