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Solaris - Tarkovsky
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 145
This came up on my YouTube, you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8ZhQPaw4r
Interesting, it's the Soviet answering to and picking up where 2001 - A Space Odyssey left off.
The plot, in a nutshell, revolves around a trio of astronauts in orbit about a planet that appears to be alive, and capable of reading their unconscious thoughts and returning them to the station in human form.
In a sense a little like "Stalker". And a bit of horror, in that your unconscious thoughts can take physical shape and haunt you...
Notes; that while Tarkovsky spends a lot building a mock-up of a space station, it's entirely irrelevant to the situation at hand, which is - in a nutshell - how can we make and sustain a meaningful contact with an alien species when we so poorly understand ourselves?
It's merely a backdrop to tell a very different sort of story.
It doesn't bog itself down with irrelevant science techno-babble to try and explain what's going on, it's merely the dynamic of a group of people that are in a situation they are at a loss to explain...
Noteworthy, the long traffic sequence, blood through veins, how we are as well a part of a larger organization we can’t expect to comprehend, as well the folly of man's vision, as evidenced by the illustration torn from "Don Quixote", that all this science, exploration, is a fool's errand...
Anyways, curious, Canon, but probably not for everyone. But I notice his "Mirror, Mirror" is also on YouTube, and so that might be my next watch...
Volume 2 - Lewis & Clark
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
- Hits: 199
In which they cross over the rockies, go down the Columbia, spend the summer on the West Coast, returning the following year. While Lewis & Clark do split up after crossing the rockies they do not go into the territory of Yellowstone or the Black Hills, which rather disappointed me as I would like to have read their observations. And again the superfluity of game, black bears, grizzly bears, bison, elk, moose, wolves, swift foxes, etc, etc.
The second volume again reminds one of the horrors that were commonplace, flies, mosquitos, gnats, ticks, abscesses, the scourge of illnesses now largely extinct or forgotten about....
Descriptions of unknown illnesses cured through sweat lodges, of a Chief lying perfectly still, a paralysis of sound mind and body, for 3 years, descriptions vague enough that no concrete diagnosis can be made.
Then, on the Pacific side, there are the descriptions of the countless villages and charnel houses they investigated along the way; the grave goods offered, the sacrificing of horses to honour dead tribe members. And the descriptions, largely unflattering, of the various tribes they encountered, the head-binding & shaping techniques used to mark identity amongst different tribes, their various appearances and customs, etc, etc.
One highlight, the return of a medal bestowed upon a chief, the chief knowing to be wary of strangers bearing gifts, a tale as old as time, because with the gifts attend the invisible miasma of disease, guns, war, and change.
Now - as interesting as that all was, and informative, it's time now to try and find some contemporaneous native writings on Lewis & Clark to, to try and understand and see the other point of view, too often we're left with the victors narrative and miss out on the impression they might have made upon the tribes they contacted, which would be as valuable. Lewis & Clark were only heroes to the American Government, I suspect strongly they were not so well regarded by the locals...
John Wheeler - The Tear in Reality
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 268
John Wheeler, American Theoretical Physicist, striving to create a unified theory of everything that was objectively the same to all observers. Which, as the article lays out, was no easy task.
Link: Quanta Magazine - John Wheeler, the Tear in Reality
Link: Bio on Wikipedia
Indian Creek Village
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Treasure
- Hits: 216
Your daily dose of outrage, via Bloomberg: Link
A real life Treasure Island, if only you can get around the security. Certainly there are no scruples to be overcome, as the article will make clear...
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