BC CULTURE
Saved by @jay_millerjay

Pierre Boulle was born today in 1912, so what better time to look back at his sociological science-fiction classic that paved the way for Star Wars and the MCU.

This is the story of Planet Of The Apes!

 Pierre Boulle is probably best known for his 1952 novel Bridge On The River Kwai, based on his wartime experiences in Indochina. So it was possibly a surprise when 11 years later he authored a science fiction novel.
However Boulle had been a Free French secret agent during the war. He was captured in 1943 by Vichy forces in Vietnam and sentenced to hard labour. This experience of capture would shape his novel La Planète Des Singes.
Published in 1963 La Planète Des Singes recieved good reviews. An English translation - entitled Monkey Planet - was issued the following year. It was a story that seemed to strike a chord with readers.
In the novel two rich travellers find a manuscript written by journalist Ulysse Mérou. It tells a fantastical tale: how he travelled with two wealthy explorers to Betelgeuse. They land on the planet Soror, a world of primitive humans ruled by advanced civilised apes.
Zira, a chimpanzee scientist, discovers Mérou can speak; he is given his freedom and eventually has a child with Nova, another captured human. Zira's partner Cornelius also learns how humans once used tame apes as servants, before they overthrew their lazy masters.
Mérou and his family eventually escape back to Earth in a rocket ship, but time-dilation means several centuries have passed there, and now the Earth too is ruled by apes.

The travellers chuckle at this tale: as civilised chimps they know no brute human could become so advanced.
Arthur Jacobs optioned the movie rights and got 20th Century Fox to stump up the cash. Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling wrote the initial movie script, though it was deemed too costly to produce. Blake Edwards came up with the famous ending, though in the end he didn't direct.
Test screenings were needed to convince Fox to make the film. Charlton Heston appeared as Thomas (later renamed Taylor) and Edward G Robinson as Dr Zaius. Due to the long sessions needed in make-up Robinson eventually declined his role and Maurice Evans took his place.
Kim Hunter and Roddy McDowall were cast as scientific chimps Zira and Cornelius, with Linda Harrison taking the role of Nova after Raquel Welch and Ursula Andress declined it. Shooting began in May 1967 and location work was done in the canyons of the Colorado river.
John Chambers did the Oscar-winning prosthetics for Planet Of The Apes, aided by almost 100 make-up artists. Chambers also made Mr Spock's ears and later fronted up the 'Argo' production company involved in the 1980 Tehran rescue operation.
Amazingly at lunch breaks the Planet Of The Apes actors segregated themselves by 'species' - humans, chimps, orangutans and gorillas - and sat only with their own group. It was an unintentional thing, but a strong signal that the movie was touching on some very important themes.
Jerry Goldsmith's score for Planet Of The Apes was ground-breaking, mixing a traditional orchestra with an electric harp and clarinet, Tibetan horn, conch shell and stainless steel mixing bowls. It made the movie sound - as well as look - like nothing audiences had seen before.
Planet Of The Apes was released on 8 February 1968 and 20th Century Fox used various PR tricks to promote it, including a spoof newspaper. Critical reaction was hugely positive. For a dystopian film it caught the mood of 1968: Vietnam, the Cold War and the counterculture.
Planet Of The Apes would have four sequels plus a TV spin-off series, as well as a reboot movie series beginning in 2001.

But for me it's legacy was something else...
The success of Planet Of The Apes opened the door for more challenging and gritty science fiction movies: the Omega Man and Soylent Green wouldn't have been made without its success.
It also wrote the rule book of the modern movie franchise: a catchy idea, a cinematic universe and a range of toys. Star Wars would capitalise on all of this in 1977.
In the end the star of the film is the idea: what is 'civilization' and why must it involve slavery and suffering for others? Pierre Boulle experienced both during his life, which is perhaps why his novel stands the test of time so well.

More stories another day...

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Would you like to live in a UFO? Well in 1968 you could, thanks to Finnish architect Matti Suuronen. He created the Futuro House and for a while it was a worldwide sensation!

Let's take a look around...


The Futuro was a round prefabricated house initially designed as a ski chalet. Quick to build and easy to heat it reflected the optimism of the times.


Inside the spacious Futuro were all the 1960s mod cons: a central cooker/heater, reclining chairs, funky furniture and cool, crisp lines. Did it have shagpile carpets? Of course it did!


The Futuro was made of fibreglass- reinforced polyester and was light enough to be towed to any location. You literally moved house.


But its futuristic design caused an immediate backlash: Futuro houses were banned from many municipalities by zoning regulations because they didn't 'blend in' with the environment. Production was halted in the mid 1970s.
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I'm just gonna say it: life on CB radio was much more glamorous than life on social media. We had owls and satin gowns, pot plants and martini rosso.

Just. Fact.


So hip it Hertz...


All CB conversations were like this.

All. Of. Them.
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As it's #AppreciateADragonDay let's do some classic covers from Dragon magazine!


Tony DiTerlizzi's cover art for Dragon magazine #242, December 1997.


Dragon magazine issue 106, February 1986. Cover by Keith Parkinson.


Dragon Magazine #71, March 1983. Cover by Clyde Caldwell.


Dragon magazine issue 65, September 1982. Cover by Clyde Caldwell.
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Now many readers have asked me over the years "how do I (with my great hair) go about fleeing a gothic house?"

That's a very good question, because it's not as easy as it seems...


There are of course many gothic domiciles that women with great hair can flee from:
- a house
- a mansion
- a castle
- a chateau


More adventurous gothic heroines can also choose to flee:
- a manor
- a keep
- a graveyard
- some dark foggy towers


As gothic houses come in all shapes and sizes you may come across the following things which require fleeing:
- Strangers (call a taxi)
- Tombs (walk to the nearest exit)
- Hell (fleeing recommended)
- Darkest Death (head start required)


There are some items that are a clear giveaway that you are in, or near, a gothic house that requires fleeing. Look around you and see if you can spot:
- sarcophagi
- crucibles (unless in a chemistry lab)
- anemones
- any form of ides
CULTURE
Pulp Librarian
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Time once again for my occasional series "Women with great hair fleeing gothic houses!"

And today all the covers are by Walter Popp...


Crucible of Evil, by Lyda Belknap Long. Avon Gothic Original, 1974. Cover art by Walter Popp.


Hornet's Nest, by Evelyn Bond. Avon Gothic Original, 1972 Cover by Walter Popp.


The House In Munich, by Dorothy Dowdell. Avon, 1974. Art by Walter Popp.


The Secret Of Chateau Laval, by Susan Marvin. Avon Gothic, 1973. Art by Walter Popp.
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and when jm approaches jk with a walk resembling the grace of an elegant snake, jk feels immediately bewitched by him, watching him come closer with his breath stuck in his throat, unable to move, the weapon in his hand slowly sliding out of his grip when jm pushes him down

by his shoulders to make him sit down on the couch behind him.
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jk gasps as he straddles him instead, the man raising one hand to graze a finger over jk's sensitve neck, making jk shiver in surprise. jk wonders if the soft touch was only an illusion, because the seductive expression falls from the man's face from one second to the other,

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So I was talking to @gewt about Job: A Comedy of Justice and I came up with a theory that I think explains why Heinlein's late-period work is so kinda-terrible and why I still enjoy it so much


So Heinlein had always been very interesting in the short parts of his novels, like the little snippets inside chapters. He had a very fun writing style, and wrote some fun dialogue with fun characters, right?>
It probably comes from how much of his early stuff was short fiction

And I think what happened with a lot of his longer works is that he'd just start writing fun bits and hope it would end up going somewhere or having a bigger plot by the end. like eventually he'd figure out where this was going, then go back and rewrite it into a cohesive whole

and I'm sure he had editors that'd help this process. No editor would let you publish something as rambly and changing-gears-every-other-chapter as The Number Of The Beast, for example... unless you were God-King Of Science Fiction 1980s Robert Heinlein.

so basically I think what happened is that by the 80s (when he was in his seventies!!) he lost the drive to go back and rewrite and he was too Untouchable for editors to make him.
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\U0001f499 \u2139\ufe0f Not The Torygraph \U0001f499 #SaveOurNHS
💙 ℹ️ Not The Torygraph...
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. THREAD 1/x

David Baddiel is getting lots of coverage and feedback on his book which again focuses on so called 'left wing' antisemitism.

I will start by saying that I have seen antisemitic comments made by Labour members and some genuine cases.

However, I have huge concerns.


2/x

Let's look in detail at this article written in April 2019 in the @Guardian - and I will explain the concerns.

The areas highlighted guide you to believe this was all Labour - IT WASN'T.

It also occurred before 2015! Detail follows...

https://t.co/cK59FP83aG


3/x

So as you see the writer of this rather deceitful piece starts with

"THAT CHANGED IN SEPTEMBER 2015" 🙄

This was done to point the timeframe as Corbyn's leadership. Yet the article goes on to describe things that are not even related to Labour, which occurred in 2014.


4/x

So... What in fact the @Guardian writer is discussing here is this case - where a group of Neo-Nazi's spent months inflicting abuse on Jewish MP Luciana Berger

All the detail is in the Court Notes when Bonehill-Paine was sentenced by the judge.

https://t.co/wAyo6Yro5Q


5/x

The Justice sentencing remarks to Neo-Nazi explain the previous cases too. See the date 2014.

Yet the Guardian writer refers to this NON LABOUR case to effectively make her article a lie.

"Star of David" - this was Garron Helm another neo-Nazi..
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Lessons I learned from "Rich Dad, Poor Dad"

~ Thread ~

1. Put your money to work

You cannot get rich with your money in savings account,

Invest it in appreciating assets.

2. Amount of money retained matters

It is not the amount of money you make,

It's the amount of money you keep that matters.

3. Acquire assets

Rich people acquire assets while poor accumulates liabilities,

Your choices will determine your fate.

4. You are not born to work for others for lifetime

Most people consider this slavery as their life,

Completely forgetting the life possible beyond that.
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