Welcome!
This is a site dedicated to the Fantastic - literature, cinema, visual arts, and science or weird facts that may inspire it. It relates mainly to the Scientific Fantastic, that is Science Fiction, although it will occasionally touch on certain aspects of the Supernatural. The subject is so large, however, that only a database might strive to cover it all. This is not my intention.
Explanation: The Fantastic I am referring to comes in fact from the French notion of "fantastique", denoting the literary and cinematic genre that encompasses science fiction, horror, maybe some fantasy (but not quite the Anglophone kind). Books have been written on the subject and many have tried to find a universal definition of the Fantastic. I will try to show mine through the works I'll be reviewing.
This is a place of personal opinions. I intend to write about everything that fills my mind with a sense of wonder, either stars or stories, and to convey to you at least a sparkle of what thrills me. With a little luck, it will touch you too...
There are two moments that I strongly link to my love for science fiction.
One is reading Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth" when I was about ten years old. If you read it around the same age, you must know what I mean.
I felt the weight of geological times as I followed the lead of Professor Lidenbrock into the depths of the Earth, I walked in the humid coldness of the giant mushrooms, I navigated the primordial sea, and heard the sound of crushed prehistoric bones under my feet. It was exhilarating. It hooked me up forever.
Needless to say, I made a document on thick parchment paper, wrote an encrypted message in my own "runes", made it look older by carefully burning its edges, buried it in the garden, "discovered" it later, deciphered it, and so on. I started imagining a similar expedition, into such particular details as consulting geographical maps of the world, making lists of inactive volcanoes, planning trips to Iceland, etc., etc. I became intensely interested in geology and paleontology. I still am...
The second is an image, a photograph imprinted by my eyes into my mind. A distant seaside, the fog, the Sun seen through this thick screen of fog and clouds. Weak, mysterious. The sound of mostly invisible waves, the deep fragrance of the sea. A sea of the beginning or the end of a world. I forever call it a Science Fiction Sun.
Finally, for many years I had had a recurring dream. I would dream about a book, quite old, thick, worn, dusty, with huge power over the one who would open it. What kind of power, I don't know, something overwhelming, unfathomable, absolute. And everytime I was close, almost about to open it, the dream would end abruptly. Later, I read "Dracula" by Bram Stoker. I told myself that that was The Book. That is my Fantastic.
Living in your head could be just as exciting - even more, I dare say - as a life filled with thrilling events. How many of us can live such a life? And if it is indeed so thrilling, is it really full or is it centered around one such event?
What is Reality? Plato's cave?
In your real life you only live once, but in your imagination you could live inumerable lives, visit any conceivable world, be anyone, do anything, and, of course, mistakes, even death, mean nothing, for you just start all over again.
Let's start all over again...
