Beware The Monkey

For even more Monkey I've started writing for pop culture site Beware The Spaceman. It's not a paid gig but the site has a much bigger reach than my little corner of the internets so I'm happy to get some face time up there. They're really enthusiastic and supportive so that's pretty cool.

My first piece for them is called "Real or Recall" and, in honour of the recent remake of Total Recall takes a retrospective of the relationship between Philip K Dick and the world of cinema. All the favourites are referenced: Blade Runner, Minority Report and The Adjustment Bureau but I also detour into the lesser known adaptations like Screamers.

When I started looking at the article I didn't actually realise the number of SF cinema tropes that could be connected back to PKD. I mention a few of the films that show the clear influences but there are loads that I Just couldn't fit in but almost every SF film since Blade Runner shows at least some preoccupation with the themes that Dick liked to explore.

One of the big things that I made passing reference to was how similar the themes of Cronenberg's movies were, I'm not sure if that was conscious on Cronenberg's part or not. eXistenZ is the one that shows the clearest connections but the adaptation of Naked Lunch, Videodrome and even The Fly all share the same themes.

Interesting stuff, I think you'll agree.