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October 15, 2008

The Forever War ()

by fluffy at 10:54 AM
Some time ago (I can't find the weblog entry so it was probably one of the ones lost in the Great Server Hard Drive Failure) I was saying how much I'd like to see a TV series based on the premise of actual real-life relativistic-speed space travel. Well, The Forever War (which I still need to read) is becoming a movie directed by Ridley Scott! So that promises to actually be, you know, excellent.

I have to admit that whenever I watch Star Trek I keep thinking "Damnit, it doesn't work that way!" when they try specifically addressing FTL issues — I can suspend my disbelief as long as they don't try actually explaining things but the instant they do, I get gripey. I might be too big a nerd even for Star Trek.

Comments

#11378 10/15/2008 01:56 pm
I love the book, like Ridley Scott, but I have misgivings about the movie.

One thing many movies really struggle with are extended timeframes: they work best with events over a few hours or days. The whole point of the book though is that it takes place over a long time, with Mandella getting gradually more alienated as he rises through the ranks.

Ridley Scott's great with images and action, but I think he struggles with plots and characters.

Also not sure if Special Relativity will get its way past the studio system: too hard to understand, so they might just go for FTL instead.

So, I have a feeling it may end up like "1492: Conquest of Paradise": overlong, disconnected plotting, good actors wasted on a lacklustre script.
#11379 10/15/2008 02:15 pm
How can you have The Forever War without SR? Isn't SR the whole conceit of the story? That's like making The Day The Earth Stood Still where the aliens are actually evil and they need to be defeated by Keanu ReeOH WAIIIIT
#11381 10/15/2008 04:37 pm
SR isn't the central conceit of the story...it's the central metaphor without which the story means nothing.
#11382 10/15/2008 04:49 pm
Pretty sure that's what "conceit" means in a literary sense. Though actually that isn't quite right either since it's not actually a metaphor for anything so much as a premise.
#11384 10/15/2008 09:20 pm
In the book, time dilation is used as a metaphor for the disconnectedness Vietnam vets faced when returning home. The irony is that Haldeman wasn't concerned with scientific accuracy at all, but rather, with using it to relate to something about war.
#11385 10/15/2008 09:26 pm
Ah, well then, it could conceivably be done with FTL, if they're clever. But that presupposes something which hasn't been indicated just yet.
#11394 10/16/2008 10:17 am
That's kinda like saying Animal Farm could conceivably done without animals.
#11395 10/16/2008 10:26 am
I suppose. I really should just track down a copy and read it.

FWIW, didn't Alien avoid FTL? At the very least the crew had to go into suspended animation and was completely isolated in the middle of the void. Not that any of the actual important impacts of non-FTL travel were explored (what with stasis apparently just being a shortcut for a long but not epoch-length journey).