Tavarishi!

We've had a wonderful run regarding politics, but perhaps it now requires a break.

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I've been working for some time on a new book chapter. This one is on the Soviet era science fiction film "Cosmic Journey" and its hardware. Both Genosse Dummkopf and Comrade Square himself helped me with the background details on the period (and both are duly acknowledged at the end). In fact, Dummkopf's help turned into a running thread throughout the plot summary.


If you feel so inclined, you can take a read of the chapter by downloading the zip file. In the file are not just the chapter itself, but also a sidebar on Klim Voroshilov and a companion piece comparing this movie to the contemporary (but much better known) Fritz Lang film "Die Frau im Mond" (Woman in the Moon). This file will be available until the last day of next month (Feb 28). I was going to tell you that this was the "Glorious World Premier" of the work, but it is, in reality, a writer's trick to get some free proofreading out of people :-)

If/when you do decide to download it, please remember that this is Copyright 2017, ARA Press and cannot be forwarded/shared without permission.


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So grab your rolled-up copy and take a seat in the facilities behind Tractor Barn #4 with the other Comrades and your glass of beet vodka and enjoy!

- SK

I do hope you've corrected the blatantly kapitalist Islamophobic lie that the former glorious motherland was sending forbidden unclean beasts like dogs into space ?
I notice komrade Red Square still hasn't fixed the obvious hacking to this site suggesting Laika was a "space dog" , when we all well know full well Laika was in fact a "space camel" , will this stay unresolved until it's hacked again to read "Laika the space pig" ?

Comrade Designer, I have some experience in editing and would be glad to give you my suggestions. I opened the zipped file, read a few pages, and it looks great, but I prefer to make editorial commentary in Word. If you have a Word file of the copy sans illustrations, I would rather work on that format. If you do and are willing to send it, PM me and I will send you a private email address.

Comrade Chief Designer, thanks :
A very fine view into the cinema of yore (early '30s), bold ideas of exploration (here: feeding on Tsiolkovsky's thinking, with Jules Verne's mid 19th century sci-fi and foresights in background), and the emerging New Man, Soviet Edition (Marina plus Andryushka & friends).


From Jules Verne's De la Terre à la Lune (1865) :


(amazing : conceptually not so far from real-life space-travel-2000, ah?)


to Soviet space-pathos in 50's..60's Agitprop style :


(captions : DREAMS COME TRUE ! and GLORY TO SOVIET PEOPLE - PIONEERS OF SPACE !)



P.S. @ Chief Designer : I put a handful of mini-remarks / micro-corrections in an email - just check your Kube-inbox.

For Comrades who haven't met it yet (and for hardcore cineastes a must!) :


13 min. of Georges Méliès' Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902), based on Jules Verne's novel (1865).

No heroism here and not so much exploration, it's more in burlesque mode ‒ the infancy era of cinema. It's the first sci-fi film ever ‒ one small step for sci-fi, but a giant leap for cinema. And chock-full of amazing (at that early stage of "moving pics") visual tricks.

TRIGGER WARNING! UNSAFE SPACE! SEXISM!
Méliès' opus is as sweetly sexist as most of the Western 20th century was : Comradettes providing charms and taking care of secondary operations, while bearded Comrades do the heavy-duty shovelling, manly goof-ups included.
And all that environmentally catastrophic (around 3:45)!

But this scene - from the Palace of The Lunar Empire, no less - should comfort any true Comrade :

Genosse Dummkopf wrote:For Comrades who haven't met it yet (and for hardcore cineastes a must!) :

13 min. of Georges Méliès' Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902), based on Jules Verne's novel (1865).

No heroism here and not so much exploration, it's more in burlesque mode ‒ the infancy era of cinema. It's the first sci-fi film ever ‒ one small step for sci-fi, but a giant leap for cinema. And chock-full of amazing (at that early stage of "moving pics") visual tricks.

TRIGGER WARNING! UNSAFE SPACE! SEXISM!
Méliès' opus is as sweetly sexist as most of the Western 20th century was : Comradettes providing charms and taking care of secondary operations, while bearded Comrades do the heavy-duty shovelling, manly goof-ups included.
And all that environmentally catastrophic (around 3:45)!

But this scene - from the Palace of The Lunar Empire, no less - should comfort any true Comrade :

I thought it was a quite exciting film. I loved how they just donned some waistcoats, hats and umbrellas and headed off to the moon. The spear carrying exploding moon guards almost made me drop my popcorn and drink. I thought we were going to see the explorers heads on the end of them but alas they battled them valiantly with their umbrellas! I give it 5 stars for the year it was made.

Comrades,

In my official capacity as TPC Film & Theater Critic I certify the authenticity of this film.