“Metropolis” hallucinates a futuristic city, a paradise of glass and steel, where underground workers toil endlessly at the giant machines that run the world above. Controlled by the autocratic industrialist, his spoilt son falls for the working class prophet who envisions some mediation between workers and managers. Noted science fiction author H. G. Wells reviews the controversial 1927 masterpiece.
Recent Posts
Extreme Weather Disasters: Last Call at Club Fossil Fuel – By Mark Reynolds
Extreme weather events, drought, wildfire, torrential rains, tornadoes, hurricanes, attributable to human-caused global warming, are costing society and insurers bilions of dollars worldwide. Mark Reynolds from Citizens Climate Lobby argues it is time for a carbon fee and dividend to even the market for fossil fuels and encourage clean renewable energy alternatives.
Tantoo Cardinal on Tar Sands: No Energy More Powerful than Natural Force
The Earth has a voice. And the fact that any native people have survived on the planet should be a clue that there’s a way that does not include money and politics. We have survived by our relationship with natural force. Water is sacred. Air is sacred. If the tar sands isn’t stopped, we are going to have a whole new set of problems.
Toll Lanes as Congestion Management: Mobility for the Wealthy Few
Converting freeway lanes to tollways in the name of congestion management, without viable transit alternatives, will only reduce mobility for the majority in exchange for wealthy drivers getting to work on time.
Jack Kerouac’s Lowell Blues: Cast-off Boots of Time
Jack Kerouac wrote in 1950: “I wish to evoke that indescribable sad music of the night in America–for reasons which are never deeper than the music. Bop only begins to express that American music. It is the actual inner sound of a country.”
Nuclear Fission: In the Beginning, It All Looked So Simple
Nuclear Regulatory Commission & Edison host a town hall to discuss San Onofre Nuclear Power Generating Station’s (SONGS’s) status in its current Shut Down mode, due to systemic tube leaks in its new reactors. The experts scratch their heads as to why.
William S. Burroughs – Commissioner of Literary Addictions
Burroughs wanted to free people from the slavery of addiction, whether to heroin or money or sex. “The Garden of Earthly Delights” was his shorthand for the diseased saturnalia of American affluence. From his earliest writings Burroughs foresaw a time when human beings, drenched in orgasmic “freedom,” would be reduced to their bodies, their minds completely manipulated by advertising and mass media.