The Angry Dieter

I admit it, I am into escapism. When I was in primary school, being bright didn’t mean you were popular, it meant that you were bullied. So I took refuge in the school libraries of every school I went to at lunch times. At recess times, I hid in the school chapels (until I got to an all girls school). I took part in the school choirs, and school orchestras so that I would find refuge in similar people. I read alot though. I discovered the TinTin in Tibet series, and Asterix and Obelix. One of my favourite books of all time was Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Then I discovered science fiction and fantasy novels, my sense of detachment from the real world whilst I was growing up became pronounced.

I flew with the dragons, rolled the dice with the wizards, read Jules Verne, HG Wells (War of the Worlds), marvelled at writers like Greg Egan and Philip K Dick. Then many novels I read were turned into movies. Philip K Dick seems very popular:

Completed Films

1. Blade Runner (1982) Based on “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”
2. Screamers (1995) Based on “Second Variety”
3. Total Recall (1990) Based on “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale”
4. Confessions d’un Barjo (French, 1992) Based on “Confessions of a Crap Artist”
5. Impostor (2001) Based on “Impostor.”
6. Minority Report (2002) Based on “The Minority Report.”
7. Paycheck (December 25, 2003) Based on “Paycheck.”
8. A Scanner Darkly (July 7, 2006) Based on “A Scanner Darkly”
9. Next (April 27, 2007) Based on “The Golden Man”

Minority report is similar but different to the movie. Read the book first.

So then I got hooked up into playing star wars with my Xbox. It’s all death and drama, the dark side V the light. Good versus bad, the moral and immoral choices. At every twist and turn of the story, there is a clear moral choice to be made. This is one of the reasons why I enjoy Star Wars movies (cept the last one - seriously, how corny was it having Darth Vader screaming “noooo” when padme died? - did anyone else laugh? I sure did). Corny factor aside, It’s very much about real life, minus the bloodshed.

A good science fiction book these days, is less about the monsters, and more about the choices and circumstances that lead the characters to make moral decisions which can have a far reaching ripple effect on the universe. One of the best authors who writes about these kinds of decisions, is Philip K Dick. I can’t recommend him as a read highly enough.

Well, perhaps that’s a bit too deep for people reading this, so I will be adjourning the post whilst I go to the wookie planet and slay some very bad wookiees.

August 9th, 2007 | Category: Thoughts | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL