The website of John C. Snider
I have been inspired lately to revisit the question of the “great” sci-fi films. (See my previous posts on the Top 10 Sci-Fi Films of the 2000s and Top 10 Sci-Fi Films of the 2010s.) Others online have taken some pretty good recent stabs at this (see, e.g., “Moid Moidelhoff” at Media Death Cult, who …
A review of Benjamin Labatut’s award-nominated collection. They are well-worn clichés: the scientist as tortured genius; the idiot savant who peers unblinkingly into the secrets of the universe while forgetting to eat or bathe; or, at the most superficial, scientists as hopeless nerds, whip-smart but clueless when it comes to “regular” people and their quotidian …
Happy New Year! May your 2022 be (at least marginally) better than 2021 and 2020. One line that has repeatedly popped into my head over the last five years is from William Butler Yeats: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” I fear that future historians will mark the …
It’s hard to believe it’s been over twenty-two years since the Wachowskis (then brothers Larry and Andy; now sisters Lana and Lilly—long story) introduced the world to Neo (Keanu Reeves), a hapless hacker who discovers he and most of the rest of humanity are really living in the Matrix, a virtual reality created by Machines …
Looking back at my “Top 10 Sci-Fi Films of the 2000s” inspired me to similarly revisit the 2010s. In 500 words or less. Here goes: 1. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) / Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) / War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) – It’s cheating to name all three legs of …
[A review of writer/director Adam McKay’s new sci-fi farce, now streaming on Netflix.] We may very well be in the last days of the American Republic. America has been dysfunctional and divided before (see: the Civil War; the Civil Rights Movement), but our current era of partisan rancor seems unprecedented. The internet promised to bring …
Step just inside the front entrance of the University of Kentucky’s historic Miller Hall and you might notice a brass plaque on the righthand side titled Freedom of Inquiry, the Teaching of Evolution, and the “Monkey Trial”. The plaque reads, in full: In March 1922, the Kentucky House of Representatives debated a bill to prohibit the teaching …
I would have thought by now that we’d realize that mass shootings (even in schools!) aren’t a flaw in our system; at this point, given what we know, they’re an intentional feature. We know from study after study, from one statistical analysis to another, that we have excess fatalities because of the number of guns …
“The very existence of the Second Amendment is designed purposefully to empower the people to be able to resist the force of tyranny used against them to step over their natural rights given to them by God. That is why the Second Amendment exists. That is very specifically why the Second Amendment exists.” – Congressman …
The news out of Afghanistan is shocking, to be sure–but mostly because of the speed of the Taliban reconquest. I don’t know anyone who didn’t think that if the US and our allies exited Afghanistan that the Taliban (or ilk) wouldn’t be in charge eventually. But now it looks like the Taliban will have established …