Ray Douglas Bradbury – Sunday 22 August 1920 Waukegan, Illinois To Tuesday 5 June 2012 Los Angeles, California

Martians, oh Martians,
Our chronicler writes no more.
Weep, memories weep.

Artists, all artists,
Fade not illustrated lore.
Keep bold your colors.

Readers, yes readers,
Never fear Fahrenheit four
Five, one – remember!

- Adrean Darce Brent
June 2012

Images:
Left: The Martian Chronicles from the website moivefanatic,cin
Center: The Illustrated Man from the website quilandkeyboard.blogspot.com
Right: Fahrenheit 451 from the website bookintime.blogspot.com

Reel Rewind: “Avatar: Special Edition 3D”

Somehow I never got around to seeing “Avatar” during its original run after it was released in the United States on Friday 18 December 2009. It was a combination of timing – show times and my time – as well as my ambiguity in seeing a film in which an indigenous people are once again trampled upon by soldiers in the name of money. I suppose it is fitting that I’m seeing this movie on the day the United States has “officially” ended its combat mission in Iraq. Expounding on the ill-conceived entry into that country is a topic for another post One thing is for sure, the real final ending of the War In Iraq will not be as tidy and triumphant as I suspect “Avatar’s" ending to be. Actually it is the new 3D technology that has intrigue my curiosity and is my prime motivation for finally seeing this film and hey, I get to see an additional eight minutes (though I don’t know which minutes those are) that weren’t in the original release and for the same price. What a deal!

“Avatar” is the end chapter of Earth’s intrusion on Pandora and its indigenous people, the Na’vi, and tells the story of the final three plus months through the eyes of paraplegic former Marine corporal Jake Sully and his human/Na’vi hybrid avatar. My one complaint about “Avatar” is that it is the end of the Pandora story, not the beginning. When was Pandora discovered? Who made First Contact? How long has there been a human presence on the planet? I suppose the answers to these questions will have to wait for the prequels – if that is the plan.

The three components of humanity represented on Pandora are Business (Parker Selfridge), Military (Colonel Miles Quaritch), Scientific (Dr. Grace Augustine) with protagonist Jake Sully straddling the military and the scientific. Business is the prime mover for Earth’s interest in Pandora – the mineral unobtanium is worth millions and Parker Selfridge (perhaps named for the company that owns Monopoly and for the UK department store, though in the singular form?) focuses only on that. Parker cares nothing for the Na’vi or Pandora and has avoided learning anything except as it relates to getting the mineral. He does not see.

In charge of protecting the business interest, Quaritch’s only assessment of the Na’vi is how hard they are to kill and their weaponry. As is usual in military situations, the Colonel degrades the opposition and needs for them to be lesser than the humans. After all, if there is respect or admiration for the enemy perhaps there would be second thoughts about annihilating the Na’vi which others came to have. However, Quaritch never sees.

As the lead scientist, Grace Augustine is in charge of the Avatar program which links the mind of a human with its human/Na’vi hybrid body (did the Na’vi give informed consent for use of their genetic material?), allowing direct interaction with Pandora and the Na’vi. Between her study of the native fauna and flora, along with teaching the Na’vi English and learning the Na’vi language, Grace has come to understand that the real value of Pandora is the neural network linking all the living entities. Grace sees.

Former Marine Jake Sully becomes part of the Scientific component when he replaces his dead twin in the Avatar program. However, he is still loyal to the Military side of his life and agrees to tell Quaritch anything he learns that could help in an attack on the Na’vi. In exchange for his information, Quaritch promises the paraplegic Jake that he will arrange for Jake to have the spinal surgery which will allow him to walk again. But in his avatar, Jake has complete mobility and when he is taught the ways of the Na’vi by Neytin, Jake eventually changes his view of Pandora and becomes one of the Na’vi. Jake completely sees.

Of course, in the end the humans are defeated because some of the humans side with the Na’vi, who surely would have lost without their human allies. Humans as destroyers of indigenous people, humans as saviors of indigenous people. Same story, different planet, expected outcome. The film does not make clear, besides the rifles, if any other technology was left behind, e.g. the base and/or shuttlecrafts. Could be an important element for any sequels – humanity still a part of Pandora in addition to the humans who opted to stay there.

As stated above, I was primarily curious about experiencing “Avatar’s” 3D technology. Well, the 3D wasn’t always consistent – I don’t know if it was the movie theatre (it wasn’t an IMAX one), my position in the theatre (perhaps being further back would have helped), or the 3D glasses (they weren’t wrap arounds). It was good when I actually perceived the 3D, but I don’t think it added much to the viewing of the film. A side effect of watching the 3D film was the distortion in my vision afterwards. I think this may have to do with the fact I wear contacts and the combination of the 3D glasses changed the focus of my eyes temporarily. Walking around immediately after seeing the film was unsettling. Though I like the idea of 3D, it may not be the best viewing option for me. Will have to try the IMAX version of a 3D film next time to see if the same side effect occurs.

Film Facts: Director/Writer/Editor/Producer: James Cameron, Cinematographer: Mauro Fiore, Editors: John Refoua, Stephen E. Rivkin, Musician: James Horner, Producers: Brooke Breton, Laeta Kalogridis, Jon Landau, Josh McLaglen, Janace Tashjian, Peter M. Tobyansen, Colin Wilson, Production Companies: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Dune Entertainment, Giant Studios, Ingenious Film Partners, Lightstorm Entertainment

Film Type: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Cast: Sam Worthington (Jake Sully), Zoe Saldana (Neytin), Sigourney Weaver (Dr. Grace Augustine), Stephen Lang (Colonel Miles Quaritch), Joel Moore (Norm Spellman), Giovanni Ribisi (Parker Selfridge), Michelle Rodriguez (Trudy Chacon), Laz Alonso (Tsu’tey), Wes Studi (Eytukan) CCH Pounder (Moat), Dileep Rao (Dr. Max Patel), Matt Gerald (Corporal Lyle Wainfleet), Sean Anthony Moran (Private Fike), Jason Whyte (Cryo Vault Med Tech), Scott Lawrence (Venture Star Crew Chief), Length: 171’, Language: English, Countries: United States, United Kingdom, Year: 2009 (Special Edition 2010)
Film Trailer
United States release date Friday 27 August 2010 (Special Edition)


Images:
Left: Zoe Saldana as Neytin and Sam Worthington as Jake Sully from the website scifimoviepage.com
Center: Graphic interpretation of “Avatar: Special Edition 3D” created by Adrean Darce Brent

Right: “Avatar: Special Edition 3D” poster from the website filmtotaal.nl

Ursula K. (Kroeber) Le Guin – Monday 21 October 1929 – still living as of this post

Introduction

Not sure how I came across Ursula K. Le Guin, but I first read The Left Hand of Darkness (spoiler alert) in college. Though-provoking presentation of changing gender reality. What would be the ramifications here if one could switch back and forth from one gender to the other? Self-perception?


Dedication in The Left Hand of Darkness

“For Charles, sine quo non"

Excerpt from the Introduction in The Left Hand of Darkness

“In reading a novel, any novel, we have to know perfectly well that the whole thing is nonsense, and then, while reading, believe every word of it. Finally, when we’re done with it, we may find-if it is a good novel-that we’re a bit different from what we were before we read it, that we have been changes a little, as if by having met a new face, crossed a street we never crossed before. But it’s very hard to say just what we learned, how we were changed.”

Excerpt from A Parade in Erhenrang in The Left Hand of Darkness

“I’ll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination. The soundest fact my fail or prevail in the style of its telling: like that singular organic jewel of our seas, which grows brighter as one woman wears it and, worn by another, dulls and goes to dust. Facts are no more solid, coherent, round, and real than pearls are. But both are sensitive.

The story is not all mine, nor told by me alone. Indeed I am not sure whose story it is; you can judge better. But it is all one, and if at moments the facts seem to alter with an altered voice, why then you can choose the fact you like best; yet none of them are false, and it is all one story.

It starts on the 44th diurnal of the Year 1491, which on the planet Winter in the nation Karhide was Odharhahad Tuwa or the twenty-second day of the third month of spring in the Year One. It is always the Year One here. Only the dating of every past and future year changes each New Year’s Day, as one counts backwards or forwards from the unitary Now. So it was spring of the Year One in Erhenrang, capital city of Karhide, and I was in peril of my life, and did not know it.”


Yesterday’s writer – Madeleine L’Engle
Tomorrow’s writer – Anne McCaffrey

Source: Le Guin, Ursula K. The Left Hand of Darkness. Ace Books, 1976. ISBN 0-441-47812-3. Excerpt from A Parade in Erhenrang: pages 1-2

Images:
Left: Front cover of my personal copy of The Left Hand of Darkness

Center: Ursula K. Le Guin from the website ursulakleguin.com

Madeleine L’Engle – Friday 29 November 1918 – Thursday 6 September 2007

Introduction

I don’t remember the first time I read Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, but the last time I read it was for a reading group discussion held on Thursday 6 January 2005 at The Talking Stick in Santa Monica (The Talking Stick has since moved to Venice). I so enjoyed reading A Wrinkle in Time again, that I went on and read the other three books that collectively make-up the Time Quartet – A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and Many Waters. Time travel is one of my favorite literary devices and the idea of traveling in time just blows me away. When would you go? One of the minor characters in the book I like is Mrs. Who and her appropriate quotations sprinkled throughout the novel. One such quote is by Pascal “Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connait point.” Which is translated by Mrs. Who as “The heart has its reasons, whereof reason knows nothing.” (page 35).

Dedication in A Wrinkle in Time

“For Charles Wadsworth Camp and Wallace Collin Franklin”

Excerpt from An Introduction By The Author in A Wrinkle in Time

“In the Time novels, Meg and Polly ask some big questions. Many of us ask these questions are we’re growing up, but we tend to let them go because there’s so much else to do. I write the books I do because I’m still asking the questions. One physicist says that the big question is: Are we alone in the universe or not? I go out at night and look at the stars, hundreds of billions of stars, and think that there are surely other galaxies whose solar systems include planets with thinking life. I don’t believe that we are alone, and that brings up more questions. When I look at the night sky I’m looking at time as well as space, looking at a star seven light-years away, and a star seventy light-years away, or seven hundred or seven thousand or…”

Excerpt from The Tesseract in A Wrinkle in Time

“There was a gust of wind and a great thrust and a sharp shattering as she was shoved through-what? Then darkness; silence; nothingness. If Calvin was still holding her hand she could not feel it. But this time she was prepared for the sudden and complete dissolution of her body. When she felt the tingling coming back to her fingertips she knew that this journey was almost over and she could feel again the presence of Calvin’s hand about hers.

Without warning, coming as a complete and unexpected shock, she felt a pressure she had never imagined, as though she were being completely flattened out by an enormous steam roller. This was far worse than the nothingness had been; while she was nothing there was no need to breathe, but now her lungs were squeezed together so that although she was dying for want of air there was no way for her lungs to expand and contract, to take in the air that she must have to stay alive. This was completely different from the thinning of atmosphere when they flew up the mountain and she had had to put the flowers to her face to breathe. She tried to gasp, but a paper doll can’t gasp. She thought she was trying to think, but her flattened-out mind was as unable to function as her lungs; her thoughts were squashed along with the rest of her. Her heart tried to beat; it gave a knifelike, sidewise movement, but it could not expand.

But then she seemed to hear a voice, or if not a voice, at least words, words flattened out like printed words on paper, “Oh, no! We can’t stop here! This is a two-dimensional planet and the children can’t manage here!”

She was whizzed into nothingness again, and nothingness was wonderful. She did not mind that she could not feel Calvin’s hand, that she could not see or feel or be. The relief from the intolerable pressure was all she needed.”


Yesterday’s writer – P. D. James
Tomorrow’s writer – Ursula K. Le Guin

Source: L’Engle, Madeleine. A Wrinkle in Time. Bantam Doubleday Dell, April 1973. ISBN 0-440-49805-8. Excerpt from The Tesseract: pages 79-80

Images:
Left: Front cover of my personal copy of A Wrinkle in Time

Center: Madeleine L’Engle from the website madeleinelengle.com

P. D. (Phyllis Dorothy) James – Tuesday 3 August 1920 – still living as of this post

Introduction

It was on the first day (Monday 5 March 2001) of my attendance at the Bath Literature Festival that I met P. D. James. She and Frank Delaney were the two-person panel titled “Facing the Music”. They primarily discussed their different types and modes of writing. There was a book signing afterwards and, although there were copies of her various mystery/crime novels available for purchase; I opted for a different type of book and bought P. D.’s The Children of Men, a novel with a science fiction/futuristic slant to the story. P. D. James signed and dated my copy of her book.

Dedication in The Children of Men

“Again, to my daughters Clare and Jane who helped”

Excerpt from Omega of The Children of Men

“Friday 1 January 2021

Early this morning, 1 January 2021, three minutes after midnight, the last human being to be born on earth was killed in a pub brawl in a suburb of Buenos Aires, aged twenty-five years two months and twelve days. If the first reports are to be believed, Joseph Ricardo died as he had lived. The distinction, if one can call it that, of being the last human whose birth was officially recorded, unrelated as it was to any personal virtue or talent, had always been difficult for him to handle. And now he is dead. The news was given to us here in Britain on the nine o’clock programme of the State Radio Service and I heard it fortuitously. I had settled down to begin this diary of the last half of my life when I noticed the time and thought I might as well catch the headlines to the nine o’clock bulletin. Ricardo’s death was the last item mentioned, and then only briefly, a couple of sentences delivered without emphasis in the newscaster’s carefully non-committal voice. But it seemed to me, hearing it, that it was a small additional justification for beginning the diary today; the first day of a new year and my fiftieth birthday. As a child I had always liked that distinction, despite the inconvenience of having it follow Christmas too quickly so that one present — it never seemed notably superior to the one I would in any case have received – had to do for both celebrations.”

UPDATE - P. D. James died in Oxford, England on Thursday 27 November 2014


Yesterday’s writer – Katharine Hepburn
Tomorrow’s writer – Madeleine L’Engle

Source: James, P. D. The Children of Men. Faber and Faber, 2000. ISBN 0-574-20465-1. Excerpt: page 3

Images:
Left: Front cover of my personal copy of The Children of Men
Center: P. D. James from the website faber.co.uk
Right: Signed title page of my personal copy of The Children of Men