Today for #OnlySky (well, the first of two, I think - but coffee before I post the next), a TV review and some #SciFi talk.
Specifically, I look at The Peripheral: William Gibson's version, and the version presented by Amazon Prime in its freshly launched TV adaptation. Are you watching?
Sadly, a lot is lost in the choice to soften the class politics in Gibson's future thinking. ⬇️ When *will* we get better at bringing class into the equation?
#CoSoTV
https://onlysky.media/mclark/the-peripheral-plays-it-safe-with-william-gibsons-future-thinking/
@thewebrecluse "There is an art to ruining something, though ... and I can appreciate that."
Oh, that gave me a laugh - thank you. :) We live in an age of such artistry. I also think many don't really understand the originals - which isn't to suggest there's "One True Meaning" to anything: only, that some latch on to a single element of a given movie, book, series, song, etc., and forget that it belonged to a context. So, when they try to replicate it outside the context, it often doesn't work.
@MLClark "some latch on to a single element of a given movie, book, series, song, etc., and forget that it belonged to a context."
As usual M, you nail it eloquently and way better than I ever can manage.
I am finding that in reading these classic books for the first time, all the alt-versions we have come to know really tend to just center on ONE aspect of the story as if it existed in some vacuum and had nothing else to support it. Or rather that modern directors and writers WISH it did.
@MLClark I will be quoting you most affectionally in my next podcast episode ❤️
@thewebrecluse @ me when your next podcast drops, so I don't miss it! (Whether or not my name's in it - I just want to catch the next one when it's fresh, please and thanks!)
@MLClark My podcast is trash and just me rambling about being uneducated in classic lit 😆 It has zero real quality but umm sure I'll you know oh Queen of informative, educational, genius content and vocal epicness👍🏾 ❤️
@MLClark
FMI the book is available and discounted:
(Where do you buy books in Colombia?)
https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-peripheral-william-gibson/15543159
@b4cks4w Colombia has the Panamericana franchise (like Chapters meets Staples), and a few little bookshops in central Medellín malls. Beyond that, and a few shelves at the supermarket, libraries are few and far between. (No bookstores or libraries near me!) The only English books I buy are on Kindle (or review copies in other e-formats). If I buy a paperback? It's Spanish, and I have a rule about finishing the last before buying the next, to keep my Spanish improving: always more words to learn!
@b4cks4w I will add that the libraries there are, like the main branch in Centro, are fabulously integrated affairs, and you can find some stalls heaped with old books in Centro, too. Plus, there's a fantastic annual book fair, and little travelling fairs all the year round. So - best way of describing the lit economy here is highly uneven. Not much stable infrastructure built around reading, but a love for books still crops up in pockets all the same.
@MLClark unfortunately i think the only real way to get class into most modern corporate media is so sneakily that half the audience misses it. Especially at Amazon of all places. I don’t know how they managed to get Squid Game made over at Netflix. The fact that a great deal of the right thinks it’s a condemnation of communism and not capitalism probably speaks to how the execs interpreted it.
@deadweirdo Hah! That, and the promise of a Season Two, which completely undermines the power of the first.
I wholeheartedly agree, though: corporate media will always consume dissent of corporate enterprise, and grow all the stronger for it.
@MLClark
Watched last night and enjoyed it
Thanks for the pointer
@BrentSullivan It's easy viewing, for sure! Did you go in "cold" on the source text?
@MLClark
I've not read the book
I've read neuromancer and pattern recognition
@MLClark I mentioned in my podcast that I was getting the distinct feeling that people who were creating all these versions of classic literature clearly didn't actually like the originals very much or somehow felt they could be "improved" or made more palatable. I feel like The Peripheral is one of these victims. This idea that "this would be so great IF" when it comes to classics really bothers me and it wrecks things. There is an art to ruining something though ... and I can appreciate that.