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The Jaunt by Stephen King Short Story Analysis
“The Jaunt” is a science fiction short story by American author Stephen King. Even by King’s standards, this narrative is famous for its shocking ending.
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How To Write Like Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury was an influential American science fiction author born in 1920. He died in 2012.
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Melancholia Film Study
Melancholia is a 2011 film by Lars Von Triers. It’s one of those stories which has variable metaphorical resonance depending on who watches it. The Wizard of Oz and The Little Prince are also like this.
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All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury Short Story Analysis
All Summer in a Day is a short story by American writer Ray Bradbury, first published in 1954. Find it in Ray Bradbury Stories Vol. 1. It’s interesting to see how science fiction evolves alongside our increased understanding of other planets. “All Summer In A Day” is a story of its time, written in an […]
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How to become invisible
For this one you must go to Iceland. Once in Iceland, get your hands on a magical text full of spells and suchlike, a.k.a. Icelandic grimoires. But to save you the trouble, refer to the recipe below.
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When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead Novel Study
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead is ten years old now, published 2009. I’ve seen this middle grade novel described as magical realism, though for knotty political reasons we might prefer to call it fabulism. It is also science fiction and grounded in the real world. It packs a lot into 40k words. There […]
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The Electric Grandmother and Resonant Imagery
The Electric Grandmother is basically a Twilight Zone episode for kids. The teleplay (and a short story adaptation of “I Sing The Body Electric”) was written by Ray Bradbury, and was later remade by the Disney Channel as a full-length Made for TV movie called “The Electric Grandmother”. TV Tropes The Twilight Zone for a contemporary […]
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The Last Question by Isaac Asimov
“The Last Question” by Isaac Asimov is a science fiction short story first published in 1956. The ideas are even more relevant today than they were back in the 1950s. Isaac Asimov was an ideas man. I generally find his work hard to read because I read for character first. Asimov worked the other way […]
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The Iron Giant Storytelling Technique
The Iron Giant is a 1968 science fiction middle grade novel by Ted Hughes, adapted for film in 1999 by Tim McCanlies and Brad Bird. Brad Bird later wrote the screenplays for The Incredibles and Ratatouille. Tim McCanlies has worked on Denis the Menace, among many other things. SETTING OF THE IRON GIANT PLACE Rockwell […]
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Black Mirror Season Four Storytelling Takeaways
Black Mirror is a science fiction anthology series exploring a twisted, high-tech world where humanity’s greatest innovations and darkest instincts collide. Each story says something about our relationship to technology and how technology affects our relationships with others. SEASON FOUR: USS CALLISTER LOG LINE: A virtual woman wakes up on a Star Trek-esque ship where the […]
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The Snowman Cometh Courage The Cowardly Dog
In The Snowman Cometh episode of Courage is interesting for the way in which the writers comically represent a part of science which is difficult to understand and even harder to portray on screen. SETTING Most of the Courage episodes are set in the Bagge family home in the middle of Nowhere but by this […]
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The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Time travel! Romance! Japan! If you love the films out of Studio Ghibli you’ll love The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, too. ARC PHRASE An arc word/phrase is also known as a ‘leitwort’, which literally means ‘lead word’. In order to be an arc phrase and not just a catch phrase the phrase must help […]
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Gravity (2013) Film Study
Gravity is a science fiction film from 2013, with a strong mythological, Christian influence.
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The Influence of Edith Nesbit
A handful of children’s authors of the late nineteeth to early twentieth centuries were experiementing with innovative forms of story with radical content: Oscar Wilde, P.L. Travers, J.M. Barrie, Astrid Lindgren, John Masefield and E. Nesbit. These storytellers were pushing the boundaries of what people considered acceptable for children, and we have them partly to […]