Speaking of the Viacom v. GooTube kerfuffle, Boing Boing had an interesting post pointing out Viacom’s exposure vis a vis their own properties, iFilm and Atom Films, if the standards demanded in their complaint against YouTube were applied.

The Vonnegut connection to this whole thing is what really got me. Figuring evolution into the end times is just so, I guess, mature? Humans tend to be pretty self-centered, as evidenced by the common misunderstanding that we are solely responsible for global warming (rather than just its acceleration). As if climate change weren’t already part of the plan. Or as if the world won’t adapt and keep on going without us, or without us in our current state.

The point is that humans are the new dinosaurs. No two ways about it.

Also on the evolution tip, there’s a book left out of this discussion that touches upon another favorite topic, zombies. When I read David Wellington’s Monster Island, evolution crossed my mind. I haven’t read his other “Monster” books, but if they continue what the first one started, they continue the track started by Romero where a zombie “race” could well replace us living folks. That’s nothing new in terms of zombies, but that series begins in a world of disarray like Children of Men, so it fits.

Thanks for the compliments, by the way.

i think reading vonnegut’s harrison bergeron has effectively made me scared of government tampering with society.

Now, I haven’t seen Apocalypto, but doesn’t giving that title to a movie about a dead _culture_ kind of suggest that while all things may pass, life goes on.

Or: the other species seemed to be doing just fine in Children of Men.

Or: ask the prehistoric anaerobic microorganisms who became extinct when a significant concentration of oxygen entered the Earth’s atmosphere what they think about “the end of the world.”

I don’t know if it’s uplifting, but there it is.

Also, I liked Vonnegut’s image of human evolution a million years hence: (SPOILER WARNING) basically, we become seals. Oh, you scamp!

(OK, I kinda liked his vision of the afterlife in that book, the light/tunnel as sort of as an irregularly scheduled train you have to catch, better.)

(Since I quit journalism, I don’t feel as guilty saying that.)

Kind folks at Fox in typical fashion also cut a bunch of stuff out of the movie, I thought the “real” i.e. Russian version was a bit more clear.

As a strong and patriotic proponent of this masterpiece I do agree that it’s mostly a WTF, but at least it makes us Russians very proud =). Look out for “Day Watch”!!

The ‘Others’ can enter so-called Twilight (I’m not sure how they translated it) which has different levels. Twilight, as it’s described in the book, would be impossible to make in the movie, so they decided to use mosquitos to show when characters enter the first level of Twilight.