Sci Fi Film Geekdom

A couple of threads ago, moquif asks the musical question: What movies do you have to see to be considered a sci-fi geek?

It's slightly tricky. As s/he indicates, we're not talking fantasy films here, so that rules out not only the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings series, but to my mind a number -- not all -- of superhero films. And what do we mean in this case by "sci-fi geek"? I think it's the basics, the foundational films you need to really understand the cinematic language of Sci Fi. The films that you would recommend to someone who asked, "Y'know, I've never seen a sci fi movie. Know any really good and influential ones?"

I also thought that a list of ten was too restrictive, and a list of twenty too easy. So I settled on fifteen.

( My own first effort at such a list would look something like this: )

Aleya For The Win

By way of Atrios:

Who is your favorite author?” Aleya Deatsch, 7, of West Des Moines asked Mr. Huckabee in one of those posing-like-a-shopping-mall-Santa moments.

Mr. Huckabee paused, then said his favorite author was Dr. Seuss.

In an interview afterward with the news media, Aleya said she was somewhat surprised. She thought the candidate would be reading at a higher level.

“My favorite author is C. S. Lewis,” she said.

When your facile pandering is judo'd into a diss on your literacy by a second-grader, maybe you ought to rethink whether you actually are up to the task of leading the free world.

Favorite Authors

Branching off the previous posts, who are your favorite authors? The criterion here is body-of-work, not just one or two books. Mine would be J. R. R. Tolkien, Lois McMaster Bujold, Isaac Asimov, and Harlan Ellison. I also have great fondness for Ray Bradbury, Mark Twain, Larry Niven, H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe, Ursula K. LeGuin, Stephen King, Jules Verne (interestingly, at least to me, for Around The World In Eighty Days more than any of his other books), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Dr. Seuss.

I really wish I could add J. K. Rowling and Spider Robinson, but I have too many problems with too much of their work. I consider both to be excellent storytellers, but not really very good writers, if you catch the distinction.

Have at.

ETA: I'm such a doof. Thanks to djonn for mentioning the 800-lb. gorilla, Wm. Shakespeare. Although it's a touch iffy, as he was a playwright and poet, not a novelist, there are so many stories and story elements that either come from him or were first and best distilled by him that there's no way to avoid him, and why would you want to in the first place?

It's Got CAFFEINE! SUPER EXTRA CAFFEINE! And FIVE KINDS of SUGAR!

Which makes it DELICIOUS!

Thanks to giza, and don't forget to visit brawndo.com which I swear on my mother's grave except she isn't dead yet isn't very connected to a Luke Wilson movie that tanked.

Every Day Matters: The Aviator

I don't even care that it's a JC Penney ad. Many thanks to drzarron for the hookup.