HPL often makes the religious most susceptible to madness in his stories. They turn into absolute wrecks when confronted with things out of the ordinary. These things are not supernatural in nature and the person’s religious actions to protect them do not work. His creatures are natural but either ancient, alien, or trans-dimensional. So he is basing his monsters/creatures on science (or science fiction) that we don’t understand. The implication is that religious people are weak minded to start with.
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Yet many times he has people who were more rational and non-religious go to religious authority figures for help when strange things start to happen to them or around them. It is like he is saying that it is human nature to turn to religion when confronted by the unknown or the unknowable. Of course, anything suggested by or provided by these religious figures always fails. HPL’s views of religious are well known.
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His stories reflect a concept that those who are religious and depend on religion to start with are weak minded individuals but even those with stronger mental fortitude will turn to religion when faced with the unknown, that it is basic human nature. But since God doesn’t really exist, religion cannot solve the strange problems caused by life forms that science was unable to identify or that came from other places. But people’s reliance on religion makes using religion an easy way to take over a community in order to control people for ulterior goals.
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In fact, as I sit here running stories through my head, I can only think of one that uses a supernatural horror instead of one that could be considered natural if unknown or unearthly. That is Dreams in the Witch House. There may be others that I would find if I sat down and flipped through more stories. That’s just an off the top of my head recall.
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The fact that his horror seldom uses magical causes actually increases the horror. The idea that the world is much bigger and stranger than we can see in our ordinary reality and those things have no care for the structure of the world as we see it and have created it for ourselves is a more terrifying concept than supernatural horrors.
Archive for Science Fiction
HP Lovecraft and Religion, a few thoughts as I drove to work.
Posted in Literature, Writing with tags Dreams in the Witch House, Fiction, Horror, HP Lovecraft, Lovecraft, Mdness, Mental, Rational, Religion, Science, Science Fiction, Supernatural on January 22, 2015 by urbannight7:00 Movie Hour – The Thirteenth Floor
Posted in Entertainment, Movies and Theatre, Writing with tags Dark, Good Acting, Good Story., Movies, Mysteries, Nominations, Science Fiction, Slow, Virtual Reality on March 1, 2013 by urbannightIn 2000, this 1999 film was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film, losing to The Matrix. I’m guessing it is, in part, because The Matrix is more obvious and a bigger thrill ride.
The Thirteenth Floor is a murder mystery, pure and simple. It is also a reality trip as you eventually realize that there are multiple realities going on and the reality you thought was ‘real’ may not be after all.
The movie feels slow. In fact, it is not. There is a lot going on and you switch scenes often and the plot starts fast and keeps going. The reason the film feels slow is that so much of it has very little physical action and movement. People are talking, People driving from point a to point be, people are standing at bars. While the scenes change quickly, the physical activity of the actual people are minimal for most of the movie. The result is the feel of a slow movie despite the rapid progression of the plot.
The movie starts with the murder of Fuller, an elderly gentleman who owns a massive computer company and had just created a new VR environment on a floor of his building. His friend and protegé, Hall, wakes up to find a bloody shirt in his hamper and no memory of anything after he got back into town and when he woke in his bed. He later meets a daughter of his friend that he never knew existed. The film follows Hall as he goes in and out of the VR program of 1937 LA, tracking Fuller’s last movements, trying to find a letter Fuller left him. Hall learns that reality isn’t what he thought it was.
The acting is well done and the movie is visually interesting as is partly a period piece. The scenes set in the 1930’s are really nice. But, overall, there is a muted, washed out quality to film. It is more like the movie is done in sepia tones than anything vibrant.
While the story was interesting, the plot twist somewhat obvious but still engaging, and acting was good, the movie does not come off well. The sensation of slowness, the lack of action, the lack of movement, and the dull colors and overall darkness (lighting issue, not mood issue) of the film brings it down.
If they were going to film it that way, the mental puzzles needed to be stronger. I would say that if it is on sometime, go ahead and watch it, but it might not be the type of film you go out of your way to find.
7:00 Movie Hour – Phantoms
Posted in Entertainment, Movies and Theatre with tags Absorbs Knowledge, Acting, Adaptation, B Horror, B Science Fiction, Bad Movies, Ben Affleck, Dean Koontz, Demon, Holes, Horror, Liev Scheiber, Missing Civilizations, Monsters, Peter O'Toole, Phantoms, Rose McGowan, Satan, Science Fiction, Special Effects, Writing on February 28, 2013 by urbannightFor a week now, I’ve sat down and watched a movie every night at 7:00. Mostly science fiction, horror films. Which means mostly bad sci-fi.
Last night I watched a fairly bad film with a lot of big names. Phantoms is a 1998 adaptation of a Dean Koontz book. I’m wondering if they managed to get all these big names because Steven King adaptations have gone over pretty well.
Peter O’Toole does a fantastic job as Dr. Timothy Flyte, a man who got drummed out of academia because of an outlandish theory on missing civilizations that turns out to be exactly what is happening in this tiny Colorado town. He now writes bizarre stories for a sensationalist news rag for the paycheck.
Joanna Going is the local doctor who brings her sister to town to stay with her. She is an actress who seemed vaguely familiar. Looking her up, she has had an erratic film career from the early 1990’s until now, often going a year or two between films. 1998 was her busiest year in which she did 3 films.
Rose McGowan is the younger sister and plays a typical Rose McGowan character.
Liev Schreiber (Sabertooth in X-Men Origins: Wolverine) played the deputy sheriff, who has every indication of being a really creepy guy before he gets killed and becomes an extension of the monster.
Ben Affleck is the Sheriff.
The best performances seem to come from O’Toole and Schreiver. McGowan and Affleck give their typical performances. I don’t know much about Going but her performance was rather indifferent.
The special effects were reasonably well done. But the writing wasn’t the best. The opening scene was really weak. The story was so whittled down that the film seemed like it was made based on an outline what never had the details filled in.
The monster kills and eats people but absorbs their knowledge. The people, not knowing what it is, think it is a demon or satan. As a result, after killing a church full of people, the monster thinks that is what it is. It decides it needs a gospel of its own. One of the visitors to the town like to read a cheap news rag filed with fantastical stories. This person had read the theories put forth by Dr. Timothy Flyte. The result was that the monster lays a sort of trap to get him to the town. Flyte is its ‘chosen’ witness to write its gospel and make people worship it.
One of the problems is that it kills the deputy and later takes on that form. When it does so, it talks normally through the deputy. But when it kills other and takes their form, it just opens the mouth and words come out. Not normal speaking where you move the jaws and tongue and lips. Why can it talk normal one way but not the other?
The special effects, sound and film editing were all better than 100 Million BC that I watched the night before. But the story was more poorly developed. On the other hand, the transitions and resolution were all written and directed better in Phantoms. The Phantom also had slightly better acting, the best part being where Peter O’Toole taunts the monster into revealing the main portion of its body so they can try to poison it. Scheiber also had a good part where some people are talking about monsters and aliens in a bar and an officer a few seat down laughs. They want to know what’s so funny and the deputy says, “Do you want to see something?” So a part of the creature did survive after all.
So if you like B-Horror or B-SciFi, you may or may not want to give this movie a view. The decapitated heads and hands are not that well done, but the rest of the effects are good. The film does a pretty good job of building suspense. Nothing is too gory but it may make you jump. Acting is 6 of one, half a dozen of the other. If you like Peter O’Toole in general, you may want to give it a view.
BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS, yep, I like books.
Posted in Books, Entertainment with tags Books, eloisa james, Fantasy, Historical, Humor, Katharine Kerr, Kindle, Linda Lael Miller, Linsay Sands, Literature, liz carlyle, Lorraine Heath, Maya Banks, Monica Ferris, Mystery, Reading, Romance, Science Fiction, Stephanie Laurens, Terry Pratchett on January 18, 2013 by urbannightI read almost every day. But I do not spend ALL my free time reading. I watch t.v. and stitch. I spend a lot of time on computer games. I cook sometimes. And I go to movies. Which means the number of books I’ve read in the First 18 days of 2013 seems amazing. Some were re-reads. So they went quickly. And I often have more than one book going on at a time. So I might read one book at lunch, one book at home, and one book in the bathroom. I like a good long soak in the tub.
So here is what I’ve read in no particular order.
The Bride Wore Pearls by Liz Carlyle. Historical Romance. Part of a series that I have not otherwise read. Pleasant read. Half-English/Half-Indian woman, some slight supernaturalish elements, not too complex. I liked it.
The Lady Risks All by Stephanie Laurens. Historical Romance. The back of the book gives little away but it is very good if a bit to straight forward as well. I quite liked it.
Guards! Guards! Terry Pratchett. Reread. Fantasy Humorist. I ALWAYS recommend Terry Pratchett. Introduces the Guards books. A young, idealistic new copper who happens to be a six-foot tall dwarf. A dragon. A very rich virgin. Colorful characters and very petty people who cause bad things to happen.
Never Seduce a Scot by Maya Banks. Historical Romance. Entertaining. Amusing. I normally don’t recommend romance novels to anyone other than people who only read romances. But this was interesting enough to say sure, why not, give it a try.
The Ugly Duchess by Eloisa James. Historical Romance. Cute. Simple. Clear Cut. A charming little read.
Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett. Second Guards book. The Watch is getting bigger with the addition of Trolls, Dwarves, and even a werewolf. Oh, lets not forget the talking doggy. It doesn’t pay to spend too much time sleeping around the Unseen University. Ambient magic can do strange things to animals around there.
Corbin’s Fancy by Linda Lael Miller. Historical Romance. Okay book. The Corbin family had a bunch of interesting titles in this series but they are all really simple and straight forward stories. Obvious with no surprises along the way. Linda Lael Miller’s books seem to get less and less interesting as she continues to write. She comes up with really interesting characters but boring plots.
Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett. Another Guards book. The feminist movement hits the dwarven population, starting with one female dwarf who really doesn’t fit in, ends up in the watch, and starts wearing skirts and make up. Of course other things happen, and a mystery is solved, and amusement is had.
Apocalypse to Go by Katharine Kerr. Book four in a supernatural mystery series. The main characters have gotten engaged in order to keep Nola O’Grady’s very religious family happy. Ari, her Israeli boyfriend/bodyguard wants to get married. Each book seems to move them a little closer to that eventuality. Nola is technically in charge and that bothers him as he is used to being in control. On top of it, he still isn’t totally comfortable with her psychic abilities. They solve crimes across alternative universes. The entire series is a good read. Go now and buy it.
Jingo by Terry Pratchett. Also another Guards book and also a reread. How often does a Watch Commander get to start a war and arrest two armies?
The Key by Lynsay Sands. Historical Romance. You have to marry someone the king picks out, in order to save your mother, but you can control what happens next by wearing a chastity belt and keeping the key hidden. Especially when your husband refuses to bath and only lets his people have one new plaid a year in order to save money and keeps a slovenly home. While there is nothing terribly complex in this novel, and I wish there was, it is very funny and worth reading on humor value alone.
The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett. A very good book of Mr. Pratchett’s. Again, a Guards book. Yep, I pulled them all from the shelf and started rereading through them.
Okay, I’m getting really sleepy now.
Lord of Temptation by Lorraine Heath. Historical Romance. Middle book of a set of three. Only one I read. I liked it. It was good. Made we want to go and read the first and third ones now.
Threadbare by Monica Ferris. Mystery Monica Ferris is a great mystery writer and this series is about a woman who owns a needlework shop. At the end of every book is a pattern in one form of needle craft or another. This is a good book and well worth the read but there is only one thing bothering me about it. She spends too much time plugging designers and mentioning specific patterns. Sometimes this worked in the past books because it had a bearing on the story and the solution to the crime. Now it is getting tedious. It felt like to many product placements in a movie.
Thud by Terry Pratchett. Okay, yet another Guards book. Reread. Highly enjoyable. Somewhat darker. I highly recommend it.
Snuff by Terry Pratchett. The latest guards book out in paperback. I finished it a couple days ago. Really good. Go now and buy a copy. But you have to make sure you have read all the ones I’ve already mentioned for it to really make sense. Or Thud at the very least. And Jingo or else Willikins won’t make as much sense.
I have also read three romance novels on the Kindle. Really fast, really short, and really simple romance novels that I won’t bother to name, even if they were good enough. They were more like novellas.
The last is Time Traders by Andre Norton. I didn’t realize she wrote science fiction. I always thought of her as a fantasy novelist. This was a very early book of hers. There is some awkwardness in her writing that I’m not used to seeing because I was more familiar with some of her later work. Even with this early work, you can never go wrong reading Norton.
That is 19 books completed since the start of the year. I did not count any in progress books. Just ones I’ve finished. 19 books in 18 days with a few days where I didn’t read and I never had any solid days of reading. This is why I keep books. I have to reread books. Otherwise I can’t afford my reading habit.
Now I will put these away and reorganize my book shelves, finding a few other books to pull for rereading purposes.
The Dream of Warp Drive and Interstellar Travel
Posted in Movies and Theatre, Science, Technology, Travel with tags Alcubierre's Drive, Borg, Exotic Matter, Interstellar Travel, Miguel Alcubierre, Physics, Science Fact, Science Fiction, space travel, Star Trek, V'ger, Voyager 1, Voyager 6, Warp Drive on September 19, 2012 by urbannightWarp Drive is a thing we thought was fantastical, a science fiction contrivance beyond the realm of possibility. How would one even begin to warp space-time anyway? Setting aside the ‘time’ aspect of it, would it be possible to warp space? To warp sometime means it has to be physical and space is a whole lot of empty with bits of matter floating about it in.
Turns out, back in 1994, a physicist by the name of Miguel Alcubierre actually came up with calculations that would do just that. The problem was that it the required energy use to make it happens was so huge as to make it essentially impossible on the grounds that we couldn’t create the power to do it.
Not impossible. Just improbable. That alone should blow your mind. That in 1994 the math alone showed it could be possible. Wow.
18 years later and more advances in science and scientific thought bring us to a new place and people are taking a look at this again. Because tweaking this idea is making it more possible.
Originally, the ship would be shaped like a football with a large ring around it. This ring would warp space-time around the ship while leaving the ship itself inside a bubble of non-warped space-time.
The article doesn’t say, but because this is a ‘ring’ around the ship, I imaging it will be spinning and turning in some fashion to create this phenomenon.
To reduce the energy usage, they altered the ring shape from a flat ring to a round donut. I’m guessing that simply means the mathematical formula would not account for a round ring rather than a flat ring, as there is no actually item yet to be altered.
Alcubierre’s formula would require energy that was equal to the mass-energy of the planet Jupiter. The new formula could now be powered by a mass comparable in size to the Voyager 1 probe. If the intensity of the space warps could be ‘oscillated over time’ it would further reduce the energy requirements.
To get the idea of what oscillation might look like, find that 1940’s video of the Tacoma Bridge coming down. I hope that is the right one. It’s a video I’ve not seen for 6 or 7 years.
I find the fact that they used Voyager 1 as a comparison to illustrate this very fitting. I’m sure I am not the only one.
((So V’Ger was actually 6 instead of 1, but the concept creates a feeling of ideas coming full circle. Not related to anything in the article that I’m paraphrasing, back in the early 1990’s and pre-blogging days, I wrote an essay on the connections between V’Ger, the mechanical race, V’Ger’s Ilia-avatar (Ilia was a ‘Deltan’), and the Borg. I should rewrite that. The original article is probably where ever old computer discs went to die.))
To think that something that was so prohibitive that is was impractical to the point of impossibility has become possible and worth doing more studies on to see if it might actually work.
The only flaw in the plan now is that the ring would likely have to be made out of ‘exotic’ matter. Exotic matter tends to be hypothetical. It is either known matter that is somehow altered to have properties that it didn’t have before or matter not of this planet and not identified as of yet. It could also be known matter that is in a different state than we know about at this time but is within the realm of possibility using current physics or it could be matter that is known but so poorly understood that it might was well be from another planet.
Thrusting the entire concept right back into the realm of science fiction rather than science fact. It’s worth keeping half an eye on it, in case it pops into the realm of possibility again. Maybe the next alteration could come in less than the 18 years it took for the last one. But I’m not going to hold my breath.
Most of this was taken from this article.
Thermonuclear Blast – a conversation
Posted in Entertainment, Life, Work with tags Blast, Driving, Morning Commute, Nuclear, Nukes, Overpopulation, Science Fiction, Thermonuclear Blast, Work on August 21, 2012 by urbannightThermonuclear Blast
Shortly after getting off the Interstate:
Roommate: There is too much traffic for this time in the morning.
ME: I agree
Driving through the parking garage
ME: To many people
Roommate: There is a solution to that.
ME: Thermonuclear blast.
Roommate looks at me.
ME: Not what you had in mind?
Roommate: I was going to say get a job in a small town.
ME: Not even close.
Roommate: Not even in the same Science Fiction family.
Tipping Point, Shadows of the Future.
Posted in Economy, Food, Life, Politics, Technology, Work with tags 2025, Collapse, Death, Earth, Ecology, Environment, Epidemics, Experts, Global, High Tech, Lesson, Plagues, Point of No Return, Population Growth, Rebuild, Repeat, Science, Science Fiction, Third World, Tipping Point, World's Death on June 12, 2012 by urbannightThe news says that the Earth will reach a ‘tipping’ point in 2025. It will be a point of no return. For the past couple of years, there have been the occasional report of a similar nature.
I argue that we have already past it. We use up materials and resources faster than we can replace them. Some resources are not replaceable. I remember reading, not so very long ago, that some computer parts manufacturers are looking for new materials that can do some of the things that the existing materials do because we are running out of some of those minerals that have desirable properties.
The world has spent over 20 years trying to get all the countries to agree on something, anything, that will slow down the damage humanity is doing to the global ecosystem. Nothing ever happens. When they do occasionally agree on measures, they put the Due By date way out there and by the time it arrives, some other administration has decided to override it. To change something so they can back out of it.
If governments can come to any real agreement and put it into place right now, I don’t thing it is enough to reverse the problems as they exist. On the monetary front alone, it will probably completely destroy what is left of a very fragile economy.
Some ‘experts’ are saying we don’t’ really need to worry about it since we can overcome any repercussions through human innovation. But that is only if people want to change and there is little evidence that supports it.
Oh, some people are going green. Some people have created businesses to try to creatively reuse garbage to reduce the impact on the environment. But businesses and corporations are the ones saying that the changes to protect the environment cost too much, even though they are the very ones tying up most of the world’s money. The time frames were supposed to be for the companies to set aside the money, get the renovations under way, and spread out the costs over time, in order to minimize the financial impact. But they never did it.
Maybe that is the real reason so many science fiction writers are writing about dark futures where the world is falling apart rather than writing about hopeful futures and creating new concepts to inspire scientists to create and advance their fields. It’s because they, like me, see how things have been going and have no faith in big business and governments to make the changes needed to save the planet and save humanity.
We see a world creating its own death. Although I have more hope for the earth than I do for the human race. I see the world becoming worse, the middle class in advanced countries will continue to slide, and we will end up with a bizarre mix of high tech toys and third world quality of life. Although it isn’t that bizarre as writers have been describing that very thing for many decades.
Either there will have to be measures put into place to control population growth and people will resent a draconian government or people will continue to reproduce at an ever expanding rate. If the former, there could be some sort of light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe. Fewer people mean resources do farther. But at the same time, fewer people mean not as many people are purchasing stuff. The economic structure will probably have to change. But if it is the later, we will probably see the increase in disease and perhaps plague.
This will wipe people out and result in the same reduced population. But it will probably be far more catastrophic in nature and lead to a fall of civilization.
In the end, I think something will happen that will wipe out large chunks of the human race. I don’t think it will happen overnight. So people won’t really believe it is going on. I think it may take a few generations. And after it collapses, I believe those who remain will rebuild. Only I don’t have a high regard for humanity. So I don’t think people will have learned a lesson. I think it will take more generations to rebuild and people are people and will probably go through the same processes.
It reminds me of a short story by Asimov called ‘Nightfall’. It was a great little story about how a race lived on a planet in a cluster of suns. They never had night. They never had darkness. When a rare eclipse occurred, it was so catastrophic that society collapsed. There was archeological evidence of such repeated collapses. But the time between events was such a long period that people couldn’t understand the evidence. The result was that they never learned to adapt and anticipate the event and instead kept following an identical path of growth, development, progress, and collapse.
Wow. This might be a rather depressing blog. Sorry about that. But that’s where my mind went today.
In Honor of the Passing of Ray Bradbury, 91
Posted in Books, Entertainment, Movies and Theatre, Work, Writing with tags Books, Edgar Alan Poe, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Fahrenheit 451, Fantasy, Libraries, Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury, Science Fiction, Shakespeare, Writing on June 6, 2012 by urbannightRIP Ray Bradbury.
Half the people I read are probably doing the same thing right now but that won’t stop me from doing so as well.
The first full book I can remember reading was a chapter book that had a picture on each page and only a few lines. It was a long book but done a bit in the style of a child’s book. It was about a little potato shaped man who went to the moon. So the first ‘real’ book I can remember reading was science fiction. (PS no one seems to have any idea what this book might have been, if anyone who sees this knows, let me know.)
I’ve read The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, The Illustrated Man, and Dandelion Wine. I have read some of his anthologies and many of his short stories in various other anthologies.
It’s possible I’ve read other items and just don’t remember them. Actually, with the way I read, it is more than likely. Seeing as 35 features, shorts, and TV movies were based on his stories or screen plays, I’ve probably seen many things that I didn’t realize were Bradbury’s.
While he was less influential on shaping my growing mind than Heinlein, he was still significant to my view of science fiction, science, sociology, and the future in general.
Some random interesting facts about Bradbury are that he was related to a woman who was convicted and hung for a witch in Salem, Mass. He was influenced by the works of Edgar Allan Poe, HG Wells, and Jules Vern. But his favorite was Edgar Rice Burroughs and he even wrote a sequel to Warlord of Mars at the tender age of 12.
You have to like a child whose favorite hangout it the local library. I was the same way and had the same early love of Edgar Alan Poe. He also loved to perform magic. I liked to go to magic shows.
Even though most readers and most cataloguers view Bradbury as a Science Fiction writer, he felt that the only work of SF he wrote was Fahrenheit 451 and that he was, in fact, a fantasy writer.
I would love to find a “Collected Works of Ray Bradbury” but looking at how much he actually wrote, it might be longer than my rather large “Collected Works of Shakespeare”. It might have to be a multi-volume book.
You will be missed, Mr. Bradbury. I feel the need to start rereading his material now.