
#46 – Science Fiction Today – A Reader's History of Science Fiction
In the final episode of Season 1, we explore the state of the science fiction genre in the present day. Book recommendation: The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin Worlds Without End's list of sci-fi classics Worlds Without End's customizable list N. K. Jemisin on the Broken Earth trilogy Edit: corrected links. Other books discussed: The Lady Astronaut series by Mary Robinette Kowal The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
At the same time science fiction came into its own as a genre, cinema was doing the same. Here, we see an overview of the most notable sci-fi films of the silent and pre-Code eras, and how they influenced the culture.
Movie recommendation: Metropolis.
Other films mentioned:
Le Voyage Dans La Lune (YouTube link with 2011 restoration soundtrack.)
Frankenstein
King Kong
Another movie from this era that influenced science fiction cinema was “Our Heavenly Bodies” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Heavenly_Bodies) which incorporated a lot of practical effects that sci-fi uses. The characters touring the solar system meet the inhabitants of the various planets. It was basically Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” for 1925. The film was lost for many years but recently reconstructed and presented at the AFI Silver Spring theater a few years ago.
Interesting. I hadn’t heard of that one. I’ll have to check it out.