More Of the Old!

Greetings Earthlings, I am Tharg! I'm not actually Tharg, that was a homage to the Sci-Fi comic 2000AD, which I used to read in my teens. There's a disappointing lack of Sci-Fi nowadays, don't you think? Back in the 60's and 70's folks couldn't get enough Sci-Fi. I don't understand what's happened, surely reality based films cannot compete. Directors have a free reign with Sci-Fi films, they now have CGI and bluescreen technology to allow their imagination to be realised on screen, and yet besides very few occasional movies, Sci-Fi is largely neglected as a genre. What's going on here?

It might not be too ridiculous to surmise that the book as a medium has died a death, that serious readers, contemplators and thinkers, prefer the quick fix that television offers. How could anyone be satisfied with the Sci-Fi detritis offered up by television? I've seen a few of the latest episode of Doctor Who, and frankly, my intelligence is insulted. If I had endured Sci-Fi like that on television as a kid, I'd have put pen to paper and written a derogatory letter to the BBC. Yest somehow, kids today are more than satisfied with it, simply because they haven't known any better. The easiest assumption to make would be that the show is written by kids as well. What's with everything happening in Cardiff? If I'd crossed time and space to save humanity, I'd take one look at Cardiff and think "Sod them!"

These guys need to go to second-hand book shops and car boot sales and pick up some of these 60's and 70's SCi-fi books, and make them into films using modern technology. Not just straight-forward Sci-Fi pulp fiction, but thought-provoking stories full of symbolism and meaning. That's what I want to see. The books and films that stick with me are the kind that I'm still pondering months and years later.

I think therefore I read !

Have you ever met someone who doesn't like reading? how ridiculous! My brother once worked with a guy who didn't like music (any music). I don't know if I would condemn such people or pity them. Did they choose ignorance? or are they still nursing some childhood trauma?

I think TV is to blame in many ways, people think they can get all they need from the TV, but they can't! Nothing stimulates the mind like a well written book, and I don't think the TV conveys allegory and symbolism very well either. So, if you're reading this and you haven't read a book for a while, just go and find a book you fancy from your local bookshop, there's bound to be something, rediscover the joys of reading, it's not a chore!