442. Red Dawn (1984) — Torture Cinema #118
https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/sand-f-episode-442-red-dawn/SandF_Episode_442_Red_Dawn.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSS80s politics, weird story choices, and Wolverines!!!, oh my! Shaun Duke, Alex Acks, and Paul Weimer join forces to discuss 1984’s most memorable jingoistic nuclear war film, Red Dawn. Together, they discuss the film’s history and impact, just what it takes to be a Wolverine, what the 80s were like, and so much more! Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoy the episode!
410. 3 African Short Films (or, Hey, It’s African SF!) — At the Movies
https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/sand-f-410-3-short-african-films/SandF_410_3_Short_African_Films.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSNew years, new shiny, and memories, oh my! Shaun Duke and Jen Zink dive into the exciding world of African short films with a look at three exciting projects from the last decade-ish — Afronauts (2017), Z: The Beginning (2019), and Pumzi (2009). Together, they explore their themes of dystopia and hope, their treatment of African culture and familiar ideas from SF, and just what makes these films so special! Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoy the episode!
Beautiful Dystopias: ‘The Belles’ and ‘Uglies’
Since the launch of The Belles earlier this year, Dhonielle Clayton has been very open about taking inspiration from Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. The two books form an interesting dialogue, with The Belles building on the foundation formed by Uglies while bringing a somewhat more nuanced and feminine perspective. The two books share a focus on beauty, with each building a different culture around it. The Belles takes a fantasy angle: the people of Orleans are cursed by the gods to look ugly—with grey skin, red eyes and hair like rotten straw. They rely on the Belles to magically change their appearance into something beautiful. Exactly what that looks like changes from season to season, and these treatments eventually wear off, needing to be renewed. Camellia Beauregard hopes to be chosen as the Favourite of the Queen of Orleans and serve as the foremost Belle in the kingdom. However, she soon finds the reality of the dream is not quite what she expected.
Book Review: American War by Omar El Akkad
It is approximately half a century in our future. Climate change has altered the coasts of the United States, wiping out much of Florida and Louisiana. Amid these changes, the Second American Civil War breaks out. While the issue of slavery drove the original Civil War, southern state refusal to accept a federal ban on fossil fuels stokes the fires of the second. Yet, the issues are more complex beyond any single cause. Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi form a core of secession, Texas becomes reabsorbed by Mexico, and South Carolina suffers as ground zero in the release of a plague engineered by the North, leaving the state quarantined. Fracturing, the South becomes desperate, fueled by hatred. With an urge to end the last remnants of resistance as quickly as possible, the North retaliates with equal hate and ferocity.
Book Review: The Red Men by Matthew de Abaitua
About a third of the way through The Red Men, Matthew de Abaitua’s ravishing new-old (I’ll explain in a moment) cyberpunk nightmare, is very likely the creepiest scene I’ve ever encountered in literature. Not just in genre fiction. In literature. I’m not going to spoil it for you. You’ll know it when you hit it. And your brain will leap out of your skull and try to escape the building, flopping and squelching across the floor until it’s stuck hurling itself ineffectually against a door or gate or other obstacle. Help me. You’ll want to chase after it so you can read the rest of the book. Probably.
Movie Review: "Blade Runner 2049" (‘As clear as dreaming’)
I can’t remember ever being as disturbed and enthralled at one time by any movie as by “Blade Runner 2049.” That makes it fine art in my eyes. The movie is disturbing because it so explicitly poses questions about personhood, objectification and empathy. I gasped a few times and flinched several more times, and so did my companion. Besides the consent issues, the violence in it is also disturbing, and this vision of 2049 is even more dystopic for PoC and women; however, I saw those elements not as gratuitous, but rather as deliberate showcasing of the problems of society. I’ll discuss that more after the spoiler warning. The movie is enthralling because it is so well done. I said before that it “poses” questions instead of “asks” them, because aside from some brief future-history infodumping, there is a whole lot of show-not-tell in this movie, the opposite of the much-derided voiceover in the 1982 movie’s theatrical version. I suppose a person who’s oblivious to social issues could take everything that happens at face value, as though the viewer is supposed to be okay with the situations and choices being shown, but it seems obvious that a person who thinks about them is supposed to be cringing.
