Fritz Lang's Metropolis

Here is a timeline of the production and release of Fritz Lang's Metropolis, in both Europe and the U.S. Notice that those dancing scenes got the film banned in Turkey.

Here is a detailed review linking Metropolis to the cyberpunk SF genre.

Here is a plot synopsis from IMDB:


The film is set in the year 2026, in the extraordinary Gothic skyscrapers of a corporate city-state, the Metropolis of the title. Society has been divided into two rigid groups: one of planners or thinkers, who live high above the earth in luxury, and another of workers who live underground toiling to sustain the lives of the privileged. The city is run by Johann 'Joh' Fredersen (Alfred Abel).

The beautiful and evangelical figure Maria (Brigitte Helm) takes up the cause of the workers. She advises the desperate workers not to start a revolution, and instead wait for the arrival of "The Mediator", who, she says, will unite the two halves of society. The son of Fredersen, Freder (Gustav Fröhlich), becomes infatuated with Maria, and follows her down into the working underworld. In the underworld, he experiences firsthand the toiling lifestyle of the workers, and observes the casual attitude of their employers (he is disgusted after seeing an explosion at the "M-Machine", when the employers bring in new workers to keep the machine running before taking care of the men wounded or killed in the accident). Shocked at the workers' living conditions, he joins her cause.

Meanwhile his father Fredersen consults with the scientist Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), an old companion and rival. Fredersen learns that the papers found with dead workers are plans of the catacombs and witnesses a speech by Maria. He also learns that Rotwang has built a robotic gynoid. Rotwang wants to give the robot the appearance of Hel, his former lover who left him for Fredersen and died giving birth to Freder. Fredersen persuades him to give the robot Maria's appearance, as he wants to use the robot to tighten his control over the workers. Rotwang complies out of ulterior motives: he knows of Freder's and Maria's love and wants to use the robot to deprive Fredersen of his son.

The real Maria is imprisoned in Rotwang's house in Metropolis, while the robot Maria is first showcast as an exotic dancer in the upper city's Yoshiwara nightclub, fomenting discord among the rich young men of Metropolis. After descending to the worker's city, the robot Maria encourages the workers into a full-scale rebellion, and they destroy the "Heart Machine", the power station of the city. Neither Freder nor Grot, the foreman of the Heart Machine, can stop them. As the machine is destroyed, the city's reservoirs overflow, flooding the workers' underground city and seemingly drowning the children, who were left behind in the riot. In fact, Freder and Maria have saved them in a heroic rescue, without the workers' knowledge.

When the workers realize the damage they have done and that their children are lost, they attack the upper city. Under the leadership of Grot, they chase the human Maria, whom they hold responsible for their riot. As they break into the city's entertainment district, they run into the Yoshiwara crowd and capture the robot Maria, while the human Maria manages to escape. The workers burn the captured Maria at the stake; Freder, believing this to be the human Maria, despairs but then he and the workers realize that the burned Maria is in fact a robot.

Meanwhile, the human Maria is chased by Rotwang along the battlements of the city's cathedral. Freder chases after Rotwang, resulting in a climactic scene in which Joh Fredersen watches in terror as his son struggles with Rotwang on the cathedral's roof. Rotwang falls to his death, and Maria and Freder return to the street, where Freder unites Fredersen and Grot, fulfilling his role as the "Mediator".

Hugo Gernsback, author of Ralph 124C41+

Here's a concise and informative article on the early career of Hugo Gernsback. And here's a Time magazine profile from 1944.

Background on the Haymarket Affair

This short article on the website of the Chicago Public Library provides some excellent background on the Haymarket Affair---an event which clearly inspired many of the themes in Caesar's Column. Here's an excerpt:

Through much of the 1870's and 1880's Chicago was a leading center of labor activism and radical thought. Early in 1886 labor unions were beginning a movement for an eight-hour day. Union activists called a one day general strike in Chicago. On May 1 many Chicago workers struck for shorter hours. An active group of radicals and anarchists became involved in the campaign. Two days later a shooting and one death occurred during a riot at the McCormick Reaper plant when police tangled with the strikers.

On May 4 events reached a tragic climax at Haymarket Square, an open market near Des Plaines Ave. and Randolph St., where a protest meeting was called to denounce the events of the preceding day at the McCormick Works. Speakers exhorted the crowd from a wagon which was used for a makeshift stage. Mayor Carter Harrison joined the crowd briefly, then left, believing everything was orderly. Toward the end of this meeting, while police were undertaking to disperse the crowd, a bomb was exploded. Policeman Mathias J. Degan died almost instantly and seven other officers died later.

The following day, under the direction of State's Attorney Julius Grinnel, police began a fierce roundup of radicals, agitators and labor leaders, siezing records and closing socialist and labor press offices. Eight men were finally brought to trial for conspiracy.



Despite the fact that the bomb thrower was never identified, and none of these eight could be connected with the crime, Judge Joseph E. Gary imposed the death sentence on seven of them and the eighth was given fifteen years in prison.

Midterm: 3/6

Please ignore my earlier post here re: the Midterm Exam. It will happen, as per the syllabus, on March 6th.

Nosferatu

One of the first movies to truly terrify audiences, Nosferatu. In 2000 Shadow of the Vampire was made about the filming of the movie Nosferatu, originally released in 1922. The film adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Nosferatu is still a cult hit and movie theaters around the country (and probably abroad) play the film for scary movie buffs and vampire fans. The website in the link above has a good background of the film as well as other historical and cultural ties.

Chronological Look at the Development of the Brooklyn Bridge

This text is a time line that describes the process behind the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. It describes in detail some of the hardships and the actual plans that went into the development of this national landmark. There are also several pictures that display its awesome nature and sublime qualities.

Brooklyn Bridge

Dime Novels and The Steam Man

Here's part of a page talking about Dime novels and the Steam Man and his many incarnations, such as the later electrical man. It has links to similar pages in the same site for the Frank Reade Chronicles and other such things, robots, etc. It shows how this is an early form of Science Fiction.

http://www.bigredhair.com/steamman/index.html

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Here is a link to the full text of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, published in 1900 as a children's book. The book is also considered by some to be an allegory for the political and social conditions of American society during the late 19th century. Henry M. Littlefield wrote an article entitled "The Wizard of Oz: Parable on Populism" to investigate into this accusations of a subtext to Baum's novel. It is interesting to see such a popular and well-know story in a different and darker light.

The Birth of Air Travel

Early in the 1900's traveling by air still seemed inconceivable to most Americans. Air ships and balloons were just coming into their own at the time and with the new technology came a newly found fascination with flying. As an attempt to explore a new means of transport people naturally were curious about how such large machines could seem lighter than air. The link posted below shows some original photos as well as brochures for passenger travel in a zeppelin. Since ships had been around for hundreds of years prior to this there was a yearning for a new technology and a way to branch out into previously unexplored areas.
http://www.airships.net/

Nature, Technology and the Sublime

This intriguing article discusses the progress of the natural and technological sublime. Specifically, it compares the concepts of beauty and the aesthetic with America's feeling of awe in regards to rapidly changing technologies.
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA96/forrest/WW/nature.html

establishing the sublime to retain aesthetic coherence

This article discusses the idea of viewing the sublime. The article raises the question regarding our perception to modernity as a facet used to view the sublime. Through an investigation that includes arguments from critics like Kant, the connection can be made that viewing the sublime is related to one's perception of the world around them.

Skyscrapers and the Sublime

Hey everyone,
Here is an article I found on Jstor that discusses skyscrapers as a part of the technological sublime:

http://www.jstor.org/view/00379808/ap030046/03a00020/1?searchUrl=http%3a//www.jstor.org/search/BasicResults%3fhp%3d25%26si%3d1%26gw%3djtx%26jtxsi%3d1%26jcpsi%3d1%26artsi%3d1%26Query%3dskyscrapers%2bsublime%26wc%3don&frame=noframe&currentResult=00379808%2bap030046%2b03a00020%2b0%2cFE7F&userID=80c596b6@bu.edu/01c0a84872df15118196f9838&dpi=3&config=jstor


It goes into further detail of Burke's points about skyscrapers reflecting "infinity" and the overwhelming sense of height that contributes to the feeling of the sublime.

Also it discusses how technological advances (skyscrapers) have both aesthetic and practical purposes-a balance we talked about in class.

-Anna

The Golem, the Jewish Frankenstein

Article on The Golem

The Golem is a Jewish folktale about a clay man that comes to life when a scroll of prayers is put on his heart. The Golem must do the what its master says, but of course, things go wrong. There is a copy of the film somewhere on campus if anyone is interested in seeing it, I watched it in another history class last semester. It is a great film to watch for not only the science fiction aspect of it, but also the social climate and antisemitism of the time period in which it was made.

The Beautiful and the Sublime

I found this article very interesting. In particular, it discusses Gilbert-Rolfe's theory that the sublime cannot exist today in nature. Instead, it can only be found in technology, as technology is "limited and yet to be apprehended", while nature is "finite". I don't know if I agree, but I guess the beauty of reading is discovering a new perspective on the world around you.

The Home Insurance Skyscraper

The first skyscraper with a skeleton of steel soars -- to nine stories.

Engineered by William LeBaron Jenney the Home Insurance Building in Chicago was the first tall building to be supported by a metal skeleton of vertical columns and horizontal beams and is considered the first skyscraper in the world. Jenney discovered that thin pieces of steel could support a tall building as well as thick stone walls could. The steel necessary to carry Jenney's 9-story building weighed only one-third as much as a 9-story building made of heavy masonry. Since the steel skeleton supported the weight of the entire building and the exterior wall was really just a skin to keep out the weather, the Home Insurance Building was the first tall building to have many windows. Jenney’s steel frame brought floor space and windows to the structure we now know as the modern skyscraper. During construction, people were so worried that Jenney’s building would fall down that the city halted construction to investigate the structure’s safety.

The Machine in the Garden

Excerpt from Leo Marx's Machine in the Garden:

http://www.jstor.org/view/00284866/ap020116/02a00020/0?currentResult=00284866%2bap020116%2b02a00020%2b0%2cFEFF&searchUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fsearch%2FBasicResults%3Fhp%3D25%26si%3D1%26gw%3Djtx%26jtxsi%3D1%26jcpsi%3D1%26artsi%3D1%26Query%3DNathaniel%2BHawthorne%2BTechnology%26wc%3Don

Found this to be an interesting snippit of Marx's writing. It briefly (16 pages) covers how classical American authors such as Hawthorne and Emerson, responded to American industrialization (and how it had subsequent effects on their writings).

Factory Tours - Industrial Sublime

Nye devotes an entire chapter to the discussion of factories and the industrial sublime. In this chapter, he mentions the advent of factory tours and their contribution to the American conception of the technological sublime.

I found a website which lists all the factory tours available today in the United States. This modern site is extremely patriotic. This seems to prove that Nye's description of factory tours as celebrations of American ingenuity continues through today.

http://factorytoursusa.com/Index.asp
If you don't have any spring break plans, why not tour a nearby factory and admire the American technological sublime?

Old Pennsylvania Station - New York City

http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GON/GON004.htm

An article featuring many images, blueprints and information concerning the Old Pennsylvania Station in New York City. Finished construction in 1910, it was one of the cities prominent buildings made with Roman architecture in mind (it had 84 granite columns, archways, etc). Destroyed in 1963 to make room for Madison Square Garden.

Scientific American 1846 - 1869

From the Cornell Library, this is an (incomplete, but still interesting) archive of Scientific American that provides pdf images of the journal between the years of 1846 to 1869 (if you didn't gather that from the title). It features many sketches of technological feats and machinery of the day, including the Niagra Falls Suspension Bridge that originally opened in 1848, but, as featured, added on to in 1855.

The pdf to the right is taken from Vol 17, Issue 23, p 353 (Dec 7, 1867).

Main site: http://library5.library.cornell.edu/moa/browse.journals/scia.html

http://edgeofthewest.wordpress.com/2008/01/03/sublime/

This article describes elements of the technological sublime seen in the Brooklyn Bridge.

War of the Worlds full text

This is "the prototype for all science fiction" also the worst book I've ever read and consequently two of the worst movies ever made. http://www.bartleby.com/1002/. Here is the complete text. I don't know if this counts as a post.

Science Fiction Before 1900: Imagination Discovers Technology

This JSTOR post is a brief description of Paul K Alkon's book Science Fiction Before 1900: Imagination Discovers Technology. This summary describes the beginning of the genre as a "meeting of science and imagination as applied technology." Alkon introduces his discussion on early science fiction by detailing the importantce of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to the genre. He argues that with the rise of technology these tales gained more credibility as possible events, as opposed to early ideas which were simply chalked up to "magic." He aruges that contrary to fiction, which builds on historical events to create a reality, science fiction depends on the reader's readiness to accept the events as plausible. Like we discussed in class, other authors covered include Jules Verne and Mark Twain.

http://www.jstor.org/view/07436831/sp040047/04x1103k/0?frame=noframe&userID=80c596b0@bu.edu/01c0a848650050c7c65&dpi=3&config=jstor

I am Legend

This is a link to the wikipedia page describing the 1954 book I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. I thought it was interesting that in the original book the zombies are created by a pandemic of bacteria, while in the movie with Will Smith, the zombie problem arises from genetic mutation, a genetic mutation that was initially thought to be beneficial as a cure for cancer. This aspect of genetic mutation must have been added to make the zombie problem more believable for modern audiences.

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This is my test post

Blacks as Seen by Science Fiction Writer Jules Verne

The Portrayal of Blacks in Jules Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires by Peter Aberger ties together the Victorian science fiction writer Jules Verne and his views on slavery in through his fictional works.

Aberger makes 2 main points:

1. Verne saw American blacks and African blacks in very different lights, causing him to write about them in polar ways.
He portrayed African blacks as savage creatures who needed British colonization for their own well-being and progress in novels such as Robur le conquérant (1886 p.201).
He viewed American blacks as more civilized because of their relations to a white civilization. Denouncing slavery, he made a series of strong abolitionist characters such as plantation owner James Burbank in Norde contre Sud (The American Civil War - 1887 p.200-201).

2. Aberger claims that in Verne's later years he had a "general belief that progress, understood in the rationalist form of the eighteenth century, will lead to happiness."
Though Verne's view on progress is regarding colonization, it coincides with many views of progress in America during the times of great technological progress of the 19th century. For example, Verne's French contemporary Marquis de Condorcet believed that through rational thought - using senses and communication with others - people could understand all facets of nature. He thought that man was constantly headed toward progress and a utopian society (interestingly, one of the main ingredients for this utopia was a strict view of equality in all sense of the word - race, gender, religion, etc.). Meanwhile, a little earlier and across the pond here, Alexander Hamilton and Tench Coxe were great thinkers in favor of technology if applied through rational and economic means.



This was a very interesting article, bringing together many of the themes we have discussed in class. In addition, it was an easy and quick read!

H.G. Wells and Sci-Fi

The H.G. Wells Society

A good introduction to H.G. Wells, it outlines why he wrote what he wrote. Most importantly are the 4 novels he wrote between 1895 and 1898, starting with The Time Machine, going through The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Invisible Man, and of course The War of the Worlds.

Established Date for Midterm Exam: March 6th

Please ignore my earlier post here re: the Midterm Exam. It will happen, as per the syllabus, on March 6th.

"The Prince of Cranks": a profile of Ignatius Donnelly by J. M. Tyree

This article has some excellent background info on the author Caesar's Column. An excerpt:

Along with that of Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells, Donnelly’s speculative futurism in his 1890 novel Caesar’s Column must be included in the origins of the science fiction genre as a whole and, more specifically, that sci-fi subset which includes the dystopian novel—nightmare visions of societies gone irreparably wrong.

Unfortunately, the entire article is not available online for free, but the Cambridge Public Library does carry the journal.

Early Science Fiction

Here's a link to a website which discusses the development of science fiction as a genre all the way from the ancient Greeks up to industrialization, including Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Bacon's New Atlantis. An excerpt:

"The period of modern science, technology, and science fiction, which began with the Industrial Revolution just over 200 years ago, would then be equivalent on our spatial scale to .024 inches, about the thickness of a line made by a medium ball point pen.
Within that pen scratch of time, the rate of technological change has been exponential. Modern consciousness therefore is radically different from that of the peoples who inhabited the planet before the emergence of science fiction.

So my key definition is this: Science fiction is the major non-realistic mode of imaginative creation of our epoch. It is the principal cultural way we locate ourselves imaginatively in time and space. "

The site argues that science fiction has its roots in higher literature and has only recently been reduced to a "sub-literary" status.

Woolworth Building

Here is a link to a page containing many photos of the Woolworth building from its completion in 1913 up until today. It is interesting to see that when it was completed the building was this sublime church-like structure reaching way up into the sky over all of New York, however; the more recent photos show it as more of just an average run of the mill building that has lost its sublimeness.

The Woolworth Building was seen as an immense, yet stunning, structure that drew the awe of many onlookers.

The building towered over Manhattan in the early part of the century.

Photos of Old America

(George Washington Bridge Construction, 1930)

I found this cool Web site that has historical photos from 1900 and earlier. Visit Photos of Old America (http://www.photosofoldamerica.com/index.cfm/Main.htm).

If you click around the gallery you can see construction photos of various bridges in New York and San Fransisco.

The Special Galleries have some neat Transportation photos like this one of a 1920s car crash:

(Auto Wreck)

A Trip to the Moon

The first science fiction film ever made was "Voyage dans la lune" or, in English, "A Trip to the Moon," by George Melies in 1902. The silent film was largely influenced by the Jules Verne book we talked about in class.

If you would like to watch the film, it is only 14 minutes and can be found here: http://www.stage6.com/Science-Fiction-Faction/video/1171409/A-Trip-To-The-Moon-(Le_voyage_dans_la_lune)


The following article (http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20041016/bob10.asp) discusses the film in the context of more recent science fiction films including "The Day after Tomorrow." Here is part of the article:

In Georges Méliès' 1902 short film A Trip to the Moon, six adventurers travel in a capsule fired from a large cannon. After their lunar landing, the explorers are kidnapped by disgruntled moon inhabitants, escape to their capsule, nudge it off the moon's edge, and fall back to Earth, where they splash down in the Atlantic Ocean.

Just a few problems: No cannon can fire a projectile into space, and even if it could, the explorers inside would die from the fantastic acceleration that would be required. Also, Méliès depicted the moon as having Earthlike gravity early in the movie and then conveniently ignored this gravitational pull later, so that the explorers could return home. The list of technical critiques could be much lengthier, but you get the picture.

In the century since Méliès' 14-minute film debuted, special effects have improved substantially, but scientific accuracy often has remained low on the priority list. The premise of last summer's The Day after Tomorrow is that global warming suddenly interferes with the ocean's thermohaline circulation that brings warmer water to the North Atlantic and warms Europe. The sudden collapse of the thermohaline circulation brings on a new ice age in a matter of weeks.

Two Books Discussed in Class

During last week's lecture and class discussions, two book titles came up. Here are some links for those who want learn more about them:

Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish

Gelernter, David. Machine Beauty