[Art-is INDEX]
Artis: xlit
Note: A useful companion file would be in the pizoi/literatur/sf/ dir:
      -[sf-list]-

      btw: it contain almost entirely SPOILERS. In this file (xlit), i try
           to have as few spoilers (they are marked in each sub-section) as
           possible.

See also:  [Bird's Eye View]
          -[Syllabus]-
          -[Art Studio 42]-
          -[ast42 (techne')]-

           [Art Materials]
           [Art Technique]
           [Art Terms]
           [Art THINGS] (sort of a catch-all)

Xlit

On this page:  {What is Lit anyway?}
              






x - the unknown = { DaDa , SF }  x { a, b, c }

                           {DaDa Lit}
Jump down to major block:  
                           {SF Lit}
-^_6

So, what is this literature stuff anyway?

From one point of view, it is eogist and snobishly intellectual
to say that this is Literature (with a capital "L") and that
is not (spoken with disdain). I'm simply going to side-step
all of the mud-slinging and refer to "literature" as stuff
that was written down of "sufficient length" (what ever that 
means), an of a fictional or at least fictionalised nature.
Thus, Douglas Noel Adams' trilogy of five books called 
"The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (h2g2 for short)
is fiction, but his "Last Chance to See" (about disappearing
species around the world) is NOT. 

But, there are obviously several *purposes* of literature; 
we touch on three of these in the "Dada" section of this 
work; ie, humor, suprise, and absurdity. Traditional
literature focuses on things around us (or not) with a
slight twist - the twist is either in the nature of the
characters, plot, environment, or some event. 

And there are obviously several different *focuses* of
literature - what i refer to as "sub genres"; in the
"SF" section of this work; ie, space travel, time travel,
the search for self, and the search for ultimate meaning.
Traditional SF literature 
it's difficult to save a world, when the inhabitants 
don't know they're in trouble.



the american taxpayer has always been deceived; it is his 
birthright.




Axiom: There are ONLY two types of Literature

   Dada and SF

All others are fiction, not literature.  (how's that for starters??!)

Of course, there are grey areas, the classics....  And documentary works???
                                             The Joy Luck Club
                                             Amy Tan THe Kitchen God
   "The Dream of the Red Chamber"            amnesty intl Paul Ressabegina.,.,,.,.,..,,,..,.,.,.,.,,.,.,.,.,,
   "Les Miserables"
   "Tom Sawyer" (and it's evil twin brother
                     "The Adventures of Huck Finn")
   "Moby Dick"
   "Quiet Flows the Don"     

and film?

   "Citizen Kane"
   "Das Boot"
   "The Grand Illusion"
   "Around the World in 80 Days"
   ... more than can be numbered; although: AFI came up with "100"


and things curiouser still: That appear to be fiction or
                            literature, but are neither

   "Remembrance of Things Past"; "Swan's Way"
   "War and Peace"
   "The Red Badge of COurage"
   "Les Miserables"
   ??title? by Zola about the commune (ach, and me away from my library !

Needless to say, i have yet to complete *any* of these; as such,
and am not therefore qualified to speak of that which i know not of.

          (well, accept for the twain of course 
               - i wouldn't be much of a
                                       scalliwag otherwise ;)

Recommended

   "City of the Lost Children"
   "The Magnificent Seven"
   "Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure"   

And just so sub-titles won't frighten you... (if they ever did)...

   "Schultze Gets the Blues" 
   "Eight and A Half"
   "The Seventh Samuraii"
   "Dancer in the Dark"
   "Once Upon a Time in India"
   "Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring"
   "Z"

Meanwhile, in a completely different part of the intellectual universe...

                      dada
Dada:   HaHa, !,  DaDa^

  

Dada Lit: Intro

In this section:  {Introduction to the Absurd}
                  {Humor}
                  {Plot Twists}
                  {The Absurdity of the Absurd}

  

Dada - intro

   Where-in Hugo Ball sez:  "Dada is a kind of fire insurance.

  The Dada'ist's 
  Cafe Voltare
  Eugenio Montale



Dada Lit:  Ha Ha

   thurber - university days
   saki - the zockscheiggler-horste method


  

Dada Lit:  !
(Surprise!: Plot Twists)

   saki - sirrendi vashtar
   o henry - the criminal
   Sartre - Flies

Recommended

Maugham: The Proper Wife

  

Dada Lit:  Dada on Ice

Guliver in ??literature-things?? - irony, through a mirror slightly
Lewis Carrol:  "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" 
Camus - the guest 
Borges: Library of Babel

Recommended

  Beckett:  Waiting for Godot; excellent film rendering: "Beckett on Film".


  

Literature: SF

In this section:  {SF - A brief Intro & POV}
                  {Chrono List}
                  {Space: The First Frontier}
                  {Time Travel}
                  {Mind/Self: The Ultimate Frontier}
                  {What does it all mean?}
-^_6
Under each major sub-genre are the the text/films, as well as
a discussion of their relevance and reasons that they 
were chosen / are important.

Briefly:  Horror is NOT SF.

          Simplest example:

   Will Smith (as "J") - Then i noticed that tissue. 
                         He's not snarling, he's sneezing.

If a creature can be reasoned with then, it is not a monster.
But, the converse is not true; eg, the "Mad General" (Jack
D. Ripper played by Sterling Hayden in "Dr. StrangeLove" - def SF, 
but very borderline into Horror; ie, "The Horror of Atomic War").

Independence day:  ??name?? (Will Smith) - the optimism of the soldier...
(strictly speaking: Horror Genre, not SF; ie, a "war movie" -
it's us against the godless communists/japs/nazi's/etc 

Once you can remove the humanity (or equivalent) then
you become the hero slaying the infinitely evil dragon. 

Literature is more often than not concerned with ideas,
morality, and the grey areas of the equation of 
"The ends justify the means". In many cases, the 
traditional literature is cloaked in sf (or other terms).
Thus, we have "Star Wars" - The hero's Quest; early on,
Lukas had actually thought of a female hero rather than
a male one. 

-^_6

-^_6
  

SF Lit: Chrono List

This section is primarily intended as reference info.

We begin with a chronological view of the works and as cast
against their b/g events in the world (usually refered to as
"Reality Structure 3"). Next, we deal with each of the SF
sub-genres in turn. Even though a chronological order has
its historical, filmological, and tecnilogical signficance
(this is left as a final essay in this section). Thus, i
think its important to deal with these works in terms of 
their SF content; ie, space travel vs. time travel, and of 
course "the journey of the self" However, i think its important to deal with these works 
in terms of their SF content; ie, space travel vs. time
travel, and of course "the journey of the self"

In chronological order, we have: 



Literature: SF - Space the First Frontier
-^_6

We now begin with the most direct and understandable of
the concepts (space travel), then proceeding through
time travel (Shakespeare's "Undiscovered Country" - the
future), and finally with the meaning of identity; of "me-ness".

From Earth To Moon

Tsilikovski - multi-stage rockets, space stations, etc. 

Vernes "From Earth to Moon"

Welles - "First Men in the Moon" (film)

-^_6

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Based on the short story "Return of the Master" by ??author??,
"The Day the Earth Stood Still" was one of the few "cold war"
metaphor films that went beyond the the concept of "possession".





Beyond the Scope of this Work, but...

  "The Dish" - dramatisation of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing,
               from a "down under" POV. Well done; mates.
               About 90-to-95% accurate story line. And rarely
               a dull moment.

Literature: SF - When was when, when it wasn't when?
(time travel)

 "The Time Machine" - H. G. Welles. Welles' thoughts on
      social evolution. 2 film versions; each with their 
      own charm.  Also:  "The Great Accelerator"
                         "Things to Come" (film as well as text)

 "Time After Time" - version with Malcomb McDowel & Richard Warner.
                     Nicolas Myers' first film direction 
                     (dir of "Star Trek the Movie")

 "Cyborg 2087" - with Michael "Klatu" Rennie. 
     Well worth searching; a classic "B" SF movie of quality.

 "ButterFly Effect" - probably the best traditional lit approach
                      using time travel as only a story element
                      instead of the central content. The 2000
                      version of "The Time Machine" came close 
                      to this, but becomes more horror genre 
                      (as did the original film version).

                      Many similar films based on the "what if"
                      idea; eg, "Siliding Doors".
                                          

TV

  "Babylon 5" "Babylon Squared" (3 episodes)

  

Recommended

   "The Sound of Thunder" - the original by Ray Bradbury



-^_6
Literature: SF - The Meaning of Self

And from about a billion years (of human evolution time or
25 years of robot evolution time) ahead of its time

   Fritz Lang's  "Metropolois"

Refs:  "The Mind's I", Hofstadler, etc - 
       what does it mean to be me?

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

NOTES  **SPOILERS**

Based on the short story "The Body Snatchers" by
??author??, and despite numerous finely crafted remakes, 
the original withstands the tests of time quite well. This
is one of the least thinly disguised "cold war metaphor" films 
of its time; ie, using an invasion from space metaphorically
to represent take over by the US (read that as the USA) by
the USSR (read that as Russia).

Unlike other "the reds are after our minds and our children"
films that used the sledge hammer approach, ??QQ-- were there equiv films in Russia --QQ??
"Invasion" went with a purely SF (horror) motif: 
Instead of the menace taking over a person's mind, 
they cloned
the body, and then substitued their own minds for
that of the original and incorporated the original's
memories, but NOT their general persona. The clone
(the "body snatcher" or "pod person") lacked any
emotions what so ever, and only saw their mission
as necessary, inevitable - very locust-like.

Of Gendre and othe mysteries
... of the human speicies, et al.

Ursula K. Le Guin: "The LeftHand of Darkness"
-^_6

Beyond Being Human


Short Stories

  "Oh to be a blobal" - Philip K. Dick

Films

  "AI" - Brian Aldis

  "Screamers" - based on P.K. Dick's "The Fourth Kind" ??title??
                also check out: "Imposter" (also based on Dick's work)

   "I Sing the Body Electric" - Twilight Zone, based on short story
                                by Ray Bradbury  

Books


Beyond the Scope of this Work, but...

Isaac Asimov & Janet Aimov
Robot   and   Humanoid Robot

Lester Del Rey 




Few books treat much more than human interests in the universe.
A few of these end up showing a few "lessons"

  - we are meant for a higher destiny
  - who or what we are is not at all what we think
  

The most notable example of the first of these is the film by
Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, "2001: A Space Odyssey" 
and the of the second, the trilogy in five parts by Douglas Noel Adams,
"The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy". 

This section does NOT contain spoilers.

In both of these, man assumes that he has superiority over
what he knows and as such is keeping with the tradition
of "manifest destiny" or "onward and upward to the stars".
In the case of 2001 (and its sequel 2010, which is much
more "hollywood", but was made with Clarke's active 
invovlement and he was pleased (me thinks) with the 
restrictions imposed on the film the the exigencies of
modern film making)

Regardless of these differences


-^_6


Redux of Infinity & Zero

A Chronological Decomposition of the SF Genre

SF: Chrono: Decomposition: Historical

events of the time tied in some-what fanciful means
to the events of the time, space and films, etc. ..

SF: Chrono: Decomposition: Filmological

issues as to what issues the film industry wished
to address, 

SF: Chrono: Decomposition: Technological

what could be accomplished, how well, how much 
"suspension of disbelief" etc played

Even though a chronological order has
its historical, filmological, and tecnilogical signficance
(this is left as a final essay in this section

Even though a chronological order has
its historical, filmological, and tecnilogical signficance
(this is left as a final essay in this section)


CASE STUDY

Assignment: 

   Perform a "decompostion" (as above) on the film "2001".