intellects vast, cool, and unsympathetic
One of my undergrad friends had the best Halloween tradition. Every year around Halloween, she would get her friends together and listen to the 1939 Orson Wells "War of the Worlds" broadcast. Even after 70 years, that radio play still has power. I listened to it last night, just by myself. I wouldn't say I was scared, but I was enthralled. The plot moves too quickly to be really believable, but the voices of the characters are so immediate that I really cared about them and their world. The broadcast really hits all the right horror buttons as the suspense builds and all the heroes' options are tried and eliminated. At the end, Orson Welles makes his disclaimer/apology. It is both hilarious and touching as he compares the broadcast to a Halloween prank and apologizes for destroying the world and CBS. The whole broadcast is just a perfect piece of entertainment. I would recommend it to anyone.
Above all, listening to it again reminded me of how awesome radio dramas can be, especially now that we are all used to films and television. The difference is quick shocking. Listening to radio dramas requires a different set of brain muscles because the medium of the narrative to so very different from the visual media of today. You have to pay attention and visualize to get the most out of it. If your mind wanders, you'll lose the details that make the story real. You can't talk about the story as it is happening; there aren't any conversation opportunities during establishing landscape shots. You have to listen to every second. To communicate with your friends, you start relying on facial expressions and hand-grabbing.
AND it turns out that a bunch of Star Trek actors did a version of War of the Worlds. I must look into this further, because I think it could be made of awesome.
Above all, listening to it again reminded me of how awesome radio dramas can be, especially now that we are all used to films and television. The difference is quick shocking. Listening to radio dramas requires a different set of brain muscles because the medium of the narrative to so very different from the visual media of today. You have to pay attention and visualize to get the most out of it. If your mind wanders, you'll lose the details that make the story real. You can't talk about the story as it is happening; there aren't any conversation opportunities during establishing landscape shots. You have to listen to every second. To communicate with your friends, you start relying on facial expressions and hand-grabbing.
AND it turns out that a bunch of Star Trek actors did a version of War of the Worlds. I must look into this further, because I think it could be made of awesome.