[Wōdnes-dæg] A Well Placed Documentary Makes Science Fiction Science Fact

Introduction
The Article Summed Up
Not New, But Great
Publishing's Next Stage and Mainstream Acknowledgement
Closing

{Screenshot from the documentary "Mermaids: The Body Found," posted with the original article.}

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Introduction

This past Sunday, the Discovery Channel aired a documentary that has stirred up controversy. The program in question is called "Mermaids: The Body Found," a work of science fiction in the form of a documentary.

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The Article Summed Up

The article (from The Christian Post) gives an overview of the controversy and sums it up by stating that the documentary's description and creators said that it is "based on some real life events." Whether or not this is a case of misdirection is not made clear.

Making things even more provocative, the article ends with some statements from the Discovery Channel that present logical arguments for the possibility of mermaids existing.

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Not New, But Great

The controversy here isn't so much about whether or not mermaids are real, but about media literacy. And, much more specifically, about the power of the claim that things are "based on some real life events" (or "based on a true story" or "based on real events," whichever variation you might encounter).

This intertitle has become so overused that it's almost meaningless. Anything can be "based on a true story." In fact, any story that is in any way metaphorical (such as science fiction and fantasy stories) is "based on" reality, otherwise its metaphor is useless. The same can be said for comic book stories like Batman - society is faltering because good people do nothing, and then those good people stand up (only in an extreme way that goes beyond what most people would do).

Moreover, it's human nature to relate things to what we know, and most of us know some sort of "real life."

This connection might not seem like a strong argument against specifying that certain things are 'based on reality,' but just as people are apt to read things into various stories, so too are stories apt to feed these readings. Stories that don't have some relation to "real life" often don't make sense and often don't become very popular.

To take a risk and go out on a limb, stories that are successful speak to people's basic desires. Many stories that are coming out now are complicating these desires and the road to their fulfilment.

Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, or Geroge R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series are good examples of these desires being complicated. Yet, even they still come down to basic desires like wanting to be the hero, personal growth, or safety.

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Publishing's Next Stage and Mainstream Acknowledgement

In terms of the documentary form itself, especially regarding the "Mermaids: The Body Found" documentary featured in today's article, it is an especially powerful tool for science fiction and fantasy.

These genres are so continuously popular because people are always looking for more than what they have.

As humans we're always trying to reach beyond our grasp. Putting this desire for more into a form that purports to give straight facts says to people, "hey, you know that thing that you really want to be real? Well, it is, and here are the facts."

That we're so willing to believe is also a great sign of our open-mindedness. Some might say that this willingness to believe is something that people need to guard against when it comes to the stuff of fantasy like mermaids and supernatural cures, but open minds are as necessary for advancement as they are for distraction.

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Closing

Don't miss my look at 2011's Trespass for part three of Nicolas Cage month, and be sure to catch tomorrow's Annotated Links!

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Annotated Links #4: Breaking the Surface to Find Truth

1. Lamb, John. “Scientists untangle web of science fiction on Spider-Man.” INFORUM 1 July 2012. Web. 3 July 2012.

A rundown of the various powers that Spider-Man has and whether or not they’re accurate representations of a real spiders’ abilities. This article makes extensive reference to a History Channel documentary called “Spider-Man Tech” and includes expert analysis by Don “The Bug Man" Carey of North Dakota State University. It is written in a plain fashion, and makes use of headings that are based on Spider-Man’s powers.

[N.B.: To view the above article you'll need to sign up for a free account with INFORUM.]

2. Miller, Ben. “‘Incredible’ hoard of 50,000 Iron Age coins, buried in escape from Caesar, found in Jersey.” Culture24 July 2012. Web. 3 July 2012.

A pair of "metal detectorists" have found a horde of Celtic coins in a farmer’s field in Jersey. Experts such as the Curator of Archaeology for Jersey Heritage, Olga Finch, are noted as praising the find as one of great importance in the field of Celtic coins. This article is written in a straightforward style that covers the Five Ws and nothing else.

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Closing

Check back here tomorrow for an editorial on the newest news, on Friday for the first hunt for the good in poorly received Nicolas Cage movies (this week, Deadfall), and on Thursday for another annotated link.

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[Freya-dæg] The Green Lantern

The Green Lantern. A celebrated series of comic books and a huge part of the Marvel comic universe. And with the release of the hotly anticipated Avengers movie this Spring, it was necessary to first introduce yet another of this super hero gang with his own movie. Enter a film that has perhaps been one of the rockets on the shuttle in which Ryan Reynolds was launched into true stardom, yet has very little going for it otherwise.

So. What's wrong with the Green Lantern movie as such? Well. Although the comic on which it is based traces its lineage all the way back to the Golden Age of comics (it started in July, 1940) when things were simpler and lines between villain and hero were fairly well drawn, not much was done to update this line. The major villain in the movie, Hector Hammond, is the less successful son of a senator who is called in to study the corpse of Abin Sur (the Green Lantern who bequeaths his ring on our cheese-grater ab-ed hero, Hal Jordan). During the autopsy a piece of the big bad Parallax attaches itself to Hector and begins to mutate him while also granting him psychic abilities.

This villain ultimately seeks what most villains do in the simpler movie adaptations of comic books: acceptance. From his father, from the love interest that is shared with Hal, from the wider scientific community. Of course, this desire for acceptance is left unfulfilled since his mutation turns him into a grotesque. And this is where the line between villain and hero is much too thick for my liking.

To have the villain not only make it clear who he is through his actions is one thing, but to try to remove all hope for his redemption by making him into an insane visual caricature of someone bent on acceptance pushes the portrayal too far into the realm of the painfully obvious. Like putting a reluctant walnut on a train track to crack it open, the movie adaptation of the Green Lantern is unfamiliar with subtlety.

And yes, as with the walnut and the train, this does throw the movie off of its tracks.

But what good can be said about the movie? Surely, as with anything, there must be something that is decent or worthwhile about it.

Well, there isn't much in this case. As you might remember from my review/revival of the movie Priest, the Green Lantern is the first film that I thought was done poorly but that nonetheless made me feel interested in the original story's mythology and detail (hence the "Green Lantern Effect" mentioned in the entry on Priest). Is this enough for me to consider this one saved? I really don't think so.

I mean, it's one thing to create interest where there was little before, but that's just not enough good to save a film. It's like eating a dish involving butternut squash that you end up hating but somehow finding out through the experience that you really like butternut squash. You'll probably go out and eat more butternut squash, but I would guess that you'd never get that dish again. I would honestly re-watch Priest to get a better look at the ideas and aspects of pacing that I liked. Would I re-watch the Green Lantern? No. The spark of interest is really all that I got from it and that spark isn't enough to merit a re-watch. Just as it is not enough to merit this one's being saved.

Freya, if you will, just leave this one down there. I think the worms and rats will get more use out of it than anyone else ever could.