So we watched... (non-spoilery)

[avevale_intelligencer]

The Golden Compass.

And enjoyed it. I'm anybody's for a good airship--why do we still love airships? Maybe it's because we miss the ineffable luxury of being compelled to travel slowly*--and, possibly since I haven't yet read the books, I didn't mind one bit that they left out the Big Damn Message. The only thing that concerns me is whether this film will do well enough to keep them on track with the sequels. Boom's got to end some time. Or, as Ivanova did not say, probably wisely, there's always a bust tomorrow.

*This, of course, needs explaining. I'm not talking about being trapped in a traffic jam here--the whole infuriating thing about travel nowadays is that we expect and are expected to go faster and faster, get there sooner and sooner, and traffic jams and road works and such like prevent us from fulfilling that expectation. With airships and steam trains and similar outmoded forms of transport, the perception is that that expectation is removed--you go at the speed of the vehicle, and nobody expects you to get there any sooner than it can. There's a relief and a charm in that, I think.

Comments

[siderea]

I'm anybody's for a good airship

You ever seen "Laputa"?

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed. Very nice.

[madfilkentist]

Let's not forget Captain Shakespeare's airship in Stardust. That was wonderful! Arr!

[occams_pyramid]

There's also that it's a machine we can actually understand, and has got interesting whirly bits (as taken to an extreme by Rowland Emett).

Modern coputerised stuff does wonderful things, but you can't just look at it and understand it.

[min0taur.livejournal.com]

Airships, like railways, emerged in the pre-supersonic, pre-jet phase of industrialization. Although their enthusiasts were no less prone to equating speed with mastery over nature (however dubious a proposition that turned out to be), I do think the speeds were more "human-scale" -- fast enough to get there in a reasonable time, but slow enough to allow people to experience the journey. A couple of nonfiction books come to mind that look at these issues in ways I've found useful -- Leo Marx's The_Machine_in_the_Garden:_Technology_and_the_Pastoral_Ideal, and Jeremy Rifkin's Time_Wars.

Velocity is always so much easier to quantify than quality of life.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with you about airships and steam trains. With those the journey is important, not just the destination. I tend to operate in one of two modes: one where all I'm interested in is being at B when I'm at A, the other where I am travelling for the sake of it (and don't want to stop or particularly get somewhere).

Plus there's the luxury associated with the older vehicles which is often missing in the newer faster ones, possibly because of the time factor. If you are going to spend a week getting somewhere you are likely to spend more effort making it comfortable than if it only takes an hour.

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

"If you are going to spend a week getting somewhere you are likely to spend more effort making it comfortable than if it only takes an hour."

More specifically: If you are going to spend a week getting somewhere, you are more likely to think it worth buying a first class ticket so as to make it comfortable. Thus, there is more incentive for the transport company to provide plenty of first class accommodation... Maybe even 100%.

Good post.

[(Anonymous)]

omg.. good work, bro