tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post2662167034404617415..comments2024-03-14T07:11:37.650+00:00Comments on Porky's Expanse!: They live among us (4) - The alien from AlienPorkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-57000244578743736872011-04-04T09:10:00.331+01:002011-04-04T09:10:00.331+01:00Welcome back! It's always a pleasure to have y...Welcome back! It's always a pleasure to have you here, and to read those good thoughts. As for who exactly it is learning at the feet of the other, we'll just have to take turns..!<br /><br />Great story, though I'm sorry to hear it had such uncomfortable effects. It's a clear picture of the potential dangers of horror. I'm pretty sure I saw <i>Alien</i> first, and though I don't remember when that was, I have a feeling it was early enough to give me the heebie-jeebies too.<br /><br />I think the fear in a film like <i>Alien</i> or <i>Aliens</i>, dealing in so many challenging concepts - and some of them possibly unfamiliar or unknown to a first-viewing audience - comes also from lack of understanding, lack of context, from really being at the mercy of the production team. If I watched it for the first time today, the reaction would probably be subtly different; I'd likely approach it with more confidence and ability to tease out the strands, better understand the concept, processes and resulting unease, quite possibly suffering less in the short term. I can even imagine myself nodding or chuckling at a scene well done or a sharp idea.<br /><br />In this sense, I do feel a classification system has value, although age is only a loose guide to readiness. It's also less about being tough in the moment and getting through it than about having the tools to assimilate the experience and learn from it.<br /><br />That awed rapture is something I feel too. Together the first two films build enough of world, and a believable and rich enough world, to immerse us totally, and leave that space behind. For me the later expansions were, as an absolute minimum, increasingly unnecessary. It's not so much that there was little more to say as that saying this would harm the whole by reducing its weight, or rather its density, sucking the power out. They simply give us much more than we and the wider work need. Better put all that energy into a fully new thing.<br /><br />For this reason I admire the preference for keeping the first movie more or less as it is, the recognition that the artist, in discussion with others or not, must have the power to set the boundaries of the creation. To say 'less is more' is right, in that less of a thing can make it far more precious, and I think this is true here. As the audience for a work of art, I may want more, but on balance I could well lose if given it.<br /><br />Thanks for writing. I'm sure I'm not the only one who'll gain from it.Porkyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-32956302944602496532011-04-03T20:17:44.510+01:002011-04-03T20:17:44.510+01:00Greetings, Sieur Porky. I apologize that it has ta...Greetings, Sieur Porky. I apologize that it has taken me so long to return to The Expanse. I never forgot about your new year’s request to posit a reply to this installment of the “They Live Among Us” series. Like the other 3 posts, this is rich material, and there is much excellent grist for the mill of the intellect. If you’ll allow me to turn your comment on BoLS on its head, it is I who am learning at the feet of Porky Poster, not vice versa.<br /><br />Random aside: Partly out of curiosity, and perhaps (at the time) in preparation for returning to respond, I rented and watched The Duelists. I enjoyed it very much, so for that nugget too I offer my thanks.<br /><br />I think rather than try to contribute directly to the ongoing discussion of Zeitgeist, I will give my poor sleep-deprived, BoLS-shrunken brain a bit of a rest, and instead merely relate a personal anecdote.<br /><br />I was in elementary school when Alien hit the big screen. I recall that many of my classmates appeared one day toting the collector’s cards, much like the ones popularized by the movie Star Wars. Having been repeatedly traumatized by nothing more than the TV commercials for various horror films of the day, I was very much afraid of the whole notion of going to see horror flicks in the theater. As a result, I never watched Alien, and further, I didn’t build up any emotional “resistance,” as it were, to the horror genre.<br /><br />Fast forward to young adulthood, and the advent of the VCR, and of the video rental store. My family wasn’t wealthy, we were very behind the times. When at last we did own a VCR, I was instantly hooked. The little video shop down the street was well established, well stocked with titles (in both Beta and VHS), and that is where most of my part-time disposable income went. I avoided renting Alien on principle, but Aliens…now that had more of an action-looking flare to it. Having missed that one in the theater as well, I picked it up, and that is where I entered the story of the Alien franchise.<br /><br />The experience of watching Aliens for the first time is one of my most treasured memories. I was alone in the house, lights out, curtains drawn. I was instantly captured by the film’s gritty, biomechanical vision of the future. Additionally, given my lack of experience with the horror/suspense movie genres, I was literally paralyzed with terror. I loved it, don’t get me wrong, but it was more than I could manage for my first go. Even though I was a “grown” young man, well aware that it was just a fantasy, I stopped the tape at about the half-way mark, staggered out into the front yard and doubled over, gasping for air. It was the only movie, before or after, to have that profound an effect on me. Let me tell you, it was embarrassing, and I was *so* grateful that no one was around to witness it at the time. After taking several minutes to regain my composure, I returned to the tape, and finished it out to the end, filled with a kind of awed rapture.<br /><br />It wasn’t long before I eagerly sought out the first movie, but it had nothing like the impact that Aliens did. I appreciated it artistically, and had to recognize that Alien was where it all began – but by comparison the plot moved very slowly, and too many of the unknowns had already been spoiled for me. It all happens the way it’s supposed to for each of us, I suppose. With regard to the remaining films in the franchise, well, I gave them their chances, but I generally just pretend they were never made.Satiranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13141972487850792243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-55153637140118677512011-02-10T10:02:48.797+00:002011-02-10T10:02:48.797+00:00No YouTube video this time (my flash's not wor...No YouTube video this time (my flash's not working right now), but <a href="http://www.lyricsmania.com/the_duelists_lyrics_iron_maiden.html" rel="nofollow">here</a> are the lyrics. Powerslave is a great album.???https://www.blogger.com/profile/00467285279627231933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-56098388170241292292011-02-09T22:12:28.449+00:002011-02-09T22:12:28.449+00:00@ The Angry Lurker - Very good thinking. It can...@ The Angry Lurker - Very good thinking. It can't be too easy; there are the issues of interest in the fiction of course, but also wider ones of basic nature. Re the meds, being tired or ill can at least help bring out less usual or even deeper thoughts, and that at least should be a good thing.<br /><br />@ Jedediah - It's certainly grim, and you're right that even <i>Silent Running</i> is little different. Romantic it may be, but romance is strong when the world around is harsh. I'd forgotten I referenced <i>The Duellists</i> - I thought for a while there you'd brought that up. With your knowledge it wouldn't be a surprise! I didn't realise there was a link to Iron Maiden though.Porkyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00604351052444947490noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-16390205078696933602011-02-08T21:53:21.987+00:002011-02-08T21:53:21.987+00:00I like Alien precisely because the vision of the f...I like Alien precisely because the vision of the future presented here is so grim and much less idealistic than that of earlier SciFi movies. The product of a time of disillusion indeed. <br /><br />For all its funniness, the world of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Star_%28film%29" rel="nofollow">Dark Star</a> is just as bleak. Humanity might colonise other planets, but the crew of the Dark Star is left very much alone. I wouldn't want to live in either of those worlds. Nor in the future of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_running" rel="nofollow">Silent Running</a>, come to think of it.<br /><br />The Duellists is such an awesome movie. I watched it first after hearing the Iron Maiden song inspired by it. Come to think of it, Iron Maiden are responsible for introducing me to The Prisoner, Coleridge and other stuff as well.???https://www.blogger.com/profile/00467285279627231933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-79928309472247380312011-02-08T20:50:33.107+00:002011-02-08T20:50:33.107+00:00....meds.....meds.The Angry Lurkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01227314379603418332noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4487413006559113471.post-33637777195104143542011-02-08T20:48:48.232+00:002011-02-08T20:48:48.232+00:00I agree the alien from aliens is the best and well...I agree the alien from aliens is the best and well represented by GW with the genestealer but how about the predator who merged with an alien, he is the coolest idea and the best received but over the years his persona has become tainted to me. The reason being he has too much going for him not just the weapons but the sneaking and the cloaking ability, I say to you he's become a coward or it just could be the mere.The Angry Lurkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01227314379603418332noreply@blogger.com