The watercooler: a place to chat

[punkarsenic]

ill start: im really excited to see thor ragnarok. taika waititi is like my favourite director ever, and it looks so... colourful. im really worried i wont have time to see it though, the list of movies i need to see is sooooooooooo long D: (i never even went to see moana)

[DeformedSunflower]

Haha, I know, right? XD
Sometimes a TV show or book (or anything else) just seems so interesting, but when you look at the amount of time you have to spend watching/reading it...Nah, screw that.

(P.S. I never watch Harry Potter because of this)

[punkarsenic]

right!!!!!!!! why are movies so long!!!!!!!!! why are books so long!!! just download the story straight into my brain thank you.

honestly youre not missing much not watching hp. the entire hp universe is enchanting for a while, but i think most people get really bored of it

[DeformedSunflower]

Yeah, we really need something like that. Scientists, go make something useful like this for once.

[punkarsenic]

yeah, stop all that mars baloney and finding cures for things nonsense, this is the REAL deal. (im kidding ofc, the real answer is science find me more time to watch movies)

[sarrowsmith10]

Yeah, we really need something like that. Scientists, go make something useful like this for once.

This sort of reminds me of a side topic. (Not really a response to your question sorry) Why is it in all the movies and comics, scientists are always the bad guys? Science projects gone wrong and the world suffers for it. (Ironman plays science boy and creates Ultron, Doc Oc goes evil uses science to terrorize world, scientists make virus causing zombies in I am Legend, etc.) I'm a manager in a lab, and every single scientist I work with is trying to save the world not destroy it. No wonder no one trusts scientists on a national scale in the US. siggghhhh

That is all. ;p

[punkarsenic]

Why is it in all the movies and comics, scientists are always the bad guys?

my dads answer is bc action movies are made by americans, and americans are scared of intelligence. not sure if hes right there... but maybe the scientist is the new witch (like how ppl say magic is just science you havent explained yet or smth.) they can do things and understand things the layman cant, and thats bloody scary.

or maybe jocks just have too much power in hollywood, and now theres no lockers to shove nerds into, they must shove them into antagonist roles instead. terrible.

[joe_galindez]

@punkarsenic I usually wait a year to see a movie, so right now I'm looking forward to watching Moana with the kids.

Yeah, we really need something like that. Scientists, go make something useful like this for once.

A hypnotist could implant false memories for ya.

Why is it in all the movies and comics, scientists are always the bad guys?

A bunch of reasons, but one is that it distracts from the group that's contributing the greatest number of real-life villains. That would be corporate executives.

[Agent1Alaska]

I think scientists are always the bad guys because people fear change, whether consciously or subconsciously. Scientists and others developing tech will inevitability change the world in some way, which can scare people who like life the way it is, especially now that things are changing rather quickly. The entertainment industry is making innovators antagonists, or catalysts for major issues, to capitalise on people's fears so their shows/movies/games are more relatable.

[NanettesClouds]

but maybe the scientist is the new witch

gosh damn. I need to think about that for a hot second.

EDIT: I feel bad about not really saying anything. Isn't there a really long history of scientists and inventors fucking things up in media? Like, I'm thinking iccarus and old greek ideas about hubris. I'm not well enough versed in that sort of stuff to say anything definitively but it seems to me like it might be a much older trope than movies & american action flicks.

[sarrowsmith10]

Isn't there a really long history of scientists and inventors fucking things up in media?

Recently? I can't really think of anything... most of the news is good- just take a gander through my workplace's newsreel and its nothing but good things. https://biodesign.asu.edu/news/releases Microscopes that work with cellphones, vaccine for Zika virus, proteins that can conduct electricity, chemical fuel cells fueled by poop, etc. Maybe its because I spend the vast amount of my time in the thick of science and development that I just don't see bad press? Even the science march protest against Trump shutting down the EPA came across as pretty positive, no?

Examples of bad press?

[NanettesClouds]

Ahh sorry there was a misunderstanding, I meant "media" in the broad "entertainment" media sense of the word not "news media" I think in reality science tends to be super chil, but the trope in entertainment has been arround for a reallllly long time I presume. Sorry for the confusion, science is rad spins ballcap backwards and puts on sunglasses

[LordVincent]

Well I do believe on one hand it's a matter of typical american culture "fearing intelligence", or to some extent the way american religiosity is at war with science. However the thing is, the "science gone bad" trope appears in other countries too, including europe. Hell even here in sweden. Religious people in sweden usually put full trust in science, and we're a generally science-positive country.

The side I think is being forgotten here is not the fear of science, but rather the fear of what humanity's curiosity might bring them. A curiosity killed the cat kind of thing.

I pose this to you:
Science gave us the atomic bomb.
Science gave us the vehicles that are slowly killing the nature we depend on.
Science gave us tools with which we can more effectively oppress each other.
Science has been used to oppress minorities.

People have a lot of curiosity about what science can bring us, but also a lot of fear. For good reason. Science is an amazing tool in the right hands, and a deadly weapon in the wrong hands. This is probably why story creators are so fascinated by the idea.

[hotsubsandwich]

I’m not a fan of the Thor movies but I am a fan of Marvel in general so I obviously went to go see it despite that. AND IT IS THE BEST.
It was actually really funny, and had an energy that is consistently in Marvel movies that I thought the previous Thor movies lacked.

[XzynderVexymous]

Okay cool. I think stories with Si-Fi and other genres have the ability to be called a “Slice of Life”, if they’re relatable. The daily struggles of life can be displayed in “special” ways. Who agrees and disagrees?

[MinNCompany]

@Vexymous Sure! For the Tapas 30 Day Challenge I wrote a story about a misfit family of several superheroes that shared a house and their individual struggles. There were twins that suffered extreme pain if physically separated too far from each other, a guy that could read minds but only through lip contact, and a non-superhuman single mother with two young daughters, both with telekinesis (which is seen as taboo in that world). Also there's a robot companion because one of the daughters has selective mutism. There's a lot more to it but yeah, gimme that sci-fi/slice of life! I'm down for more of that.

[joannekwan]

Totally agree! My slice of life is technically a low fantasy too, but since it focuses on the life of the main character during the course of a school year I put it under slice of life as the main genre.

[Demy]

Well...why not I suppose.

I guess later on I'm gonna start doing a practice webcomic just to see how I can manage it. Probably within...1 or 2 months.

[punkarsenic]

yeahh, the best testimony ive heard abt ragnarok is that it stops shying away from the comics thor - which is like, some of the most ridiculous lore in the entire marvel universe. all that brooding thor and seriousness, and all that 'magic is really science take us serioussllyyyyyyyy' really let em down. snice that waititi was able to undo all that and give us some damn fun

[JediM]

I think you can have a sci-fi slice of life, but it should be more about the setting and how it affects the main character. The point of sci-fi is to speculate after-all.

As for fantasy, it is much easier because most fantasy worlds are kind of already looking backwards so it's not a stretch of the imagination to use them for slice-of-life using fantastic elements as metaphores. Or speculate like in sci-fi using magic instead.