Στη Χώρα των Θαυμάτων by bgrego - Dailymotion

bgrego

Watch the playlist Στη Χώρα των Θαυμάτων by bgrego on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00This is the BBC Light Program.

00:02Before the late news summary, here is a special item.

00:06Just over one hour ago, a British-made rocket vehicle,

00:10the first ever to have succeeded in reaching outer space,

00:13made a safe crash landing in the area of Wimbledon Common.

00:16A product of the British Experimental Rocket Group,

00:19it carries a crew of three men.

00:21They will be unable to leave the rocket until its surface has cooled,

00:25but there is reason to suppose they are in good health.

00:27The Quatermass television serials, written by Nigel Neill,

00:32have left, as the BBC themselves said, a most profound mark.

00:38The Quatermass experiment was broadcast in 1953.

00:42It was the first original adult science fiction drama

00:45produced by the BBC for television.

00:48The main protagonist is scientist Professor Bernard Quatermass,

00:53a combination of a name found in a telephone directory

00:57and the astronomer Bernard Lovell.

01:02Quatermass was a big hit and terrified its large British audiences

01:06with themes of alien invasion,

01:09mysterious military establishment and strange settings.

01:12The first one's about the first British rocket mission crashing back to Earth

01:18disastrously, and two of the crew are missing.

01:22The second one, Quatermass loses control of the rocketry group.

01:26It becomes subject to the military, and it's much more interested in exploring

01:29the existence of the secrecy of the state,

01:33which is obviously important during wartime,

01:35but its perpetuation into post-war periods.

01:38And the third one begins with what seems to be an exploded German bomb

01:44discovered whilst digging a new tube line in London.

01:47Any guesses?

01:49Possibly a German V-weapon.

01:51Why?

01:53Flying bomb?

01:54V-2 rocket?

01:55It's not either of them.

01:56Obviously.

01:58Quatermass was later made into a series of feature films,

02:01which were an even greater success,

02:03and influenced, it is said,

02:06Stephen King,

02:07Joe Dante,

02:08John Landis,

02:09and even Steven Spielberg

02:11and Guillermo del Toro.

02:14Quatermass was following in the very English tradition

02:17exemplified by 1984

02:19in combining the familiar and the unfamiliar.

02:23The unease of the 1950s

02:25of a hidden English world of deep insecurity and anxiety

02:28is portrayed in these remarkable programs and films.

02:34John Wyndham's science fiction novels followed

02:37the Day of the Triffids,

02:38the Kraken Wakes,

02:40and the Midwich Cuckoos

02:41resonate with themes of catastrophe,

02:44survival,

02:45and societal upheaval.

02:50Anna.

02:52Don't.

02:52Anna, please.

02:54Please.

03:02Mummy?

03:04What have you done?

03:07John Wyndham's focus

03:10on the experience of Middle England

03:12coincided and aligned

03:15with the aspirations and anxieties

03:17of ordinary English people at the time.

03:21When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday

03:23starts off by sounding like Sunday,

03:27there is something seriously wrong somewhere.

03:30I felt that from the moment I woke,

03:33and yet,

03:34then I started functioning a little more sharply.

03:39I misgave.

03:41After all,

03:42the odds were that it was I who was wrong

03:45and not everybody else,

03:47though I did not see how that could be.

03:50I went on waiting,

03:53tinged with doubt.

03:55But presently,

03:57I had my first bit of objective evidence.

04:00A distant clock struck

04:02what sounded to me just like eight.

04:04I listened hard

04:07and suspiciously.

04:11Soon another clock began

04:12on a loud, decisive note.

04:16In a leisurely fashion,

04:18it gave an indisputable eight.

04:20Then I knew things were awry.

04:24The way I came to miss the end of the world,

04:27well,

04:27the end of the world I had known

04:29for close on 30 years,

04:31was sheer accident.

04:33Like a lot of survival,

04:35when you come to think of it.

04:36Doctor Who

04:49is a British science fiction television series.

04:53Its creation coinciding

04:54with the aftermath

04:55of major global events,

04:57including the assassination

04:58of the US president,

05:00John F. Kennedy.

05:02Doctor, can you see anything?

05:04Any sign of life?

05:05No, no, no, no, no.

05:06Early episodes

05:07reflected the post-World War II era

05:10and drew inspiration

05:11from science fiction authors

05:13like Brian Aldiss

05:14and John Wyndham.

05:16Stories like the Daleks

05:18subtly addressed atomic weapons

05:20and the threat

05:22of mass destruction.

05:23You will move the head of us

05:25and follow my directions

05:27this way.

05:30The Daleks mirrored

05:32the aftermath of World War II.

05:35Their metal casings

05:36concealed mutated creatures

05:38echoing the horrors of the war.

05:42Douglas Adams,

05:43author of The Hitchhiker's Guide

05:44to the Galaxy,

05:45wrote two stories for Doctor Who.

05:48Russell T. Davis,

05:49the Welsh television producer

05:51and screenwriter,

05:52contributed greatly

05:53to the later development

05:55of Doctor Who.

05:56As a British cultural export,

05:59Doctor Who transcended borders.

06:01Its enduring legacy

06:03has lasted six decades.

06:06Doctor Who continues

06:07to captivate audiences worldwide,

06:10essentially British,

06:12from its humour

06:12to its hero.

06:14I don't know

06:15what stopped you talking

06:15but I can guess.

06:16They're coming.

06:17The angels are coming for you

06:18but listen,

06:20your life could depend on this.

06:21Don't blink.

06:22Don't even blink.

06:24Blink and you're dead.

06:25They are fast,

06:26faster than you could believe.

06:27Don't turn your back.

06:28Don't look away

06:29and don't blink.

06:32Good luck.

06:35Stanley Kubrick's film,

06:372001,

06:39and George Lucas' film,

06:40Star Wars,

06:41changed science fiction forever.

06:43and put science fiction

06:45at the centre

06:46of Hollywood filmmaking

06:47and in so doing

06:49created one of the most

06:50successful franchises

06:52ever created.

06:54He changed the reach

06:55of science fiction

06:56and put it also

06:57at the centre

06:58of popular taste.

07:00George Lucas

07:01thought 2001

07:03was the finest

07:04science fiction film

07:05ever made.

07:07He generously thought

07:08it was better

07:09than his own great film,

07:10Star Wars.

07:12To put it in his own words,

07:13Stanley Kubrick made the ultimate

07:16science fiction movie

07:17and it's going to be very hard

07:19for someone to come along

07:20and make a better movie.

07:23The background

07:24to the creation

07:25of these two films

07:26shares some extraordinary elements

07:28and mutual interests

07:30of the filmmakers

07:31and the writers.

07:32It was Stanley Kubrick

07:34who introduced

07:35Arthur C. Clarke

07:37for the Joseph Campbell book

07:38The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

07:42Campbell's book

07:42dealt with the myth

07:43of the hero

07:44drawing on the work

07:45of Sigmund Freud

07:46and Carl Jung.

07:49Psychoanalytic ideas

07:50became at the centre

07:52of the two directors'

07:53preoccupations.

07:54Jung's description

07:55of the hero

07:56and the heroic quest

07:58was fully taken up

07:59by Stanley Kubrick

08:00and George Lucas.

08:03Jung's description

08:04of the deep human feelings

08:06that we all sometimes

08:08share of the world,

08:09its landscape

08:10and its humanity

08:11in which combine

08:12all humans together

08:13deeply influences

08:15the creation

08:16of the landscapes

08:17in 2001

08:18and Star Wars.

08:20I'd say that

08:22the sense of wonder

08:23or the sublime

08:24we know kind of

08:25what we're talking about

08:26is part of the glory

08:29actually

08:30of cinematic science fiction

08:32that a film like 2001

08:34is full of the most staggering

08:36beautiful visualisations

08:39of the enormousness of space

08:41the relation

08:43the existential relationship

08:44between our tiny infinitudes

08:47of our mortal lives

08:49and infinity

08:50it finds extraordinary

08:52powerful ways

08:53of articulating that

08:54in a visual idiom.

09:16And that's kind of also

09:18there in Star Wars

09:18I think Star Wars

09:19is a pulp science fiction

09:22adventure

09:22full of action

09:23and fun

09:24and likeable characters

09:24but it also touches on that

09:26and that's where

09:27science fiction cinema

09:28can be so great.

09:30The force is with you

09:32young Skywalker

09:33but you are not a Jedi yet.

09:38George Lucas's depiction

09:40in Star Wars

09:41of the force

09:42that will always be with you

09:44seems to relate

09:45to Jung's ideas

09:46about the nature

09:47about the nature

09:47of the human soul

09:48and the processes

09:49of human psychological development.

09:59There's a sense

10:00of the Oedipal drama

10:01as Freud understood it.

10:02why is it that Darth Vader

10:05turns out to be Luke Skywalker's secret father?

10:08He's called Darth

10:09he's a kind of death

10:11but he's also the father

10:12he's also this figure

10:13that has to

10:14has to be overcome

10:15has to be battled

10:16and ultimately of course

10:19redeemed.

10:20However

10:21unlike in 2001

10:23and Star Wars

10:24in Jung's description

10:25the hero

10:26often breaks down

10:28his place

10:29is taken

10:29by the trickster.

10:31Jung thought

10:32that man could

10:33with effort

10:34insight

10:34and experience

10:35move from being a hero

10:37to being wise.

10:40Joseph Campbell

10:41had known Jung

10:42the influence

10:43of Joseph Campbell's book

10:45on Arthur C. Clarke

10:46Stanley Kubrick

10:47and George Lucas

10:49was profound.

10:51I think the key

10:53with 2001

10:53is that it's not

10:54it's not a verbal text.

10:56There are words

10:57in 2001

10:58characters speak

10:58to one another

10:59there are intertitles

11:00and so on

11:01but it's a visual text

11:02it's communicating

11:03through images

11:05and through colours

11:06and through shapes

11:07and through the montages

11:09that these images

11:09are composed into

11:11and that signifies

11:12in a different way

11:13it doesn't signify

11:14in a rational way

11:16that you can pin it down

11:17and say

11:18this is exactly

11:18what this means

11:19it signifies in a way

11:21that is more

11:21emotional

11:22and actually I think

11:24more spiritual

11:25more transcendent

11:26the point of this movie

11:27is that it's taking us

11:28beyond what words

11:29can say.

11:34Science fiction writing

11:35and feature films

11:36have a commitment

11:38to heroic quests

11:39they have a limited

11:40understanding

11:41of the breakdown

11:42and failure

11:43of heroic quests

11:44in human evil

11:46with its frequent warfare

11:48and murderous killing

11:50we are reminded

11:51of the reality

11:52of heroic failure

11:53contemporary science fiction culture

12:07seems inextricably wedded

12:09to the myth of the hero

12:10and through what seems

12:12like a continuous

12:13omnipotent fantasy

12:14unaware of its likely failure

12:17in the real world

12:18what I see in the films

12:24of the 1970s

12:26is those aliens

12:28coming back

12:29and understanding

12:30that these aliens

12:32are not necessarily

12:34a threat at all

12:35they are possibly

12:37a way of our understanding

12:39the world

12:40and the universe

12:41in a way we've never

12:42understood it before

12:43and again

12:44in Spielberg's

12:45Close Encounters

12:46of the Third Kind

12:47these are benign aliens

12:50who come to us

12:51Steven Spielberg

12:53has explored a variety

12:55of science fiction themes

12:56encounters with aliens

12:58artificial intelligence

13:00time travel

13:01dystopian futures

13:03science fiction

13:06really is the only genre

13:08that lets you use

13:09your imagination

13:10without limitations

13:11he blends spectacle

13:14and emotion

13:15with a greater sense

13:16of disquiet

13:17that his sometime

13:19reputation

13:19for surface

13:20sentimentality

13:22suggests

13:22his first

13:24great science fiction film

13:26was Close Encounters

13:28of the Third Kind

13:29when the aliens arrive

13:32in Close Encounters

13:34of the Third Kind

13:35it's a happening

13:37and I remember seeing it

13:39when it first opened

13:41in the cinema

13:41and it felt this

13:43wonderful sense

13:45of embracing

13:45we wanted to embrace

13:47the understanding

13:49of an alien race

13:50and what could they

13:51bring to us

13:51everybody in that film

13:53wanted to have

13:55a better understanding

13:57so much so

13:57that Richard Dreyfuss

13:58who plays the central character

14:00sort of volunteered

14:02and goes with the aliens

14:05to learn more

14:05about their world

14:06it was a film

14:15like E.T.

14:16which was filled

14:17with enormous hope

14:19and a belief

14:21that the world

14:22would be better

14:23because of these films

14:24Steven Spielberg's

14:28sensitivity

14:28is particularly

14:30illustrated

14:31in artificial intelligence

14:33remember

14:35science fiction's

14:36always been

14:37the kind of

14:37first level alert

14:39to think about

14:39things to come

14:40it's easier

14:42for an audience

14:42to take warnings

14:43from sci-fi

14:44without feeling

14:45that we're preaching

14:46to them

14:47every science fiction movie

14:49I have ever seen

14:50anyone that's worth

14:52with its weight

14:53and celluloid

14:53warns us about

14:55things that ultimately

14:56come true

14:57artificial intelligence

14:59itself

15:00is introduced

15:01as something

15:02that could be attractive

15:03but is also

15:05deeply sinister

15:06the family group

15:08is presented

15:09with all kinds

15:10of difficulties

15:10in establishing

15:12where boundaries exist

15:13and through so doing

15:15Spielberg seems

15:17deeply prescient

15:18about issues

15:19and procedures

15:20applied to artificial

15:22intelligence

15:22as it affects

15:24human beings

15:25the threat

15:26of artificial intelligence

15:28mechanisms

15:28turning against

15:30human beings

15:30whether accidentally

15:32or by error

15:33is very real

15:34AI is amplified

15:38by Stanley Kubrick's

15:40darker intelligence

15:41Steven Spielberg

15:43inherited the script

15:44from Kubrick

15:45it was based

15:47on a Brian Aldis

15:48short story

15:48Super Toys

15:50Last All Summer Long

15:51Mr. Dog

15:52when you think

15:55of the greatest

15:56moments in film

15:57I think you're

15:58almost always involved

15:59with images

16:00rather than scenes

16:01and certainly

16:02never dialogue

16:03the thing a film

16:05does best

16:05is to use pictures

16:07with music

16:08and I think

16:09these are the moments

16:10you remember

16:11the child appears

16:15continuously

16:16in Spielberg's films

16:17the echoes

16:19of his own childhood

16:20resound

16:21as do

16:22the equivocal positions

16:24of insider

16:24and outsider

16:25status

16:26for children

16:27Steven Spielberg

16:30also evokes

16:31menace

16:32and disturbingly

16:33illustrates

16:34the mechanics

16:34of the manufactured

16:36humans

16:36whether robots

16:38or real people

16:40this work

16:41is first rate

16:42a lot of love

16:43went into him

16:44David

16:45you are one of a kind

16:49you know that

16:50who made you

16:53my mommy made me

16:56science fiction writers

17:05use AI

17:06the way they've used

17:07robots

17:08and aliens

17:09and so on

17:09as a way

17:10to think about

17:11what it means

17:11to be human

17:12what it means

17:12to be different

17:13I mean

17:15it's not human

17:16and you can't

17:20get a handle

17:20on it

17:21me

17:22I'm not human

17:23either

17:24but I respond

17:25like one

17:26see

17:28wait a sec

17:30Kay said

17:31are you sentient

17:33or not

17:34well

17:36well it feels

17:37like I am

17:37kid

17:37but I'm really

17:39just a bunch

17:40of rom

17:40it's one

17:42of them

17:42philosophical

17:45questions

17:45I guess

17:46one of the

17:48one of the curious

17:49things that's

17:50happened

17:50with the way

17:52AI platforms

17:53have become

17:53available in the

17:54last couple of

17:55years

17:55is how easy

17:57it often is to

17:58tell that this

17:59hasn't been written

17:59by a human being

18:00but also like

18:02human beings

18:03these pseudo AI

18:06systems are prone

18:07to exaggeration

18:08hyperbole

18:09reductiveness

18:10and just plain

18:11making things

18:12up

18:13so there's this

18:14curious thing

18:15where they are

18:17in some ways

18:18a lot like

18:18actual subjectivities

18:20actual people

18:20but they're not

18:21remotely like AI

18:23as it has been

18:24imagined in

18:25science fiction

18:25we have the whole

18:27scandal around

18:28British sub post

18:29offices and the

18:30computer systems

18:31that they were

18:31using

18:32we look at the

18:33built-in biases

18:35of computer systems

18:37assumptions about

18:38race

18:38ethnicity

18:39gender

18:40and class

18:41usually

18:42unintentionally

18:43we see a kind

18:46of totalitarianism

18:47reproducing itself

18:48through abstract

18:49data systems

18:50from which it's

18:52very hard to get

18:53any kind of

18:53reparative justice

18:54let alone go back

18:56to the base code

18:57and rewrite it

18:58that last 50 years

19:02has uncovered

19:04for us

19:05through technology

19:06and through wisdom

19:08the fact that

19:09the universe

19:11is not a place

19:12for meat puppets

19:13which is to say

19:21the universe

19:21the galaxy

19:22the solar system

19:24Mars

19:25even the moon

19:26are not places

19:27that primarily

19:29human beings

19:30with their huge

19:32demands

19:32their unreliability

19:34their biological

19:36deficiencies

19:36the huge expense

19:39of human beings

19:40cannot be tolerated

19:41in space

19:41we get for a writer

19:48like Philip K.

19:49Dick

19:49who from the 50s

19:50onwards

19:51probably most famously

19:52in Do Android's

19:53Dream of Electric Sheep

19:54the novel that becomes

19:55the basis for Blade Runner

19:56has worlds in which

19:59humans are becoming

20:01more like machines

20:02they're losing empathy

20:03they're losing the capacity

20:05to engage with others

20:07Michael Moorcock

20:12famously said

20:13that Philip K.

20:14Dick

20:14was a great philosopher

20:16a philosophical writer

20:17who just happened

20:18to choose science fiction

20:19as the means

20:21for exploring his ideas

20:22and that makes

20:23Philip K.

20:23Dick sound a bit

20:24forbidding

20:25but if you read

20:25a Philip K.

20:26Dick story

20:26they're brilliant

20:27they're exciting

20:28and imaginative

20:29and enthralling

20:30but they're also

20:31full of mind-blowing ideas

20:34he's very prescient

20:37about human beings

20:38being harvested

20:39for their information

20:40being diced up

20:42into fungible

20:43representations

20:44or maneuvers

20:47across the metropolies

20:49the suburbs

20:51that we live in

20:53astonishingly prescient

20:57paranoid sense

20:59that this world

21:01isn't working very well

21:04this world

21:04is being operated

21:07inimically

21:08by mechanisms

21:10or gods

21:10we cannot understand

21:12I was in a 382 mood

21:16I had just dialed it

21:18so although I heard

21:20the emptiness

21:21intellectually

21:22I didn't feel it

21:24my first reaction

21:26consisted of being grateful

21:27that we could afford

21:28a Penfield mood organ

21:30but then I realized

21:33how unhealthy it was

21:34sensing the absence of life

21:37not just in this building

21:39but everywhere

21:40and not reacting

21:42but that used to be

21:45considered a sign

21:46of mental illness

21:46they called it

21:48absence of appropriate effect

21:50so I left the TV sound off

21:56and I sat down

21:57at my mood organ

21:58and I experimented

22:00and I finally found

22:02a setting for despair

22:03so I put it on my schedule

22:07for twice a month

22:08I think that's a reasonable

22:11amount of time

22:12to feel hopeless

22:12about everything

22:13Philip Vick is an author

22:18who really captures

22:19the alienation

22:20of being trapped

22:22in systems you can't control

22:24and don't know

22:24the end product of

22:25he's magnificent

22:29about demonstrating

22:30that that

22:31is

22:32not only

22:34the inevitable

22:35outcome

22:36of so much

22:38progress

22:39that science fiction

22:40had been addressed

22:41but that it is

22:43a nightmare

22:45the future is

22:47a nightmare

22:48we built the world

22:58that Philip Vick

22:59characters cannot conceive

23:01of as real

23:02because it's such

23:02a terrible world

23:03we did

23:05he was a reporter

23:08the British director

23:11Ridley Scott

23:12has been deeply

23:13influential

23:14in the development

23:15of science fiction film

23:17his first film

23:19Alien

23:19in 1979

23:21created a sensation

23:22it was followed

23:25by the remarkable

23:25and visual

23:27and visceral

23:28Blade Runner

23:29Ridley Scott's

23:31mastery of visual form

23:33and the creation

23:34of hypnotic

23:35and disturbing moves

23:36is unequaled

23:38the product

23:40of two British

23:41art schools

23:41Ridley Scott's

23:43influences

23:43include HG Wells

23:45and Alan Turing

23:46speaking of his

23:48type of filmmaking

23:49he said

23:50my model

23:51is David Lean

23:52whose characters

23:53never get lost

23:54in the proscenium

23:56is one of the most

24:03I thought we could say

24:05about the Oedipal drama

24:06but I'm interested

24:07in its place

24:08in science fiction

24:08the original Blade Runner

24:10one of the greatest

24:10science fiction films

24:11ever made

24:12which is all to do

24:13with sight

24:14and seeing

24:15and eyes

24:16and eyes being

24:16pulled out

24:17it's all to do

24:18with the creation

24:20of artificial people

24:22these replicants

24:23who are made out

24:24of organic matter

24:25and the rogue

24:27replicant

24:28Roy Batty

24:29and his team

24:29are looking to

24:30extend their lifespan

24:31so they go to their creator

24:33their father

24:33and end up killing him

24:35poking his eyes out

24:36and killing him

24:36it's a very Oedipal scene

24:38and one of my favourite lines

24:39in all of science fiction

24:41cinema actually

24:42comes midway through

24:43that movie

24:43when Roy goes to the shop

24:45that makes eyes

24:47and the man in the shop

24:49says

24:49I made your eyes

24:51and Roy Batty says

24:53if only you could see

24:55what I have seen

24:56with your eyes

24:57which I think

24:58is a marvellous line

25:00of movie dialogue

25:01because it's so eloquent

25:03it's about cinema

25:04it's when we go

25:05and sit in a cinema

25:05we're seeing visions

25:07with somebody else's eyes

25:08it's always about

25:09science fiction

25:10and the imaginative

25:11potential of science fiction

25:12I want more life

25:15father

25:16the facts of life

25:19to make an alteration

25:23in the

25:24evolvement of an organic

25:26life system is failing

25:27a coding sequence

25:28cannot be revised

25:29once it's been established

25:31the credits

25:32to Ridley Scott's

25:33great film

25:34Blade Runner

25:34fully acknowledged

25:36writer Philip K. Dick

25:37on whose book

25:38Do Androids Dream

25:40of Electric Sheep

25:41the film is based

25:42more surprising

25:45is the acknowledgement

25:46to William Burroughs

25:47for the film's title

25:49though Burroughs

25:54is now less well remembered

25:55his legacy includes

25:57the novels

25:57The Soft Machine

25:59and The Naked Lunch

26:00and the development

26:02though not the creation

26:03of the concept of cut-ups

26:05cutting up phrases

26:06and words

26:07to create new sentences

26:09The technicians

26:14who had devised

26:15the control system

26:16had died out

26:17and the present line

26:18of priests

26:19were in the position

26:20of someone

26:20who knows what buttons

26:22to push

26:22in order to set a machine

26:24in motion

26:25but would have no idea

26:26how to fix that machine

26:28if it broke down

26:29The priests

26:32were nothing but

26:33word and image

26:33an old film

26:35rolling on and on

26:36with dead actors

26:37Burroughs

26:39showed prescient insight

26:41into the nature

26:42of computer code

26:43the nature of cyber society

26:46as well

26:47as influencing

26:48a huge range of people

26:50from Alan Ginsberg

26:52and Susan Sontag

26:54to rock musicians

26:55Jack Kerouac

27:06called Burroughs

27:06the greatest satirical writer

27:08since Jonathan Swift

27:10J.G. Ballard

27:12considered Burroughs

27:13to be the most important writer

27:15to emerge

27:16since the Second World War

27:18He was a heroin addict

27:20deeply interested

27:21in the occult

27:22and he also

27:23killed his second wife

27:25As we get closer

27:34to the turn

27:35of the millennium

27:36and science fiction

27:37begins to be much more

27:38widely accepted culturally

27:39science fiction ideas

27:41begin to appear

27:42on screen repeatedly

27:44and one of the key ones

27:45from that period

27:45is the idea

27:46of the virtual

27:47Cyberspace

27:49a consensual hallucination

27:52experienced daily

27:53by billions of legitimate operators

27:55in every nation

27:56by children being taught

27:59mathematical concepts

28:00a graphic representation

28:02of data

28:03abstracted from banks

28:05of every computer

28:06in the human system

28:07unthinkable complexity

28:10lines of light

28:12ranged in the non-space

28:13of the mind

28:14clusters and constellations

28:16of data

28:16like city lights

28:18receding

28:20the matrix

28:24directed by the wakowskis

28:27was a science fiction film

28:29belonging to the cyberpunk genre

28:31a genre that often features

28:34counter-cultural anti-heroes

28:36trapped in a dehumanizing

28:39high-tech future

28:40the matrix's construction

28:43is a confluence

28:44of so many science fiction themes

28:47it is significantly influenced

28:49by William Gibson's

28:511984 book

28:52Neuromancer

28:53the matrix's title

28:55being derived

28:56from that book

28:57Philip K. Dick

29:01was almost certainly

29:02also an influence

29:04on the matrix

29:05Dick had said

29:06we are living

29:07in a computer program reality

29:09and the only clue

29:11we have to it

29:12is when some variable

29:13is changed

29:14and some alteration

29:15in our reality occurs

29:17J.G. Ballard

29:20also wrote extensively

29:22on the confusion

29:23of social

29:24personal

29:24and media realities

29:26the wakowskis

29:29were therefore widely

29:31and deeply influenced

29:32in intellectual terms

29:34they referenced themes

29:35from Michel Foucault

29:36Carlos Castaneda

29:38and Lewis Carroll

29:40the matrix is

29:52is a kind of a paranoid

29:54post-Dick representation

29:56of the fact

29:57that we're actually

29:58all of us under control

30:00it doesn't lead to space

30:03it leads to

30:04our paranoia about AIs

30:06the wakowskis

30:07are now both

30:08transgender women

30:09Leli Wachowski

30:11said in 2020

30:13that the matrix

30:14was meant to be

30:15a metaphor

30:16for gender transition

30:17but the corporate world

30:18wasn't ready

30:19as William Gibson said

30:22the matrix

30:23is arguably

30:24the ultimate

30:25cyberpunk

30:26artifact

30:27to an audience

30:35not so deeply

30:37embedded

30:37in consuming

30:38science fiction

30:39it was remarkable

30:40and that you know

30:41the value of that

30:42is incredible

30:42you also have

30:43effects developments

30:44going on in there

30:45with bullet time imagery

30:46and so on

30:47and we have

30:52a narrative

30:53which seems to make

30:55a really really important point

30:57although it's deeply embedded

30:58is that what we take

31:01as reality

31:02is not reality

31:03this is your last chance

31:06after this

31:07there is no turning back

31:08you take the blue pill

31:10the story ends

31:12you wake up in your bed

31:14and believe

31:14whatever you want to believe

31:15you take the red pill

31:17you stay in wonderland

31:19and I show you

31:21how deep

31:21the rabbit hole goes

31:22remember

31:32all I'm offering

31:35is the truth

31:35nothing more

31:36but the franchise

31:39is such a big hit

31:39for the industry

31:40because of the way

31:41it begins to think

31:42about distributing

31:43the storytelling

31:44across different platforms

31:45the real game changer

31:47probably more so

31:48than Star Wars

31:49is the Marvel Cinematic Universe

31:52I had a great idea

31:55Tony

31:55but my suit

31:56is more advanced

31:57in every way

31:58how'd you solve

31:59the icing problem

32:00icing problem

32:02might want to look into it

32:06what happens

32:10with the Marvel Cinematic Universe

32:11is you take

32:12a relatively minor character

32:14in Iron Man

32:15make a tight little action

32:16movie around him

32:17and you take

32:18and use that

32:19as the anchor

32:19and him as the anchor

32:21character

32:21across multiple films

32:22when you spend

32:23a billion dollars

32:24turning a 1960s comic book

32:27into a gigantic

32:28cinematic experience

32:30it's less adult

32:32and less serious

32:33than some of the more

32:35intellectually engaging

32:37or philosophically

32:38stimulating

32:39literatures of ideas

32:41that science fiction

32:42perhaps used to be

32:43I mean I think a lot of that

32:44is still happening

32:45in science fiction

32:46but that's not

32:46where the spotlight is

32:48that's not what most people

32:49find in science fiction

32:52to love

32:53observers like James Marriott

32:56regard the superhero

32:57Marvel and other films

32:59as offering important

33:00certainties

33:01to a world

33:02that has lost

33:03its religions

33:03and flounders

33:05in personal and collective

33:06doubt and loss

33:07whatever we make

33:09of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

33:11I think we can't afford

33:12to lose focus

33:13on how culturally important

33:15certain of the films

33:16have been

33:16Black Panther

33:18is the obvious

33:19example here

33:20not just a film

33:22based on a black character

33:23Hollywood's been doing

33:24that since about the 80s

33:26but a film

33:28with a predominantly

33:29black cast

33:30that focuses on

33:32African American

33:33and African

33:34and Afro-diasporic

33:35experiences

33:36we could think

33:38say some of the things

33:39about the Captain Marvel movie

33:41to actually finally have

33:42a film centred

33:43around a female character

33:44in the Marvel Universe

33:45the Marvel films

33:47and the Miss Marvel

33:48spin-offs

33:48is talking to an audience

33:50that have normally

33:51been neglected

33:52and marginalised

33:53a long time ago

33:57I was in Burma

33:59my friends and I

34:00were working

34:01for the local government

34:03they were trying to buy

34:03the loyalty

34:04of tribal leaders

34:05by bribing them

34:06with precious stones

34:08but their caravans

34:10were being raided

34:11in a forest

34:11north of Rangoon

34:12by a bandit

34:13the bandit

34:15had been throwing them away

34:17so why steal them?

34:20well because he thought

34:20it was good sport

34:21because

34:22some men

34:23aren't looking

34:24for anything logical

34:25like money

34:26they can't be bought

34:27bullied

34:28reasoned

34:29or negotiated with

34:30some men

34:32just want to watch

34:33the world burn

34:34Christopher Nolan's

34:36great achievement

34:37has been to combine

34:39extraordinary skill

34:40with deep thoughtfulness

34:41in his depiction

34:43of science fiction

34:44from Dark Knight

34:46to Interstellar

34:47and Inception

34:48to Oppenheimer

34:49he has consistently

34:51shown concern

34:53with issues

34:53of identity

34:54solitude

34:55human hope

34:57and human destructiveness

34:58this all combined

35:01with the depiction

35:02of worlds of great beauty

35:03and huge popular

35:05and commercial success

35:07he has given dignity

35:09to a genre

35:10that has often been

35:11dominated

35:11by simpler

35:13superhero movies

35:14they weren't

35:29if this system

35:34moved south

35:35we could see

35:36a wind-driven storm surge

35:37that could threaten

35:38the entire eastern seaboard

35:39Roland Emmerich's

35:422004 film

35:43The Day After Tomorrow

35:45depicts disastrous

35:46climate change

35:48in a wholly immediate

35:49and spectacular way

35:51this is a real thing

35:52I think we're on the verge

35:57of a major climate shift

35:58George Monbiot

35:59the environmentalist

36:01wrote of it

36:02yes it's slushy

36:04corny and predictable

36:05yes the plot

36:06repeatedly breaks

36:08the laws of physics

36:09but none of this

36:10stops it

36:10from doing everything

36:12a disaster movie

36:13is supposed to do

36:14at times

36:23even the climatologists

36:24stopped laughing

36:25at the story

36:26and started laughing

36:27with it

36:28this is a curiously

36:30subversive story

36:31whose plot revolves

36:32around climate change

36:34and the reluctance

36:35of the powerful

36:36to respond to the needs

36:37of the people

36:38maybe you should

36:39stick to science

36:40and leave policy to us

36:41well we tried that approach

36:43you didn't want to hear

36:44about the science

36:44when it could have

36:45made a difference

36:46the day after tomorrow

36:48was seen by over

36:50100 million americans

36:51and grossed 552 million

36:54dollars at the box office

36:56worldwide

36:57I think when we are

37:02looking at sci-fi movies

37:04that they are

37:08representative of only

37:11a very very small part

37:13of what mature science fiction

37:16had become by say the year

37:181990, 2000 or so

37:22they do increasingly share

37:25with modern science fiction

37:27an almost universal sense

37:29that things are going to go

37:30very very bad

37:31global warming is a

37:34scientific reality

37:35it's not a political trick

37:37it's a true piece of real

37:39measurable quantifiable science

37:41people have to come around

37:44to believing that this is

37:45we are going to have to have

37:47a kind of confrontation

37:49with destiny

37:50unless we do something

37:52about it today

37:53when I think of

37:55writers of real import

37:58who whatever their background

38:01have dealt with

38:02the current world

38:04which is so difficult

38:05to deal with

38:06actually recognizing

38:08the texture

38:09of the terror

38:10that we're facing

38:11an example of this

38:13I think

38:14is Cormac McCarthy

38:16The Road from 2006

38:18I think

38:18is an astonishingly

38:21timely

38:22use of the

38:24post-catastrophe

38:25last man

38:26walking across a landscape

38:28until it dies on him

38:29type story

38:31that

38:32is one I think

38:34of the great science fiction stories

38:36of the 21st century

38:37The ending is a little bit ambiguous

38:39as to what happens

38:40and there are two ways

38:41of reading it

38:42the main character dies

38:44but perhaps the boy

38:45he's been protecting

38:46is going to be taken in

38:48by a community

38:48and will live

38:49as happy a life

38:50as possible

38:51in this blasted

38:52post-apocalyptic world

38:53or perhaps this new community

38:55will eat him

38:56because that's the world

38:57that the novel

38:58has shown us

38:58It's a litmus test

39:00isn't it

39:01for your view

39:02of how the world

39:03actually is

39:04Do you have any kids?

39:09Yes we do

39:10Do you have a little boy?

39:16We have a little boy

39:17and a little girl

39:18How old is he?

39:21That's your age

39:22a little older

39:23You didn't eat them?

39:28No

39:29So we don't eat people?

39:33No we don't eat people

39:35Beyond the crossroads

39:44in that wilderness

39:45they began to come upon

39:47the possessions

39:48of travellers

39:49abandoned in the road

39:51years ago

39:51boxes and bags

39:53everything melted

39:55and black

39:55old plastic suitcases

39:58curled shapeless

39:59in the heat

40:00here and there

40:01the imprint of things

40:02wrestled out of the tower

40:04by scavengers

40:05a mile on

40:06they began to come

40:08upon the dead

40:09figures half-mired

40:11in the blacktop

40:11clutching themselves

40:13mouths

40:14howling

40:15if the book attempts to show anything

40:36it attempts to show that

40:38that love can survive

40:40even under the most horrible circumstances

40:44you really love someone

40:45it doesn't make any difference

40:47how bad the world gets

40:48you will stick with them

40:49you will die for them

40:50you will do anything for them

40:52A counter perspective

40:58is to be found in the work

41:00of Kim Stanley Robinson

41:01who presents

41:02in the Ministry for the Future

41:04the belief

41:05that these problems

41:06are actually solvable

41:08this was yet another

41:12manifestation of racism

41:13and contempt for the south

41:15yes

41:16but also of a

41:18universal cognitive disability

41:20in that people

41:22had a very hard time

41:23imagining that catastrophe

41:24could happen to them

41:25until it did

41:27so until the climate

41:30was actually killing them

41:31people had a tendency

41:33to deny it could happen

41:35The world that we inhabit now

41:39in our imaginations

41:40if our imaginations

41:43have science fiction roots

41:45is a world in which

41:48comeuppance is the message

41:51our years in which

41:53our attempts to

41:55legislate

41:57to transform

41:58our world

41:59are seen in science fiction terms

42:01as doomed

42:03early in the 21st century

42:06it became clear

42:08that the planet

42:08was incapable

42:09of sustaining

42:10everyone alive

42:11at western levels

42:12and at that point

42:14the richest pulled away

42:16into their fortress mansions

42:18and bolted their doors

42:21to wait it out

42:21Clearly the climate

42:23catastrophe is a real thing

42:25and we can't simply

42:26wave our hands

42:27and pretend it's not happening

42:28but it's not

42:29the end of the world

42:31it's not an apocalypse

42:32it's there are ways

42:34in which we can address it

42:35and the ways in which

42:36we are actually

42:37addressing it

42:38and the novel explores

42:38lots of those

42:39and is actually very hopeful

42:41and very forward looking

42:43and in all of the

42:44post-apocalyptic

42:45situations

42:47there is the

42:48possibility of rebirth

42:51and renewal

42:52that science fiction

42:53generally goes for

42:54Maybe you're right

42:57Maybe there's no such thing

42:59as justice

43:00in the sense of some kind

43:02of real reparation

43:03of a wrong

43:04No eye for an eye

43:06no matter what

43:07Especially historical justice

43:10or climate justice

43:11But over the long haul

43:14in some rough sense

43:15that's what we have to try for

43:18That's what our ministry is about

43:20We're trying to set things up

43:23so that in the future

43:24over the long haul

43:26something like justice

43:28will get created

43:29Some long-term ledger

43:32of more good than bad

43:34Bending the arc and all that

43:37No matter what happened before

43:41that's what we can do now

43:43Because science fiction

43:46engages your imagination

43:47and it makes you think

43:48about alternate ways

43:50the world might be

43:51or the future might go

43:53It functions as a kind

43:54of litmus test

43:55It's a way of checking

43:57how optimistic or pessimistic

43:59you are about the state of things

44:01You read a novel like

44:03Stan Robinson's

44:04Ministry of the Future

44:06Does it feel right to you?

44:08Or does it make you realise

44:10that you have a much more

44:11pessimistic view

44:11of how things might go?

44:13And that might be

44:14a generational thing

44:15How optimistic are the old?

44:17when they face

44:18their own inevitable decline

44:20and project it out

44:21onto the world

44:22How more optimistic

44:23are the young?

44:24The future is in

44:25the hands of the young

44:27after all

44:28We choose to go to the moon

44:32in this decade

44:33and do the other things

44:35Not because they are easy

44:37but because they are hard

44:38Because that goal

44:40will serve to organise

44:42and measure the best

44:44of our energies and skills

44:46Because that challenge

44:48is one that we're willing

44:49to accept

44:50One we are unwilling

44:51to postpone

44:53and one we intend to win

44:55Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE

Στη Χώρα των Θαυμάτων Επιστημονική Φαντασία - Από το Quatermass στον Κρίστοφερ Νόλαν

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Στη Χώρα των Θαυμάτων

Recommended