Tag: art

Cool Retro Space Travel Posters

Came across this cool article sharing an artist’s series of “vintage”-styled travel poster artwork for real and imagined Space destinations. Many are based on reality (the ice-covered oceans of Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons), are strongly suspected to be real (the cryo-volcanos of Titan, one of Saturn’s moons), or just the stuff of fantasy (a Venus like that imagined before probes visited it and saw beneath it’s ever-present clouds).

Check out this web page for the artwork:

Vintage Style Travel Posters Imagine Travel to Distant Planets and Moons

Horatius at the Bridge

History Lesson Part 2

As mentioned in my previous post Future History Lesson, a  passing quote in the science-fiction novel “Starship Troopers” by Robert Heinlein piqued my interest on two events in real history: ‘Horatius at the Bridge‘ and ‘The Death of the Bon Homme Richard‘. What I discovered in both cases I found so rich in story, that I had to explore them further. Below is what I discovered about Haratius. The surprising story of Bonhomme Richard can be found in Part 3 (coming soon).

Horatius at the Bridge

Publius Horatius Cocles and Two Companions Defend Tiber Bridge by Augustyn Mirys (mid 1700’s Polish painter)

When first digging I could not find a specific work with this title, but there was a lot of information to be found on the person and the event. I eventually discovered that “Horatius at the Bridge” was the title of some editions of the narrative poem “Horatius“ by the Victorian Era historian Baron Thomas Abington Macaulay which was published in his book “Lays of Ancient Rome“ in 1842. It was very popular in England at the time, memorized and recited avidly, and taught in schools. Even close to a hundred years later Winston Churchill recalled memorizing it. You can download a free public domain digital ebook of the entire “Lays of Ancient Rome” via Project Gutenberg, available in multiple file formats. Continue reading Horatius at the Bridge

Future History Lesson

History Lesson Part 1:
Roman Soldiers & American Revolution Sailors as seen by Starship Troopers

 

Starship Troopers book cover
Starship Troopers book cover

I started reading “Starship Troopers“ by Robert Heinlein today and it inspired me to investigate a little real history.

First, I’ve been a big fan of Heinlein for awhile, but strangely had never read this novel which many regard so highly. I had seen the crappy movie supposedly based on it, but let me say that movie really holds no similarities to the novel except for some characters’ and alien species’ names. Worse the movie turns some of the deeper but controversial aspects of the novel on their head, and turns the entire story into a farce. For example Heinlein’s novel portrays a democratic society in which suffrage is earned by a term of government service – in the case of the main characters this happened to be military service. The movie version portrays a fascist society where the only road to citizenship was through the military — kind of like non-citizen inhabitants of the early to mid Roman empire who could earn citizenship only after serving 25 years in the Roman legions.

I’m getting off the topic, which isn’t so much about the future the novel portrays, but about detailing some things I learned from a “future history lesson” today’s reading inspired me to take. Continue reading Future History Lesson

Review: Wyrd Sisters

Wyrd Sisters by Terry PratchettWyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
View book info on GoodReads

My Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars3 out of 5 stars
First Published: 1988
Read from: June 16 to August 24, 2013

Wyrd Sisters – Monty Python meets Shakespeare

I feel like I didn’t give Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett a decent chance and suspect it is more deserving of a 4 star (I really liked it) rating than the 3 star (I liked it) that I have given it here. I had read a lot of Discworld novels recently, and about half way through other books I have been reading began to take over my interest. So there was a long delay finishing this book (finishing it over a month… wait, 2 months?!… from when I started). I’m afraid that effected my appreciation of it. WHILE reading it however I VERY much enjoyed this book.

Reading Discworld novels is like reading a very yummy snack that while it is NOT junk food, you can only eat so much of it in one sitting. In many respects I think if I had been in the mood and read this book as it was meant to be read, I believe it would have been one of my favorite Discworld novels so far. Very much a cross between Monty Python and Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Continue reading Review: Wyrd Sisters