Author: parallelaesthetics

After The Sun: Book Review

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I found myself browsing copies of After The Sun every time I visited my local Waterstones. Eventually, I gave in and bought a copy. I should have done so sooner.
After The Sun is the second book by Jonas Eika and the first to be translated into English. It contains five short stories (the final story being a sequel to one of its predocessors).
Each story reads like a vivid dream about cryptic relationships, hypnotic addictions, and psychic callings taking place in various backdrops. The streets of Copenhagen, the bleak corners of London, and the beaches of Mexico all become roads to twisted underworlds.
Dark and intimate, the writings of Jonas Eika occupy a strange and uncharted space between the works of J.G. Ballard and Bret Easton Ellis. 
Eika is a writer still at the beginning of his literary career. He has already gained critical acclaim and won the Nordic Council Literature Prize. I’m interested to see where this promising writer will go from here. 

Deep Astronomy and The Romantic Sciences (2023): Film Review

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A while ago I positively reviewed The American Astronaut directed by Cory McAbee.
The other day I watched Deep Astronomy and The Romantic Sciences a new film made by Cory McAbee in collaboration with the art collectives Small Star Corporation and Captain Ahab’s Motorcycle Club.

The film starts out with a man named Rudy drinking in a bar with his friends when he spots a robot in disguise as a human drinking from an empty glass. The robot tells Rudy that in a few days time she will be shot into space as humanities representation to the stars.
What follows is a collection of presentations, musical numbers, animations and tongue in cheek philosophical monologues that make up a narrative explaining why the robot is being sent to space.

The film is undoubtedly eccentric. Its unusual structure and fusion of mediums work surprisingly well.
Deep Astronomy and the The Romantic Sciences is a science fiction film based primarily around ideas. Creative in its concept but simplistic in its presentation it was shot primarily in a bar and a few dozen lecture halls.

Entertaining, humorous and perhaps even a little educational, I enjoyed Deep Astronomy and the The Romantic Sciences. I’d recommend watching it and since the film makers have uploaded it to their website where you can watch it for free and with a run time of one hour eleven minutes you’ve no excuse not to.