I think Attack of the Clones is a total misnomer anyway, because for that particular movie, at least, the clones are the "good guys," that is, they're fighting on the same side as the protagonists. I mean, yeah, it gives you a hint of what's to come, but as it refers to a plotline that doesn't come into fulfillment until the next movie, it seems a little pointless. We may already know what's going to happen, but George, you could try to leave it a little bit up in the air, at least, for the sake of the people who've been born in the interim between this movie and the first trilogy, and haven't seen the original as of yet.
It wouldn't have been my first choice as a title, in any case.
When I was a teenager, I was obsessed with the idea of clones. It's an idea that's kind of gone by the wayside, in my brain if nowhere else--at least, I don't find it nearly as fascinating as I used to, possibly because since I was a teenager, cloning has become science fact rather than science fiction--even if it's a science that has yet to become practical. Somehow, fact isn't as interesting to me; it was more arresting when it was an idea "in potentia" rather than a real possibility.
If science fiction has one flaw, it's that: becoming science fact. Because nothing bursts the balloon of wonder like actually being able to DO the stuff in real life. Sure, we haven't cloned a human yet, but the technology is there now, there's no question that we CAN (how successful it'll be is another story).
That's why all those old school SF stories about colonizing Mars and Venus before we knew what those planets were like really fall by the wayside for the modern reader, because the modern reader knows what those planets are like, you know?
The cool thing about this book is that it's not about cloning. It just happens that the characters who make the book happen are clones. :)
The one book I don't think loses anything by being behind the times, so to speak, is War of the Worlds. Despite the fact that we now know Mars to be lifeless, that book still scares the crap out of me, no matter how many times I read it. It's got to be my favorite science fiction story of all time.
I think that's the way to write clones nowadays--incidental to the plot, not intrinsic, if that makes any sense.
It wouldn't have been my first choice as a title, in any case.
When I was a teenager, I was obsessed with the idea of clones. It's an idea that's kind of gone by the wayside, in my brain if nowhere else--at least, I don't find it nearly as fascinating as I used to, possibly because since I was a teenager, cloning has become science fact rather than science fiction--even if it's a science that has yet to become practical. Somehow, fact isn't as interesting to me; it was more arresting when it was an idea "in potentia" rather than a real possibility.
Reply
That's why all those old school SF stories about colonizing Mars and Venus before we knew what those planets were like really fall by the wayside for the modern reader, because the modern reader knows what those planets are like, you know?
The cool thing about this book is that it's not about cloning. It just happens that the characters who make the book happen are clones. :)
Reply
I think that's the way to write clones nowadays--incidental to the plot, not intrinsic, if that makes any sense.
Reply
Leave a comment