Andrew RoachAlright Cybre.space, are you all down for talking about weird early science fiction?
Because that's what I want to do.
Like, 1902 scifi. Can we talk about scifi from 1902?
Specifically, I want to talk about A Trip to the Moon.
Have you seen A Trip to the Moon? If not, it's right here: http://ajroach42.github.io/a-trip-to-the-moon-science-fiction-film-from-1902/
Takes about 15 minutes, worth the time.
So A Trip to the Moon has some things happen in it:
1) Wizards shoot a missile at the moon.
2) The Moon is alive.
3) The wizards hit it in the eye with a cannon
4) The moon is inhabited.
5) The wizards murder a bunch of the inhabitants of the moon.
6) The wizards head back home like nothing is happening, and they get a parade.
But, like, Then what happens?
What do wizards do with the knowledge that they have assaulted, if not a deity, then at least the biggest fauna ever discovered?
Are the creatures sentient? Do they have technology (or magic?) Can they come back to earth and stomp some people?
Did we murder the moon? Is the moon dead now? Is it going to fall to earth?
Seriously, though, this film leaves me with many questions.
Why did the wizards attack the moon? Did they know it was alive?
Is this revenge for the events depicted in the 1898 film The Astronomer's Dream? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyMTiNbhEDU)
In that film, someone dressed very much like the wizards from A Trip to the Moon gets in a fight with the moon, or a demon pretending to be the moon, or maybe he's dreaming?
gabby kar
Rexford G. Tugwell [old]@ajr I watched it recently with my kids.
13-year old: "That was...interesting."
9-year old: "Let's never watch that again."
@RexfordGTugwell Okay, but https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyMTiNbhEDU
Melies made some unhinged films.
Chris@ajr a trip to the moon is excellent. that period of filmmaking is wonderfully weird because they were trying to legitimize it by emulating oil painting.
@ajr oh my gosh yes please. I don't know anything about it but I suddenly want to very much.
John Ward@ajr what's scifi from 1902? HG Wells? Jules Verne? I don't think Lovecraft was publishing until the 20's or so. Maybe 30's. Ah, now, I see you're talking about movies. Yes, I've seen Trip to the Moon. Years ago.
@jlward Wells and Verne were both active around that time, yeah.
George Griffith, too.
Oz has some scifi elements in it, if you want to make the stretch. The first in that series came out in 1900.
I don't think Burroughs started doing scifi until sometime after 1910.
John Astor also published a scifi novel around that time, I believe.
@jlward But yeah, most of the fun stuff in scifi starts in the 1910s and 1920s.
I really should catalog the stuff I have that's older than that. I don't know it as well as the later stuff.
@chrismartin @jlward I don't think I could handle another alt right now, but there are days when I can talk about sicfi for hours.
@chrismartin @jlward Ooh, reminds me of stuff!
http://ajroach42.github.io/space-patrol-1950/
and
http://ajroach42.github.io/space-patrol-orion-the-other-groundbreaking-scifi-series-from-1966/
Space Patrol was an early scifi TV show. One of the first, and it's actually pretty good.
Space Patrol Orion was a German series that premiered around the same time as Star Trek:TOS. Also pretty good.
Both are on youtube for free.
@chrismartin @jlward I got a million of 'em.
(Well, a couple hundred, at least.)
null@ajr reading group ready go.
@null In this instance, I was actually talking about a film!
https://cybre.space/@ajr/636896
But yeah, if you wanna talk about old sci-fi books, I can do that too.