| Author | Message | ||
     Mbfg (Mbfg) Username: Mbfg Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 212.219.63.204 |
If you didn't catch this documentary on BBC2 last night get onto iPlayer as soon as is humanley possible because this is the first episode of an absoloutely fascinating and iconoclastic series. Regards Terry | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.155.107.43 |
I second that! | ||
| Mbfg (Mbfg) Username: Mbfg Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 212.219.63.204 |
Thanks Des. I will certainly be hunting out Ayn Rand's novels, statign with "Atlas Shrugged". I mean, come on folks, next week's episode poses the question; was the eco system invented by computers? | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.132.169.143 |
Did anyone see The Mountain that needed to be Painted last week? Augustus John and somebody Innes, their time spent painting there. There was a glimpse of John talking on telly in the sixties - talk about Aickman's 'vivid men' - strewth he had a strong personality. So intelligent it was frightening, even humbling. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.155.107.43 |
Tony, that was a brilliant programme about A. John and Innes. The twin peaks were so damn haunting... | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.155.107.43 |
That Augustus John Mountain programme is amazing indeed and I've just seen that it is repeated tonight on BBC4 at 8 pm. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.110.13.182 |
Des - I have an odd urge to do a sort of 'fictiomentary' of the film, a written piece based on my reaction to watching it, mixing my thoughts and reactions and meanderings to what unfolds. I'm sure it's been done but I really fancy doing it, seeing where it takes me. Best radio documentary this week was about the 'Gypsy Boy', Mikey Walsh, interviewed for The Choice. Incredibly moving, completely uplifting - and perhaps the best gay romance I've ever heard of. Should we have a documentary thread? Is there a point? | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.110.13.182 |
Des - that doc was fantastic. It makes me want to take up painting again. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.155.107.43 |
That's all very understandable, Tony. Me, too. But we mustn't forget this thread is about All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace not The Mountain that needed to be Painted | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.155.107.43 |
Or perhaps the two *should* be synergised? | ||
| Mbfg (Mbfg) Username: Mbfg Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 82.6.90.22 |
There seems to be precious little art in the greed machine that has grown and blackened the heart of the west, particularly certian parts of the US's political heart. And yet Ayn Rand used art, namely literature and film to portray the ideas that led to the soulless rule of the systems that seem to be a major contributor to the financial disasters of recent years. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.155.107.43 |
Cf: 'The Machine Stops' by E.M. Forster, a story from 1909 about the modern Internet. http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html | ||
| Mbfg (Mbfg) Username: Mbfg Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 212.219.63.204 |
Forster, an intriguing author. I've only read "Passage to India" so far, but what a great novel that is, subtle and immensley dark beneath what appears to be an obvious story. there is something of the "Picnic at Hanging Rock" about it, the ambiguous event that no one is sure about. I supose most sf is artistic prediction of the cold and dmechnical but certain novels are real art, real literary prophesy -"1984", "Fahrenheit 451" | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.79.18.88 |
The first words in the story were THE AIR SHIP and my heart sank. Airships are still a shorthand for aLternative and future worlds and I'm SICK of them. Still, I have to admit that the Icelandic volcanoes make me think they may BE the future. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.122.107.34 |
I watched this. I found the game of ping pong amazing, even spine-tingling. Eerie to think of literature shaping the world so powerfully. It's like something from PKD. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.132.169.240 |
What a disturbing series this is. Second almost creepier than the first. 'Soft machines', eh? Brrr.... |