Rarely, do I get to read for pleasure nowadays. Am still reading a Jimmy Buffett book that was received Christmas 2006. Reading is one the great joys of life. Calming, stimulating, mind expanding and books demand no harsh time schedule. Dreamed last night of being on campus and defending the terseness of Hemingway's writing style. Also defended Thomas Wolfe's right to be verbose. My conscious mind does not remember this event, so it may be something I wanted to say in class. Even the dream was a nice distraction from the ever so important tech manuals that are now front and center.
Early in life I developed a love of things science. Best I can remember it was probably stimulated by reading the monthly issues of Boys Life, the Boy Scouts of America magazine. They were "hand-me-downs." I do know the story was serialized. It was by Robert Heinlein. Might have been a tale named The Rolling Stones. So I was off and running at an early age and remember many exciting events concerning earth's real adventures in outer space. I devoured the article in the newspaper about Sputnik's launch. We were visiting a relative in Burnsville as this event took place and it was a hot topic of discussion. I sat and listened to opinions, some favorable and others not. Remember, the cold war was in full swing at that time. When Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon July 20, 1969, I was so proud. In Vietnam at the time and wrote excitedly to Mother about it and told her how cool it was that this event occurred on her birthday! That was in the days of snail mail.Why all this nostalgia? One of my all time favorite movies is being remade. Can't recollect how many hundreds of times it's been viewed, but it never grows old. The title? The Day the Earth Stood Still. The remake is scheduled out during Christmas holidays. Take a look at the original trailer:
Now here is a preview of the new version due to hit the big screen this coming December:
Unlike a lot of people I like Keanu Reeves and he may be a perfect choice to play Klaatu. I hope so. This is an enormous undertaking. It is brave to remake a great classic of science fiction films. Think about it. This is akin to remaking 2001: A Space Odyssey!
Why the segue to the movies? I actually read the short story from which this movie script was written. The title of the story is Farewell to the Master by Henry Bates. The written story is quite different from the movie (I like the movie better). BTW, the robot Gort had the name Gnut in the short story (I like Gort better).
You can read the entire story on the web at The Nostalgia League. If you are a fan of the movie the original story will surprise you. It's not a great read, but it is good and short.
Technology, what a wonderful concept. You think?
"Klaatu has been killed, you must save him."
~Literal translation of "Klaatu barada nikto."
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