It's no secret that sci-fi is one of my favorite genres. Though I was raised consuming volumes of fantasy novels, sci-fi is cut from the same cloth. A good science fiction story draws upon enough believable material to make us engage with the story, with some good imagination and speculation to draw us into deeper, unknown, and perhaps bolder territory. I just saw a great example of how science fiction engages our deepest, very human questions, asking us to think and feel familiar things while venturing into new narrative territory. But before I talk about the film I'll give you a little background on why (and how) I came to love the genre. The journey began with some classic novels new and old (although science fiction is a relatively new genre, coming to prominence only in the middle of the 20th century). Some highlights include Frank Herbert's 1965 masterpiece Dune , where I followed the Messiah-like Paul Atreides on his quest to seek justice for the injuries again...
We go through phases in terms of the stories that really captivate us, that connect to our humanity, connect us to each other, and to our deepest selves. Growing up as a kid in the Nineties, I remember a slough of disaster movies. Comets, asteroids, volcanoes, and other things threatened to end all life as we know it. We counted on people smarter than us, the scientists, engineers, and astronauts, to save us (unless you're Michael Bay, who will tell you that it's easier to train oil rig workers to fly into space than it is to teach actual trained astronauts how to use a drill). Later, in the early Aughts, it was fantasy that took over. The post-9/11 era taught us to depend on clear lines of morality, of good versus evil, and epic quests and heroic virtue that will rid the world of the darkness. That decade ended and ushered us into an era still in its heyday: that of the Superhero. Although Marvel and DC have different textures and color palettes, they both tell the sam...
Portland, Oregon from Washington Park. It was a beautiful Sunday, with sunshine breaking a midday shower, as sprinkles of rain fell among the brilliant bursts of red, yellow, and pink in the Rose Garden at Washington Park. The green space, thick with groves of tall Douglas Firs, armored with bark hardy against whatever ecological changes shaped this landscape before this city grew up around it, was no doubt named for this nation's first President. He was a man who owned a stately plantation, fought the majority of his military career in the Royal Army of King George II and III, and owned many slaves before writing their freedom into his will. A politician second and a duty-bound soldier first, his actions shaped the course of this land, even though we stood on the other side of the continent from the battlefields of the American Revolution. In fact, the city of Portland, as the largest urbanization of the state of Oregon, is quite close to the end of the exploratory path trac...
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