Posted on 04/19/2023 1:52:43 PM PDT by Rummyfan
Why Soylent Green was more prophetic than it seems
ITEM: Insects are an ideal source of protein for denizens of a world facing climate change and a growing population.
ITEM: The rise of government-assisted euthanasia produces a new source of organ donations.
ITEM: A new startup that specializes in composting people seeks to raise $5 million in its latest funding round.
Scenes from a 1970s dystopian science fiction film? Nah, just typical headlines from the past year. How apropos, then, that it should be the fiftieth anniversary year of one of that subgenre’s most iconic films, Soylent Green. And, while we’re counting anniversaries, we’ve just passed the year in which that story was set, 2022.
But, to paraphrase the film’s central mystery, what is Soylent Green? It is many things: dystopian science fiction, kitsch, excellent meme-fodder, a showcase for Charlton Heston (who is simultaneously a genuine charismatic and one of cinema’s great hams), and more. It came out of that fertile late-1960s and early-1970s period of imaginative fiction, in which the gee-whiz optimism of the early postwar era gave way to increasing pessimism and even nihilism, and cosmic anxieties became metaphors for social ones, and vice versa.
(Excerpt) Read more at thenewatlantis.com ...
(the year in which that story was set, 2022)
Been too long. Didn’t remember that.
Wow
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