Contact television series. |
I've never seen the film Prometheus. I have no intention of ever sitting through that movie. I only blogged about Prometheus because I like the general idea of science fiction stories about aliens who came to Earth long ago and who helped bring the human species into existence.
Elizabeth Shaw |
Pop Culture
I admit: I don't "get" pop culture. Sure, if you blow up enough spaceships and kill enough hapless redshirts and parade around a cute actress in her underwear you have a movie trailer and then a few million people will show up at the cineplex to eat popcorn and sit through your movie. Oh, well, I suppose it must be more than just a few million folks who see something in Prometheus that I just don't understand.
Cognitive dissonance: "What? A Hollywood film based on a novel that was written by a Ph.D.? |
Carl Sagan
Speaking of sequels, why can't Hollywood ever make meaningful sequels? The movie Contact only got part way through Sagan's novel, so why not make a Contact sequel? Answer: hell has not yet frozen over.
So it is up to us to entertain ourselves with additional Carl Sagan stories. Currently, I'm conspiring to insert Sagan into my science fiction obsession, the Exode Trilogy. In the first two chapters of Star Dance, I've introduced the idea of a mysterious Earthling who is expected to arrive on the planet Tar'tron, in the Galactic Core.
The Dancing Earth |
I could not stand the idea that Asimov died before he was able to find a way to continue his Foundation Saga past the dramatic revelations at the end of Foundation and Earth. I took the liberty to write Asimov himself into Foundations of Eternity.
When I discovered how much fun it was to have Asimov as a character in the Exode Trilogy, I went ahead and imagined that in a previous Reality (what I call the Ekcolir Reality) Jack Vance had a twin brother. The twins (John and Jack) both had writing careers in the Ekcolir Reality, but John managed to slip into the Buld Reality (the world as we know it) and found the Dead Widower Society.
The Mysterious Earthling
Obsidia: waiting for Carl Sagan |
In the Exode Trilogy, telepathy evolved naturally on Earth, but I follow in the footsteps of Asimov and Vance and imagine that human telepathic powers were limited and mostly unconscious. What if Sagan had a particularly large dose of telepathic power? And what if there were "aliens" lurking on Earth who had the technological means to "boost" the latent telepathic ability of people like Sagan?
The Hortensia Opera Company |
Later, after Carl Sagan's "parents" are both dead, Ghyl and Bet are still able to contact Carl and help him find his way to Tar'tron.
"The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious"
Two Einsteins: 1891 |
Dualities: wave/particle, gravity/acceleration |
Gravitational lens; Hubble Space Telescope |
In 1910, Albert has one more task to complete before the Buld Reality, the world as we know it, can come into existence. Bet again makes use of Elsa to guide Albert's thinking towards a general theory of relativity. Bet arranges for Elsa to invite Albert to a performance by the Ballets Russes and Bet is able to shape an analogy between dance and gravitational lensing in Albert's mind.
Next: the theory of Temporal Amplification
visit the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers and the Gallery of Posters |
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