An Interesting Prospect ....

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/prospect/on-demand/69978-001

Well this is something special.

Hints of Alasair Reynolds, Firefly and Annihilation at various points in a sci-fi that shows that you don't need superheros or ridiculous space battles to make a good film.

The attached link will expire in 25 days so source it in other ways if you want to do so afterwards.

Summer Activities

In a bid to stop this blog devolving into a series of angry posts about Trump, Boris and Brexit, here is a round up of what I'm reading, playing and watching at the moment. In no real order, here we go:

PC Gaming

I continued to have a good time with 'Sunless Skies' after my previous post about it. However, having made it to Eleutheria and escaped without dying (brilliant change of pace there as you have to explore the new area unaided by familiar ports), I died a stupid death on my return to the Reach. I've yet to pick it up again but will have to at some point to see what the Blue Kingdom has to offer.

I picked up 'Into the Breach' in the Summer Sale and, while it is good, I think my expectations were a little high after the good press that it has received. On normal difficulty I find it much, much easier than the brilliant FTL and beat it regularly after only a handful of attempts. Will push the difficulty up to hard soon but I'm tempted to unlock and try out all of the Mech squads on normal first unless I get too bored by the lack of challenge first.

Finally, I'm giving 'Massive Chalice' another shot. The uneven difficulty and slightly oblique mechanics have put me off before but so far so good. I'm quite keen on the goofy humour and after finding ItB too easy the potential for characters to die suddenly (and even unfairly) seems refreshing and challenging.

Board Gaming

Out of the blue, a work colleague invited me to play in an eight player 'Game of Thrones' game with dragon expansion.

On top of it being a complex game in itself, I haven't seen the program or read the books so lacked any cultural context for the game. Everybody else was a hard core fan and I raised some eyebrows by calling my faction the 'Tulips' rather than the 'Tyrells' throughout.

Ultimately I had a good time though. Surrounded by other inexperienced players I quietly expanded with minimal conflict as the Starks and Lanisters wiped out the faction between them to the North. The dragon player (my work colleague) eventually won with some air strikes and a couple of canny alliances but since few people had played with the expansion this can possibly be put down to people not knowing what to expect.

Hell of a long game though. We played for nearly 6.5 hours with one short break.

Otherwise, at work I continue to have a very good time with quick lunchtime games of 'Codename Pictures' and slightly less fun with 5-10 player games of Saboteur.

Television

Not much to report here. I'm finishing up the first series of Netflix's 'Seven Deadly Sins', which I'm having an inordinately good time with despite the near constant objectification of the female characters.

Books

My reading list is threatening to bury me again after a number of impulse buys on Amazon. At my parents I'm reading a collection of A.E. Housman's Poetry and Prose which feels very high brow even if gets a bit samey and is highly dated in tone. I've also started Philip Pullman's Shadow in the North which I may drop or continue with based on mood and opportunity.

At home, I'm finishing off Kim Stanley's Robinson's Blue Mars which seems a little pointless after the energy of Red Mars and the interesting political machinations of Green Mars. As the author explores the realisation of what seems like his personal utopia the preachiness and superficiality of certain characters becomes ever more apparent. I'm also reading through Winston Churchill's The Gathering Storm for something a bit more weighty. 

Finally, a work colleague has lent me three recent-ish National Geographics which are my current lunchtime reading when I'm not socialising or drinking. They are definitely growing on me and I like the reasonable length of the longer articles although, as I generally read British publications, the editorial style is very unfamiliar.

Sunless Skies

.... and another three months without a post. Blame the excitement of Christmas, snow and new work exams.

However, I just wanted to point out that Sunless Skies is exactly how a sequel should be made and everybody should buy it right now to support the makers.

I'd seen it in early access and worried that it would double down on what eventually put me off Sunless Seas. Namely the grind of repeating the opening stories, of realising that eventually progress to endgame content would require more hours than I was willing to invest and the fatigue from sailing and combat that while not terrible did not live up to the storytelling.

Instead, Failbetter seem to have focused heavily on quality of life improvements. Trading is much improved with focused trade missions and limited time bargains. Rarely will a newly discovered port turn out to be initially inaccessible, there is always something to explore and a starter quest to take on. And of course the quality of writing remains among the best in the video gaming landscape.

It is early days. I'm not even out of the first of the four areas yet. Further, I'm aware that I felt the same way initially about Sunless Seas and it took some hours for its problems to become apparent.

This being said, I'm currently enjoying it greatly and appreciate the attention to feedback that has been shown by the developers!

Star Wars as Homeric Legend

http://www.salon.com/1999/06/15/brin_main/

Just come across this article from 1999 which lays out some of the problems I have with the shallowness of the Star Wars films.

The author lays it on a bit thick occasionally. He makes the obvious case that Vader is an unjustly redeemed monster and then abruptly lumps Yoda and Obi Wan in with him for the heinous crime of being a bit vague and mystical. Similarly the tone of the article shifts rapidly from rational to demagogue as you approach the conclusion.

However, the aristocratic division of the galaxy between Jedi and Sith champions is a solid way of summing up the Resistance vs Empire background of the original trilogy. Perhaps Boba Fett and the other bounty hunters were so popular because they weren't dull yet nigh-omnipotent heroes or villains. They could create human stories and even when they were fighting for the wrong side you felt a bit sorry for them when they were eaten by a Sarlaac or witnessed their father being decapitated in front of them.

If anything the franchise has got more individual-centric since the article was written. Holding a democratic position of power is a status applied only to tangential love interests such as Amidala while the main characters hold their position by virtue of their supernatural powers, genes and strategic command of violence. By the Force Awakens Disney barely even bothered with the traditional galactic politics of the series. We are entirely preoccupied by the travails of Finn and Rey. They may have rags to riches/redemption story lines but they only qualify for them by virtue of their nascent connection to the Force.

Still it may be that such a reading is too deep. Jedi can be seen as superheroes or demigods in space but equally they epitomise the fairy tale trope of the lost prince who must regain his rightful place in society. George Lucas was only ever really writing romantic origin myths for a new century.

Hyperion living up to expectations

After an inexplicable delay in getting around to reading this one (I usually snap up anything in the astonishing SF Masterworks collection) I am really enjoying it.

Wait for the review that I'm sure will follow but after 100 pages I have to say that this is astounding. Best thing I've read since I discovered the Book of Skulls/  Charles Stross' bibliography.

Interstellar - I'm conflicted

 **Spoilers ahoy**

So I finally got around to watching this on DVD after missing the cinema launch. My conclusion: Interstellar is good but a bit of an odd duck.

Some sections were fantastic and completely scientifically plausible. Miller's World especially dragged me into the film after the extended build up and ramped up the anticipation regarding what was on the other planets (which unfortunately both turned out to be a bit anti-climatic).

However, the film eventually takes a bit of a swerve into implausible mysticism. I can just about accept humans from the future meddling in their own history (although why did they wait until such dystopian depths of autocracy and impoverishment had been reached before doing so?) but the final trip into a black hole seemed ridiculously implausible to me.

Having done a bit of reading I know that they had a reknowned theoretical scientist on the consulting team and so presumably know what they were on about. Regardless I struggle to conceive of a black hole which not only fails to mash a craft crossing the event horizon but then proceeds to belch out the incumbant after a convenient period of relative time to allow him to rendevouz with the love interest.

More minor annoyances were that the acting never seemed to be of an especially high standard and the film went with the overused idea of an apocalypse that could be mistaken for the 1930s Great Depression in a poor light.

Nevertheless it is worth a watch as an attempt to create sci fi that is, by film standards, well thought through and raises interesting ideas about the future development of space travel and our understanding of the universe.

Pleasantly surprised by the Europa Report

The Europa Report is certainly not a perfect film. The amateur photography aspect of it gets old very quickly (as usual) and Sharlto Copley's Jim, while a likeable enough character, seems a bit of a waste of acting talent.

The pacing also takes a bit of getting used to. The rough and tumble of astronaut life and the stunning vistas are part of the charm of the film but you get a bit bored of them before the plot really gets moving in the last twenty minutes.

However, you have to admire Europa Report's ambition. It doesn't pander to the audience and you certainly won't be seeing any blaster gunfights or acts of sci-fi hero badassery. Instead you get a film that tries to accurately predict how a manned mission into space might pan out while building the tension through use of an unseen stalker picking off the crew one by one.

It's old fashioned but no less watchable for that. I'd recommend trying it to see whether it ticks your boxes or whether the niggling problems identified earlier are enough to put you off.  

Welcome to a better Utopia

So I've finally finished watching the first series of Utopia and made a start on the second and I have to say that it represents a real step up in quality.

I did like the first series -which combined originality with a great cast of interesting characters and carefully skirted the line well between humour and horror. However, in getting you used to the distinctive style and ideas of the world of Utopia it adopted a fairly claustrophobic and samey plot. Once you got past who was betraying or misleading who at any one time it was simply a fugitive storyline with the same few characters becoming progressively more brutal in their efforts to stay out of the hands of the Network.

The first episode of series 2 shakes things up nicely by taking us back to the origins of Janus. The young Milner and Carvel, along with their unfortunate spouses, are a breath of fresh air after we have got used to following such a restricted group of characters. Definitely one to watch with Wikipedia on in the background though. Spotting the links between the actions of the Network and the real events of the 1970s is good fun and I always enjoy seeing British alternate history done well.

While I fully expect a return to the present day in future episodes it's nice to see the directors find their feet enough to take some risks with novel formats. Bring on the rest of the series!

Redshirt Runthrough Rejecting Preferential Treatment (RRRPT Part 2)

As I explained in my last post I'm attempting to pursue a path through Redshirt where advancement comes from merit alone rather than schmoozing with the right people. Inevitably this will lead to social pariah status and eventual death but hey, you've got to stick by your principles right?

I booted the game and went through the limited character creation process selecting a male Human character wearing the reddest of shirts. However, 'Edgar Friday' as I named him, has a friendly smile and a slightly stylish hair do so I'm not entirely resigning myself to the predicted lack of social life yet.

As for the 'About Me' section. 'I HATE corruption!' seemed to fit the bill.

The first part of the game played pretty much as usual. As a lowly 'Transporter Accident Cleanup Technician' you are generally too busy finding those initial friends and working out where the cafeteria is to engage in too many career machinations.

The first aspiration I was given after making friends with Astra was to become the 'Transporter Accident Supervisor' which nicely meshed with my own plans. All went relatively smoothly - I had to throw somebody who had rejected my friend request to the slavering aliens on an away mission to save my own skin and had one minor cock up at work but I soon purchased the 'Venlithian Beach Resort poster' that raised my Assertiveness enough for promotion.

A beneficial side effect was a relationship request from a 'Hull Painter' named Jennifer Jepson who I had played a few games of chess/tennis with in a futile effort to raise Assertiveness cheaply. All in all a pretty promising start although it is early days yet!

Redshirt Runthrough Rejecting Preferential Treatment (RRRPT Part 1)

So it's a while since I've posted anything about computer games and I know that too many posts about history and politics can get a bit tedious (with the sole and major exception of anything with 'World War 2' in the title according to the site's viewing statistics).

So I tried Redshirt when it came out. Frankly it is mediocre at best. Some of the jokes are pretty funny the first time you see them and the grind is alleviated by your initial uncertainty about what the hell you are meant to be doing and the constant carrot of future promotions and relationships to work towards.

Recently I've got back into it and it has hit something of a sweet spot. I've played through twice and won both times through careerism and buying my way out respectively. Rather than seek one of the three other ways of winning, however, I plan to pursue a far more straight laced method.

Anybody who has played the game will know that the best way to get promoted is to be friends with (or even better to be sleeping with) one of the many tentacled aliens or gelatinous cubes who occupies a high ranking recruitment position. Instead of wasting valuable time meeting all requirements you can then merely focus on one aspect and trust to nepotism for the rest.

I'm rejecting this path for my next attempt. Instead I'll see how far I can get on merit alone (and whether this leads my social life to enter a catastrophic free fall). First chapter should be up shortly!

Pratchett and the Politics of Fantasy

So I've had a few attempts already (See http://stochasticreview.blogspot.com/2011/11/racism-and-fantasy-revisited.html and http://stochasticreview.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/racial-essentialism-and-fantasyscience.html) at articulating my concerns about the worrying racist assumptions that seem to lurk behind much of Tolkien's fantasy and the genre that he created. The main problem I noticed was the separation of characters into mutually antagonistic races that are fundamentally distinct. Crude physical and social caricatures are used in place of more complex characterisation and certain 'races' are seen as fundamentally warlike and irredeemable. This creates worrying analogies with issues of racial relations and assimilation in the real world which seem to be increasingly a concern of the media and certain political groups.

Having set the boundaries of the debate I intend to consider a writer who pushes the boundaries of this debate in a comic fantasy format and introduces narratives of persecution and emancipation to the traditionally racialised landscapes of post-Tolkien fantasy.

Terry Pratchett is a fantastic author who, a few one-off novels aside, has mainly concentrated on the fantasy world of Discworld (a flat earth that drifts through space on the back of four elephants standing on the back of a giant turtle). He rejects the traditional seriousness of fantasy with the addition of funny jokes, an irreverent tone and anachronisms such as the introduction of the railway and PDA to a world that has barely developed beyond the Renaissance.

He is at his best when siding with the underdogs of the Discworld. Everybody I've discussed Discworld with has loved Rincewind, the terminally unlucky failed wizard, and in his more recent books he has attempted an alternate characterisation of the oft-demonised goblins and orcs that had been previously been absent from his books.

Thus he by-passes many of the concerns that I have raised in previous articles. His goblins are not the perennial villains of mainstream fantasy but an oppressed and persecuted race who turn out to have many talents when they are allowed to participate on equal terms. Pratchett turns the table by instead vilifying the opulent landowners who exploit them on plantations reminiscent of the 19th century Caribbean. Similarly Dwarves and Trolls are not distant races that live in glorious isolation and racial purity but large immigrant communities in the increasingly modern city of Ankh Morpork.    

However, while Discworld is an improvement on other fantasy series, I am wary of giving Pratchett an entirely clean bill. He rejects racial essentialism by focussing instead on a value-based, meritocratic approach to characterisation. We are frequently presented with heroic, striving characters such as Commander Vimes and Harry King who have overcome their origins through sheer bloody mindedness and hard work. Similarly the goblins and orcs are redeemed by their great capacity for learning and hard work when not being kicked around by oppressive racists.

The problem with this is that Pratchett has to emphasise the heroic characters and virtues of these paradigms by contrasting them with their more stupid and lazy contemporaries who could themselves get on just as well if they were just a little bit cannier and more dedicated.

This approach is preferable to a lazy xenophobia but does require a portrayal of the masses as basically worthless and flawed. In 'Unseen Academicals' he explicitly discusses the crab-pot theory that says that ghettoes of class and race are often self imposed. Those who strive for improvement are held back by the masses who are suspicious of those who try to better themselves.

Such a characterisation of poverty misidentifies the real causes of ghettoisation and disadvantage. Working hard and being smart is a good precondition for social advancement but is not always sufficient if the odds are consciously stacked against you by heartless markets or an elite that merely wishes to cement the status quo and restrict social mobility.

Nevertheless Discworld is a bold experiment in avoiding the traditional biases of fantasy. The commercial success of the series prove that it is as popular and well written as any other contemporary fantasy, While I don't entirely agree with Pratchett's meritocratic focus he has at least made a conscious effort to include narratives of cross-race cooperation and the possibility for those of any race/species to be an individual rather than simply a stereotyped member of that group.

Taking the leap - Skyline

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/skyline_2010/

So why are all the critics so negative about Skyline?

It's true that the characters are all one-dimensional walking cliches, that the story doesn't really go anywhere and that at times even the stunningly rendered special effects fail to distract from the tedium and illogicality of it all. You might even question why the name of the film bears so little connection to the content if it weren't so blindingly (geddit?) obviously that the producers had no idea what feature of the film they wanted to stand out as original or engaging.

However that doesn't necessarily mean that it was bad watching. The unintentional humour in some scenes is great. "They're on a timer" says Turk from Scrubs in a doom-laden voice as the blinds rise and leave the cast open to attack by alien fighters. None of them attempt to do anything about this (presumably) easily remedied feature of the flat's consumer electronics or thought to mention it beforehand. I didn't know whether to laugh or weep for humanity.

Also brain-harvesting aliens as the twist? In this cynical day and age? Truly brilliant.

I genuinely don't know whether I'm being sarcastic or not since every indication is that I should have turned it off in disgust after approximately 7.9 minutes. Give it a try - maybe it will trigger a similar 'so bad it's kinda watchable' response in you too.

Russians vs Aliens

http://rt.com/news/russian-space-troops-aliens-631/

Well now we know. The Russian military do not yet think they can combat extraterrestrials. I wonder if anyone has asked the Americans the same question. They do have a larger budget.

[Edit] Although since Russia Today is also leading with this article about the perils of jellyfish causing nuclear power plants to temporarily shut down.

http://rt.com/news/jellyfish-nuclear-plant-shutdown-626/

I believe they may simply be trying to distract reader's attention from the real story about Russia this week:

http://rt.com/news/greenpeace-piracy-activists-624/

Not quite Elysium

Elysium is not a bad film.

It has many of the elements that made me really enjoy District 9 (Neill Blomkamp's earlier sci-fi outing). There is the credible near future warfare, the critical social commentary and the lack of aversion from gory or disturbing scenes.

However, it somehow doesn't mesh quite as well as District 9 did. Matt Damon puts in a workmanlike performance but fails to bring the energy or humour to the protagonist's role that Sharlto Copley provided. Copley himself shows his range as a psychotic, Katana-wielding mercenary but the cast generally feels a little lacklustre.

Further the political angle becomes less effective as it becomes more abstracted from real world politics. Elysium imagines a future where the rich-poor divide is enshrined by the evacuation of the elite to an orbital where they live idyllically with the service of robotic soldiers and near perfect medical technology. It is an interesting set up but doesn't feel as fresh or original as District 9's controversial take on Apartheid.

Mix this with a few plot holes (why doesn't the orbital have any defences beyond agents with rocket launchers on Earth?) and superficialities (I'd like to have heard more about life for the super rich - all we see is an ongoing English garden party and some unconvincing political machinations) and it becomes a film that you want to like but which doesn't quite live up to its promise.

Pohl's experiences in the US Air Force

http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/

Frederik Pohl is in the process of writing a series of blog posts on his time in World War II. As one might expect they are wry, witty and do not portray the American Air Force in the most positive light.

The first post especially sheds some light on the mind that came out with the classic 'Gateway'. He notes a night when he saw five planes, crewed by fifty men, destroyed in senseless accidents. Such an event is dwarfed in the magnitude of the Second World War but must have had a profound effect on an intelligent and already slightly disillusioned weather observer.

Rage against the simulation - Source Code

(Spoilers ahead)

So I finally got around to watching the network premier of 'Source Code' last night. I remember being intrigued by this film when I saw the trailers but never got round to watching it at the cinemas.

It didn't quite live up to the hype but it made a solid effort. Surprisingly for a film that could have ended up with a very intricate plot, the best scenes were right at the start. The structure of the film means that you initially share Colter Stevens confusion. You are thrust into the middle of conversations that you didn't hear the start of and are confronted with a new twist or revelation whenever you seem to be getting a handle on the plot.

However, after this promising start it becomes a lot less tight and settles into predictability. Inception showed how a film can present original ideas and remain innovative by changing the rules on the fly. Instead with Source Code we are confronted with unimaginative twists (of course Colter was dead/dying all along - it's a standard scenario when characters wake up unexpectedly inside a technological virtuality, especially if we are forewarned that their last memory is being shot at while in a helicopter). The film also focuses more on the relationships between the characters (some off screen) which, while engaging, are nothing out of the ordinary. The motivations behind the bombing are left rather vague and the villain remains undeveloped with the ending generating more questions than it answers.

Nevertheless, worth a watch, just don't expect to be kept guessing throughout the whole film.

McCalmont's top Science Fiction films

http://www.filmjuice.com/smart-sci-fi.html

Jonathan McCalmont's top five science fiction films are definitely worth a read. I especially like his subversive take on Children of Men, identifying the crumbling post-birth world as merely an extreme version of contemporary society's political apathy and inability to consider any alternative to capitalism.

Personally I might well have been tempted to put Looper on the list but, having recently purchased the DVD, I can see that the Hollywood-style action sequences might be seen as distracting from the sophisticated  'dystopian noir' atmosphere of the film by those with more refined tastes in science fiction.

I will have to venture out for the new film of Cloud Atlas at some point. I liked the book but have a sneaky suspicion that it will take some extra-special directing to skilfully weave the interlocking narratives into a coherent and engaging film.

Death in the Pond

No Christmas is complete without the seasonal Dr Who Christmas special. Actually I tell a lie since many of them have been eminently forgettable. Ever since the brilliant sword-fighting excitement of 'A Christmas Invasion' and the surreal flying shark of 'A Christmas Carol'. our eyeballs have been assaulted by a never ending stream of plastic santas and C.S. Lewis-esque winter wonderlands.

On first viewing this one was similarly unimpressive. In true Christmas style I had had a few glasses of wine already and was surrounded by my extended family. This naturally meant I missed certain bits (where the hell did the memory worm appear from?) as I fielded questions about whether the lizard woman was a goody or a baddy.

From this distracted perspective the story was a bit of a mess. The plot zoomed along without much rhythm or rhyme and it seemed as though the producers were trying too hard to introduce the new assistant while making the usual family friendly jokes.

However, a second solitary viewing with a lower blood-alcohol level persuaded me that the episode was not without its merits. Jenna-Louise Coleman is shaping up to be a brilliant new companion and they have set up an interesting mystery with her seeming ability to reincarnate. The Doctor's impression of Sherlock Holmes was absolutely hilarious and I loved the idea of him being dragged out of his self-imposed retirement by a new whip-smart acquaintance.

Of course the show still had weaknesses. The ice lady, after a huge build up, got a grand total of thirty seconds screen time before being blown up by the Doctor. Admittedly she came back but then spent the next ten minutes trapped by a grenade force field. As for my final bit of nit-picking, I know the Doctor is meant to be adorably absent minded but I think that he might have remembered to close the doors of his floating police box rather than wading through some soppy dialogue before watching Clara be dragged to her (possibly second) death.

So all in all a mixed effort. I still can't wait for this series to restart. Here's hoping that they can get it together to show entire series consecutively again rather than messing around with all this mid-season hiatus business ad nauseam.

Death in 'The Fountain'

So among the various and brilliant Christmas presents I received this Yuletide was the DVD of The Fountain, an intensely surreal and brilliantly flawed film that I have only seen once before. This was great timing as a few days before, taking a break from the hectic rounds of Christmas shopping, I had stopped off in the library and read the associated graphic novel in a single sitting.

The film and novel revolve around themes of death, resurrection and immortality. The plot is fairly similar in the two mediums but subtle differences in scenes, order and dialogue between them add complexity to any interpretation of the story's meaning.

Ultimately I saw the film as an examination of three major methods of dealing with death and its implications. The first, stressing inevitability and religion, is quickly dismissed. The other two themes, acceptance and denial, are then contrasted and compared throughout the remainder of the film.

1) Desirable Inevitability – The first narrative we are presented with is set in the Spain of the Reconquesta and features the intimidating Grand Inquisitor Silecio. We are presented with slightly different versions of this character in the novel and the film. However, a constant is his belief that physical bodies are weak and decaying vessels that precede the ascension to the afterlife. His liking for self flagellation illustrates his conviction that the physical body is prone to weakness and must be disciplined by the mind in order to achieve temporal power and heavenly immortality. He is evangelical and implacable in his application of these beliefs to others; using torture and clandestine execution in his efforts to usurp or control Queen Isabella. 

In neither the book nor the film does Silecio succeed in his schemes. While he survives the film he fails to divert the conquistadors exhibition to retrieve the Mayan Tree of Life. His failure is more total in the novel where his ambush of the Queen and attempts to execute Avila are thwarted by the heroic Tomas and his loyal soldiers. His religious interpretation of life and death has little further impact on the film.

The novel adds slightly more detail to the defeat of this inquisitorial attitude to suffering and death. In this version, Avila is eventually sacrificially executed by a Mayan priest. As Tomas passes his corpse he reveals a previously undisclosed animosity when he informs the recently deceased Avila that the future belongs to himself and the Queen rather than to the Church. Despite the Fransiscan's loyalty to the Crown he is associated with the philosophical focus on the afterlife that contrasts with Tomas' own striving for immortality.

2) Denial - The denial theme is far more visible and is closely associated with Hugh Jackman's various characters. This attitude sees death as an obstacle that can be overcome by personal effort, scientific endeavour and the utilisation of powerful mystical paths to everlasting life. Conquistador Tomas, scientist Tommy and Ascendant Tom see others as tools to be used in the service of the focussed will. They echo the ruthlessness of Silecio by sacrificing followers and driving subordinates to inhuman efforts. 

However, this view too is ultimately shown to be defective. It leads to great achievements but never seems to be capable of bringing any lasting victory over death. Donovan's recovery is too late to help Izzi and both the Tree of Life and the Xibalba nebula are revealed to be reliant on death and renewal for their powers of creation. By the end of the movie Tom is forced to accept that there is no way to defeat death without embracing it. 

3) Acceptance - This insight is the pinnacle of the movie and is reflected in the oft-repeated claim that 'Death is the Road to Awe'. While denial has driven the plot and provided an emotional intensity to the film it has been tempered throughout the movie (and novel) by the urgings of certain characters that Tom must accept the world as it is and make the best use of his remaining time with Izzi. 

This theme is best represented by Izzi's serene acceptance of her eventual death and her efforts to comfort Tommy and to explore difficult concepts through her authorship of 'The Fountain'. Even Tommy's colleagues, perhaps best placed to understand his obsession, urge him to spend more time with his wife and not to attempt the impossible to the detriment of his health. 

These strong themes and questions allow the film to work despite its one dimensional characters and occasionally clumsy pacing. By focussing on these dominant characteristics of Tomas/Tommy/Tom and Isabella/Izzi the narrative is freed to engage with fundamental questions of existence in a sustained and engaging manner. Brilliant special effects and a fantastic soundtrack round off a thought-engaging offering by Darren Aronofsky.  

IKB or Zima Blue

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Klein

I had never heard of Yves Klein when I read Zima Blue, by Alastair Reynolds for the first time. Since the latter story had a fairly lasting effect on me I'm now experiencing one of those weird postmodern moments where you encounter the effect before its cultural cause.

Existential angst aside, I would strongly recommend reading Zima Blue. It can be found in Gardner Dozois' Best of the Best New SF or in Reynold's Zima Blue and is one of the sweetest and most thought provoking short stories to take on the theme of the relationships between identity, art and artificial intelligence.