Tag Archives: star wars

THE ORIGINAL STAR WARS

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I recently re-read my favorite science fiction books, discovering that, like most prophetic literature, they must be studied carefully and repeatedly to perceive many subtle layers of understanding and insight embodied in the text of six books.  In my opinion, the most revolutionary, groundbreaking and classic series of science fiction books ever published is The Lensman series.  This series was written by Edward Elmer “Doc” Smith, PhD.  All of the books in this profoundly important series are available in from Amazon.com (HERE) and the audiobook versions from Audible.com (HERE).  If you are a fan of science fiction, high technology, or of spiritual phenomenon, these books are mandatory reference material.

EE-Doc-SmithEdward Elmer Smith Ph.D. (also E. E. Smith, E. E. “Doc” Smith, Doc Smith, “Skylark” Smith, or—to his family—Ted) (May 2, 1890 – August 31, 1965) was an American food engineer (specializing in doughnut and pastry mixes) and early science fiction author, best known for the Lensman and Skylark series. He is sometimes called the father of space opera.

Another of my favorite writers is the iconic science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein. He and Doc Smith were good friends. (Heinlein dedicated his 1958 novel Methuselah’s Children “To Edward E. Smith, Ph.D.”.  Heinlein reported that E. E. Smith perhaps took his “unrealistic” heroes from life, citing as an example the extreme competence of the hero of Spacehounds of IPC. He reported that E. E. Smith was a large, blond, athletic, very intelligent, very gallant man, married to a remarkably beautiful, intelligent red-haired woman named MacDougal (thus perhaps the prototypes of ‘Kimball Kinnison’ and ‘Clarissa MacDougal’). In Heinlein’s essay, he reports that he began to suspect Smith might be a sort of “superman” when he asked Smith for help in purchasing a car. Smith tested the car by driving it on a back road at illegally high speeds with their heads pressed tightly against the roof columns to listen for chassis squeaks by bone conduction—a process apparently improvised on the spot.

In his non-series novels written after his professional retirement, Galaxy Primes, Subspace Explorers, and Subspace Encounter, E. E. Smith explores themes of telepathy and other mental abilities collectively called “psionics”, and of the conflict between libertarian and socialistic/communistic influences in the colonization of other planets.Lensman Series

Although the language, slang and cultural references are antiquated, I must continually remind myself that these books were written primarily during the 1930s! Long before atomic bombs became a reality, Doc Smith describes atomic and electronic weapons in detail.  His technical conceptions and detailed descriptions of engines and spacecraft capable of interstellar, intergalactic, and hyper-spacial have no equal.

Doc Smith (an doughnut and cake mix engineer by trade in “real” life) conjures a fictionalized history of the human race (civilization) engendered and nurtured by a race of super-beings of infinite, incorporeal origins.  The nemesis of Civilization are the equally intelligent and capable race of Edorians.  A convergence of two galaxies co-mingled these antagonists onto an evolutionary battleground — perpetual warfare lasting billions of years.  The parallels and contrasting behavior characteristics of the “good guys” vs “bad guys” reveal the essence of who we are, and could become on this planet.

George Lukas, creator of the Star Wars films relates in his autobiography that his films were inspired by the Lensman books.   However, even these unprecedented films reveal only a dim shadow cast by the brilliant light of science fiction literature created by Doc Smith. The characters, conflicts, technology he describes are so hauntingly “real” that one wonders whether Doc Smith wrote his stories as fantasies, or from his own “memory” as in infinitely ancient spiritual being, drawing from his the primordial past of  “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…“!

Originally, the Lensman Series was published in pulp fiction magazines. The complete series in sequence and their original publication dates are:

  1. Triplanetary (1948. Originally published in four parts, January–April 1934, in Amazing Stories)
  2. First Lensman (1950, Fantasy Press)
  3. Galactic Patrol (1950. Originally published in six parts, September 1937 – February 1938, in Astounding Stories)
  4. Gray Lensman (1951. Originally published in four parts, October 1939 – January 1940, Astounding Stories)
  5. Second Stage Lensmen (1953. Originally published in four parts, November 1941 – February 1942, Astounding Stories)
  6. Children of the Lens (1954. Originally published in four parts, November 1947 – February 1948, Astounding Stories)
  7. And, a sequel, The Vortex Blaster (1960. Published with the title Masters of the Vortex in 1968)

Lensmen

Originally, the series consisted of the final four novels published between 1937 and 1948.  Smith rewrote his 1934 story Triplanetary, originally published in Amazing Stories, to fit in with the Lensman series. First Lensman was written in 1950 to act as a link between Triplanetary and Galactic Patrol and finally, in the years up to 1954, Smith revised the rest of the series to remove inconsistencies between the original Lensman chronology and Triplanetary.

Smith’s novels are generally considered to be the classic space operas, and he is sometimes called the “first nova” of twentieth century science fiction.  Smith expressed a preference for inventing fictional technologies that were not strictly impossible (so far as the science of the day was aware) but highly unlikely: “the more highly improbable a concept is—short of being contrary to mathematics whose fundamental operations involve no neglect of infinitesimals—the better I like it” was his phrase.

For more detailed information about The Lensman Series and other books by EE Smith, and about this truly amazing man, read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._E._Smith

FAKE ARCHAEOLOGY

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When I was 12 years old (this lifetime) I decided I would become an Archaeologist.  I wanted to discover the Hidden Secrets of Humanity…. dig holes in the desert in search of un-looted treasure… decipher the indecipherable ciphers…. understand My Meaning and My Origins!  55 years later I have discovered all of these things…(except for the treasure, which was looted a long time ago by university professors, Zahi Hawass*,  and other “legalized” thieves…), but without having to dig a single hole! The field of Archaeology, as a “science”, has been developed, refined, celebrated and defrauded by the best and the worst grave robbers of Western Civilization.

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Personally, by the time I started attending my first college courses in Archaeology and Anthropology I realized that the only “mysterious caves” I really wanted to explore were between the legs of my female classmates! And alas, my career aspiration was abandoned….  This proved to be a fortunate circumstance, as I eventually discovered that the majority of truly revelatory archaeological discoveries where covered up, denied, and buried in the crypts of the Smithsonian Institute, the Vatican, The Library of Congress, the Ministry of Egyptology, The British Museum and other government and academic vested interests who do not EVER want you and I to discover the fact that Humankind did not “evolve” on Earth.  We have all been imported from elsewhere.  The “artifacts” of Archaeology are nothing more than tattered fragments of a False Facade civilization placed carefully to deceive us into believing that we are not living on a prison planet.  For details, read the book  ALIEN INTERVIEW.

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* Zahi Hawass (Arabic: زاهي حواس‎; born May 28, 1947) is an Egyptian archaeologist, an Egyptologist, and former Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs. He has also worked at archaeological sites in the Nile Delta, the Western Desert, and the Upper Nile Valley.  Hawass has received widespread publicity internationally, and was the subject of a reality television series in the United States, Chasing Mummies. His views and links to business ventures and the Mubarak regime have engendered controversy. In connection with the awarding of a gift shop contract at the Egyptian Museum and alleged smuggling of antiquities, he was sentenced to a prison term, which was later lifted.

STAR WARS IN 1902

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What if “Star Wars” had been released 75 years earlier — in 1902 instead of 1977?

Anachronisme by LesSingesHurlants

THE SILENT FILM ERA:  1894 -1929

The first projected sequential proto-movie was made byEadweard Muybridge some time between 1877 and 1880. The first narrative film was created by Louis Le Prince in 1888. It was a two-second film of people walking in Oakwood streets garden, entitled Roundhay Garden Scene. The art of motion pictures grew into full maturity in the “silent era“(1894-1929) before silent films were replaced by “talking pictures” in the late 1920s. Many film scholars and buffs argue that the aesthetic quality of cinema decreased for several years until directors, actors, and production staff adapted to the new “talkies”.

The visual quality of silent movies—especially those produced in the 1920s—was often high. However, there is a widely held misconception that these films were primitive and barely watchable by modern standards. This misconception comes as a result of silent films being played back at wrong speed and their deteriorated condition. Many silent films exist only in second- or third-generation copies, often copied from already damaged and neglected film stock.

As motion pictures eventually increased in length, a replacement was needed for the in-house interpreter who would explain parts of the film. Because silent films had no synchronized sound for dialogue, onscreen intertitles were used to narrate story points, present key dialogue and sometimes even comment on the action for the cinema audience. The title writer became a key professional in silent film and was often separate from the scenario writer who created the story. Intertitles (or titles as they were generally called at the time) often became graphic elements themselves, featuring illustrations or abstract decoration that commented on the action.

READ MORE ABOUT THE HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY OF “SILENT” FILMS ON WIKIPEDIA:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_film