Star Wars Going Commercial? Oh, Right, Normal... (Or, Look, It's Boba Fett and Han Solo!)

If you haven't already heard from io9, Entertainment Weekly, and Geeks of Doom, Lucasfilm is considering the possibility of two standalone Star Wars films -- one involving an origin story for Han Solo, set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope (III and IV), and the other involving Boba Fett either between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back (IV and V) or Empire and The Return of the Jedi (VI).  That is, of course, if you accept the rumors (including this weird one about a Yoda movie).  Frankly, we don't have much reason to believe Disney won't make as many Star Wars movies as they possible can, especially when you consider just how lucrative the universe has been for Lucas and his various companies.  Any new movie would equal a new video game, new books, new merchandise, and on and on and on and on.  Basically, unless a Star Wars movie ends up flopping at the box office -- unlikely -- Disney will probably pump out as many movies as is reasonable.  Expect one of these years to become "the year of Star Wars," with t

Literary Explorations: Jack London's The Iron Heel and the Political Dystopia

In a recent discussion on The Skiffy and Fanty Show (it's here), Andrew Liptak, James Decker, Paul Weimer, and I discussed the prevalence of dystopian narratives in science fiction.  At one point, Andrew suggested that dystopias are, in large part, responses to the political climate of the author's present.  I agree with this assessment in principle, but I think the idea collapses when applied to works of the popular dystopia tradition -- the "dystopia is hip" crowd, if you will.  The Iron Heel, however, is the most obvious example of a literary response to a particular political climate -- in this case, the U.S. boom-and-bust economy at the turn-of-the-century.*

Told through the memoirs of Avis Everhard, The Iron Heel employs a number of literary devices to explore its political climate.  First, London frames Avis' narrative with Anthony Meredith, a

The 2012 WISB Awards!

The awards have come!  Every year, I offer my favorites from the previous year, from movies to books and so on and so forth.  This year, I'm keeping with the tradition.  First, the rules:

1. I must have consumed the chosen item in 2012, with special preference given to works released during that year.
2. I may not have more than three runners up for any category (which means a lot of folks get left out -- sorry).
3. I have the right to drop categories if I don't believe I can honestly assess the products contained within it (example:  I can decide to drop a TV category if I only watched one show in that category because it's really not fair for me to assess the best of the best if I haven't actually watched more than one show).

So, without further delay, here are my selections for the 2012 WISB Awards:

Poll: The Next Retro Nostalgia Film (#2)? You Decide!

And now it's your turn to decide which film I'll watch for this Monday's Retro Nostalgia feature.  Choose wisely!

Retro Nostalgia: Logan's Run (1976) and the Infantilization of Humanity

(Note:  There are a few spoilers below. If you have not seen Logan's Run and want to, I recommend watching it before you read this post.  I'm not ruining the entire movie or anything; I just know that I would prefer a completely untainted first viewing.  If you don't care about a few spoilers, then read on.

Note 2:  This is a little late.  It should have appeared yesterday.  I hope you'll forgive me, considering that I didn't have the film selected until late Sunday evening.)

Many of you already know that I am currently teaching an American dystopia class.  One of the novels I had considered teaching was William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson's Logan's Run, which was later turned into a 1976 film (discussed here) and a 1977 TV series (which I have never seen).  There are a few more novels/stories in the series/universe and a new film adaptation is currently in the works.  As a piece of dystopia, the film plays on a number of the social concerns of the 1960s and the 1970s, among them the population boom scare fed by Paul R. Ehrlich

Poll: The Next Retro Nostalgia Film? You Decide!

Earlier, I asked for film suggestions for my Retro Nostalgia feature thinking that there would be some kind of simple consensus.  Boy was I wrong!

And so, in order to decide which film I'm going to watch for tomorrow, I'm creating this little poll, which you all get to vote in.  It'll run until midnight, since I need time to actually watch whichever film you all decide on.

Anywho!

A Few Blog Changes

(Note:  There's a little request for input at the end.  I'd really appreciate your thoughts.)

Lately, I've found myself wanting to change how things are run on this site.  You'll have noticed that I wasn't an active blogger for the latter half of 2012, whereas the first month-ish of 2013 has shown the exact opposite.  Part of this had to do with a lack of time on my part, but it also stemmed from having nothing to say, or not having the will to put some thought into topics suggested to me.

I don't want the same thing to happen in 2013, which is why I start this thread on Google+ asking about scheduled columns and other blog-related things.  That thread gave me the push I need to make the following changes: