1. A few quick thoughts on Planet of the Apes, the Statue of Liberty, Percy Bysshe Shelley & the ruins of futurity.
-
-
3. That scene has a pre-history. Almost as soon as Statue of Liberty was erected in 1886, people began imagining it as a ruin.
Show this thread -
4. John Ames Mitchell's novel The Last American (1889: 3 years after Statue of Liberty built) about Persians in 2951 CE who visit ruined USA
Show this thread -
5. One of the first sights the 30th century Persians see in post-apocalyptic USA is Statue of Libertypic.twitter.com/gnNGfYU7az
Show this thread -
6. As
@john_clute has traced out, visions of a Statue of Liberty as a misunderstood ruin show in other SF novels before Planet of the Apes.Show this thread -
7. Reason for recurring image is science fiction was product not only of industrial age but also discovery of deep history by archeology.
Show this thread -
8. In late 18th and early 19th century, archeology created a new sense of past as a living presence in the form of ruins: a littered past.
Show this thread -
9. Percy Shelley was among the poets most influenced by new awareness of the past as ruins: "Ozymandias" https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46565/ozymandias …
Show this thread -
10. It's no accident that the ruin-loving Shelley was married to first real science fiction writer: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Show this thread -
11. Science fiction is an attempt to apply historical thinking to the future: to imagine a future as different as the past.
Show this thread -
12. One powerful trope in science fiction is the ruins of futurity: imaging contemporary monuments turning into Ozymandias' statue.
Show this thread -
13. There's a second aspect to the ruins of futurity, which is that the destruction of monuments is secretly thrilling.
Show this thread -
14. Think of the countless science fiction movies where the Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower, White House, Taj Mahal, Pyramids are destroyed.
Show this thread -
15. In 1927, the Russian fantasist Sigismund Krzyzanowski imagined the Eiffel Tower coming to life.pic.twitter.com/8kssuCMfqH
Show this thread -
16. Krzyzanowski's fantasy is rooted in the fear monuments can provoke. They loom over us, burden us, belittle us. We want to destroy them
Show this thread -
17. Here's a 1953 cover for Fantastic Universe which might have influenced the Planet of the Apes final scene.pic.twitter.com/hqtTEvWTDQ
Show this thread -
18. And here's the same artist (Alex Schomberg) riffing on theme in 1964 (four years before Planet of the Apes).pic.twitter.com/8KPAX6l6oi
Show this thread -
19. I'll just end with the great Jack Kirby riffing on this them, post-Planet of the Apes, in Kamandipic.twitter.com/Ss7sSsxaMB
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.