Stories are cultural artifacts, whether it's epics on clay tablets or big-budget films. Those artifacts can tell us a lot about the time and culture that made them if we take a few minutes to shake them and see what falls out. To that end, an independent scholar goes rogue from academic respectability, wanders out into the wild, and talks to the trees and rocks about science fiction and its place in historical study.
Grab your hiking pack and get your nerd-on, we've got a lot to talk about.
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Battle LA has some really wonderful word building for such a simple story. I think picking up that underlying passion is a big part of how it sticks in so many peoples heads, aside from being a genuinely action movie
I am far to your left politically, but I genuinely appreciate your videos. They actually challenge my perspective and give me new ones.
The Axis easily could have won WW2, actually. All they had to do was to launch a coordinated attack on the USSR by both Japan and Germany. Instead, there was zero coordination between the European and Pacific fronts. The moment Japan dragged the US fully into the war was the end for an Axis victory, they just didn't know it at the time. Lucky for us, Communism survived long enough to save the world from fascist capitalism.
"Fascist capitalism" is a peculiarly Marxist way of looking at it, but otherwise I agree with you. The Axis was never really an alliance, and that lack of coordination doomed them. Even after US entry into the war, it's possible that coordinated Japanese and German offensives could have severely crippled Allied efforts, though by that time the odds were stacked against them regardless. The combo of US industrial output and Soviet manpower would have been very difficult to overcome.
Have you seen Road to the Stars, the Russian space propaganda film from the 1950s? Supposedly, it greatly influenced Kubrick's 2001.
I have seen it, but it's been a looong time.
@@feralhistorian It has one off the best illustrated explanations for how "zero gravity" works in orbit. I found it while researching for a video about rotating sets. kzread.info/dash/bejne/ho2VppdwYdy7j6w.html
I first saw it at 15, and hated it.
70's scifi and fantasy titles are so choice. I was't born yet, but I feel vicarious nostalgia for those high concept stories. And the AESTHETICS!! We've slid backwards, man. Any idea why the 70's were such a great experimental era for wildly interesting scifi and fantasy?
Some of my friends ask me why I didn’t like the book Starship Troopers. I always answer, I read the Forever War first.
Only a moron could look at the world of this movie and think... "That's not Capitalism, where rich corporations own everything, it's actually more like communism." Bro! What?? 😂😂😂😂😂
Rollerball is the final objective of techno-faclscists like Musk and Thiel. Project 2025 is merely the start. Rollerball is the final phase of totalitarian Capitalism. Way to miss the point, Feral! 😂😂😂😂
Feral Historian, Ukrainians aren't fighting because they enjoy fighting in fun proxy wars, they're fighting to avoid being enslaved by a brutal totalitarian regime. It's strange with how much you like to bring up overbearing police states, slavery, inequality and injustice that you don't seem to understand this. I hope it's just because you're not aware of just how much of a sadistic death cult the contemporary Russian state is.
No one signs up to be the proxy and of course the Ukrainian people are right to fight an invading force. There is a wider context though, US material support for Ukraine isn't about helping them defend democracy against tyranny but rather about wearing down the Russian military. Sometimes US officials even slip up and say as much. As has been true for much of its history, Ukraine is trapped between two greater powers that are using it for their own ends and right now that involves NATO giving Ukraine enough weaponry to keep them on the field, inflicting casualties on the Russians regardless of how much damage Ukraine takes in the process.
The "GLAVE". Say it with the respect it deserves!
I wish they would remake this one
It's worth noting as well that intermediate cartridges did exist before WWII in the form of stuff like the Vetterli rifle. While it is a stretch to imagine the Draka would be far sighted enough to make so many correct decisions about military arms, the development of the T-6's cartridge could be easily explained as a compromise to give the average Drakan infantryman an actually controllable weapon in full auto. Considering that the furst 20th century intermediate cartidge were themselves ersatz expedient measures, literally just shortening the case length in the case of 8mm Kurtz and 7.62×39, it's not too crazy to think the Drakan 5mm round would have a similar background.
The sith are pretty obviously the SS, and darth vader is himmler. But the sith started out as a heretical sect of the jedi, just like how the SS and their predecessor, the thule society, originated as a masonic lodge... huh.
Now do the original House of Cards (BBC).
Video recommendation - A Canticle for Liebowitz (1959) Written by a bomber radioman who was traumatized by his experience. The book describes 1800 years of history after a nuclear war through the perspective of Catholic monks. A major theme is the tragic nature of power and state formation "Forever building Edens and kicking them apart in berserk fury, because something isn't quite the same." Been devouring your videos. You're clearly a sharp and well read guy. Whether you've read the book or not, would love to hear your take on it. It also has a quasi-complete sequel, published after the author's death. It's... different...
Great book. I have a half-finished outline about Canticle for Liebowitz open on my desktop at this very moment. It's a mess right now, but it's definitely coming.
Thrilled to hear it 🙂
Whatever else may be said about the Alternate History genre; a well-researched, well-written tale may be very thought-provoking, and spark many heated discussion threads - even if the main purpose of such threads is to deconstruct the author's fantastically detailed speculations bit-by-bit. The irony of someone 'hating' a book so much that they read it attentively several times through just to make their case for why they 'hate' it (and its author!) so much is nothing less than priceless. I once read a comment by S. M. Stirling where he said that he considers such criticism to be something of a compliment whenever critics go into such excruciating detail on why his stories and scenarios are 'impossible.' Me? I just like the works of Mr. Stirling and Mr. Turtledove because they're fun to read! Speaking of S. M. Stirling; please consider a future video on the scenario presented in, "The Peshawar Lancers." Count Vladimir Obromovich Ignatieff is probably the most 'fun' character that came from Mr. Stirling's erudite mind . . . . Thanks for making this! 497th Like.
On the subject of "hate readers" particularly in relation to Stirling's Draka books, it seems to me that part of it is that while they're very much dystopian literature, they're usually thought of primarily as alternate history, leading to an assumption that everything must be 100% plausible, even likely. But straight-up dystopian stories aren't held to that standard. I've never come across a long essay nitpicking the implausibility of Huxley's Brave New World, because that's not really the point. And this from someone that overthinks everything. I've intended to read Peshawar Lancers since it was first released, and yet somehow I never get to it. I will add it to the list right now.
@@feralhistorian I tend to agree that a 'double-standard' that's being applied, here. But you've really got to like the way Mr. Stirling is so copacetic about it. More to the point - and to paraphrase Liberace - Mr. Stirling is being criticized and disrespected all the way to the bank . . . . I think you will enjoy "The Peshawar Lancers." I found it to be a very fun story as only S. M. Stirling can tell.
This is what the actual fall of a civilization looks like.
You're seriously overthinking this. It's a convenient plot device for script writers that are out of ideas.
True. But then overthinking plot devices is kinda the shtick here.
@@feralhistorian Valid.
Original SW (1979) presented an empire run by retired british accountants, perhaps the most dangerous men humanity has created. The old samurai dudes with an obscure religion were cultural relics of a dying aristocracy. The senatorial rebellion (led by a literal princess) indicate rome transitioning from republic to cesardom. Lucas inventing the sith emperor with vader as his right hand changed it completely. I still wonder what sort of story would have come from leaving the force religion in the grave and going on with the original vision.
My niche complaint: WTF is up with those stubby, katana looking things? The way the fights are described in the novel makes it fairly clear they use rapiers.
Read the book. The series wasnt anywhere near as good.
This was excellent.
"...Look at what they accomplished with no weapons and just 11 guys who didn’t even speak English! And that proves that sometimes great ideas are actually horrible ideas" -Samhad Hyd-uin
Yahya al shuhada! I will never relent to saying "Im dressed like Santa" or whatever they yelled in the new movie.
Your videos are so good man
cant take the way he looks seriously so i had to turn off the video
Well. Working a job gives structure. You have to be somewhere at a time. If you have a job, days have meaning. Wednesday is only Wednesday and Friday is only Friday, if you work. What is even time if your don't work? What does 8 AM even mean? Maybe nothing.
Selective enforcement is both the positive human element of the police, and the thing that damns them. As humans are flawed, we'll always get both George Floyd and the cop not pulling you over for driving 5 mph over the limit.
Did the lie become real because people believed in it? When you consider that the BSG crew was on our earth 100,000 years before the real flowering of our culture and our beloved characters died out without a trace. Despite what Apollo says about teaching the natives none of that came through to today. If they started farming, it vanished. If they used better hunting weapons like composite longbows or crossbows, they vanished. All their stories, all the lessons completely gone. Simply put, the crew of the BSG left NO IMPACT. They didn't make earth better or worse. All their struggling amounted to absolutely nothing. Maybe the Earth scam stayed a scam?
Searching about proxy wars and we meet again. Best hiker Feral historian professor ever. Congrats on the 10k
I assume the title of the final chapter of your video, "Dune Abides", is a subtle reference to the classic sci-fi novel "Earth Abides". If so, nicely done.
I'm gonna come back around to Earth Abides one of these days. It's been a long time since I first read it.
_... "Upon hearing this tale of unrestrained barbarity and avarice wrought upon an ancient population upon Holy Terra, my intuition led me on a journey deep into the vaults, whereupon I poured over the scraps of data I could glean from the Administratum's fractured archives regarding one Henry Morgenthau Jr. ...._ _... Of particular interest were the notes I uncovered the Section regarding his Early Life....._ _... A name... a heritage?.... A pattern was beginning to form.... a dim, monstrous outline just beyond the limits of my cognition; It would be many years before I could see its true scope...."_
Thank you. I thought I was the only one who pictured ze Baron as a levitating Göring.
Civil rights only reveals the true nature of humanity, namely our clannishness. The founders' ideals required such exceptions, otherwise if applied to other groups it would not work. They knew this. They read Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus.
@@ThatMans-anAnimal yea the founders were wannabe aristocrats they based their vision of humanity from the perspective of wherever they were coming from. So fuck off.
America was the first country founded on the unattainable ideals of "The Enlightenment". Such an analysis belies the unacknowledged failure of these ideals, doubling down on them instead.
@@ThatMans-anAnimal yes and it was also founded by jackasses who were also up their own ass.
No.
For Dune 1984, you should take a look at the Spicediver fanedit. By far THE definitive cut.
I have mixed feelings about that edit. There are some things they did really well, and I'm glad they restored Jessica's "history will call us wives" line at the end. But there other choices, many of them involving the Smithee cut intro material, that did not work for me the way they used it.
Great series, love the channel! I would love to hear more about your thoughts on the viability of a post-apocalyptic feudal system. The basic idea of skilled warriors securing arable land for peasants to work in exchange for the surplus crops and loyalty seems like it could crop up on its own. In the vanilla Fo4 settlement system, this is essentially what the player is doing when they clear out a raider camp or mirelurk infestation to gain control of a settlement. This is even more true if you complete the game as the minutemen; you muster a peasant army to overwhelm technologically superior foes (and you have a castle!). The BoS has a chance at even more complex feudalism, the knights fulfill their elite warrior role, the scribes act as a sort of church of technology that could have a lot of sway over the culture of the settlements, and the common people work the land. There are of course many questions as to power structure, how the brotherhood distinguishes its own members and if it allows new members, how the people will react, etc.
Babylon 5 seems more a religious story than a merely politucal one.
I can you tell you, if you said, “I am thinking about Krull.” you made a mistake.
Great review. Firefox Down was also worth the read. Not sure about the third book in the series.
I didn't even know there was a third book.
It's funny seeing you mention being the Paul Harrell of nerd stuff, that was my initial thought upon one of my friends showing me your videos. You make great stuff, glad to see a quality channel on subjects like this can still spring up on youtube from time to time.
Although Dune has homophobia in it, the Baron's degeneracy is due to him prefering teen boys not just being attracted to males, and he is also implied to have abused his nephew.
Good point and a serious omission on my part.
@@feralhistorianThe Harkonnens are so depraved in every way, it's easy to miss one of the many specifically horrifying details about them. But thanks for owning the omission. Great video, congratulations on the numbers, and I am pleased to be one of your subscribers. This is my new favorite take on Dune.
I could sense Stephen King’s endings were bad the first time I saw “IT”, and later, reinforced with “The Tommyknockers” and “The Langoliers”. I didn’t realize exactly what the problem was, until my own attempts at writing, followed by reading Stephen King’s “On Writing”, contrasting it against a documentary on “Back to the Future”. King has always written a story from beginning to end, just cranking through the story’s plot in a linear progression, without the ending figured out. In comparison, Bob Gale and Bob Zemeckis used a 3x5 card approach, defining the ending of BTTF first, and working backwards, so nothing overshadows the climax.
King's approach has its strengths, particularly from the character side. His characters can be very well developed in part through that sort of aimless style where they do things that fit the character rather than serving the plot. But yeah, it's hard not be anticlimactic with that approach.
CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR
The thing that traumatized me as a kid was the creepy wizard thing
we haven't had a good science fantasy in a long time
Normally I'd say this channel is underrated, but I don't think it could ever be as good as it is if it had millions of views.
If it ever gets that big, I'll be doing the same thing but in 4K with better sound.
Congrats on the subscriber numbers. Nice cephlapod t shirt btw...