Alright people, it has notably been a few days since I left some thoughts. Well, there are other jobs to be done, but here is a shameless plug-my new science fiction novel is most likely now…finished. It is, in its own way, some kind of cross between 2001 Space Odyssey and possibly 28 Days Later. Yes, they are fim references-well the latter- so I’d say it probably has expected Ballard influence right through in some sense too.
So, thinking about sci-fi(or as many now term it SF), I find myself just considering which films and books right now possibly resemble or appear to be close to a kind of near future for us in this tense, technologically confused world…
I am a huge fan of J.G.Ballard, and so rightly many of his great books and short fiction are disturbingly very close to a kind of tomorrow. Some of the best being CRASH, SUPER CANNES, HIGH RISE, CONCRETE ISLAND and then his final novel KINGDOM COME. But most likely it was his many collected short tales which shocked and facinated with amazingly original unique future visions more realistic and disturbing than most sci-fi.
Some fear that we might be coming close to living in a world close to that of books and films like A Clockwork Orange, with its malcontent angry young Droogs, the totalitarian pen pushing, file sorting control of Orwell’s 1984. For such a long time Philip K Dick was labelled a mad paranoid loon, but the more time passes so much more of his books and work seem creepily relevant. The books of William Gibson and their cyberworlds, virtual realities influenced films like The Matrix, and now could tell us much about our addiction to apps, internet, social media and the problems there.
The Alan Moore classic political graphic novel turned movie V For Vendetta had much to say along similar lines to 1984, about controlling facist governments and corrupt politicians distorting news media. Might it be not too long before we live in a present close to that of Ghost in the Shell anime, or the many books of Issac Asimov with his specific rules of man and robot co-existence?
I may be seeming highly paranoid here, or simply a great fan of many classic forms of science ficion in film and in written form. I think I might now go and find myself lost among more tales of future paranoia, robots with dark secrets and realities yet uploaded…
genrerama 