In the past I’ve connected aspects of the fantastic to popular culture and current events. With this post I do so again, first in serious fashion, and second with tongue in cheek.
In a recent post I asked readers to consider America’s continuing struggles with the legacy of racism through reflection on Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. With this post I direct readers to the comments of the late, great Vincent Price on racism and religious prejudice. His words are as important for us today as when he uttered them years ago:
And on a lighter note, a while back President Obama took some heat from animal rights groups over the swatting of a fly during a television interview. New footage has become available on this incident:
In September 2006 Baylor University released a survey which mentioned that a “surprising level” of belief in the paranormal by Americans. ReligionLink commented on this and said that, “According to a 2005 askyourguide Poll, about 75 percent of Americans hold some form of belief in the paranormal – extrasensory perception, ghosts, telepathy, clairvoyance, astrology, communicating with the dead, witches, reincarnation or channeling.”
This interest in the paranormal has been a part of popular culture for quite some time, and therefore it is not surprising to see it expressed in a variety of ways, including television programming. One of the first came on the heels of the surfacing interest in the paranormal as a result of the counterculture in the late 1960s, a time involving what scholars like Robert Elwood have described as one of “shifting religious imagination” and in which science fiction and fantasy became the stuff of new mythologies. The interest in the paranormal following the 1960s created the conditions through which a particular television show kicked off paranormal television that continues today. It was the documentary-style program, In Search Of…, that ran from 1976 to 1982, hosted by Leonard Nimoy. The series was the brainchild of Alan Landsburg who was also responsible for a 1973 television program narrated by Rod Serling titled In Search of Ancient Astronauts, which explored the controversial theories of Erich von Däniken. (This program was just one of many documentaries on the paranormal and UFOs hosted by Serling. Another example is UFOs: It Has Begun.) The success of In Search of Ancient Astronauts led to the development of In Search of… as a half-hour weekly television program that examined a number of phenomenon, such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, psychic activity, lost civilizations, and much more.
Although this program is probably largely forgotten by viewers other than those like myself with a sense of nostalgia, and perhaps also an interest in the paranormal and cryptozoology, In Search of… may be seen as the precursor which opened the way for similar programming over the ensuing decades and into today. One contemporary example that follows an In Search of… documentary-style template, is the History Channel’s Monster Quest. Narrated by Stacy Keach, as the title indicates, this program focuses on cryptozoology, and examines eyewitness reports of strange creatures around the world as described on the program’s website which includes a MonsterPedia.
Beyond this, much of the contemporary paranormal television offerings follow a “reality TV” style rather than the documentary. Examples of this kind of contemporary programming include the Travel Channel’s Most Haunted and Ghost Adventures, the Sci-Fi (now Syfy) Channel’s Ghost Hunters, and programs like the History Channel’s UFO Hunters.
The increasing embrace of technology and rationality that came with modernity may have made it more difficult to embrace traditional forms of religious belief, but it has not eradicated the human desire for mystery and transcendence. Paranormal television provides fodder for the imagination in this regard, and In Search of… helped pave the way for numerous television programs to follow.
I received a press release today from the Vampires News Network that I pass along here for readers.
Pasadena, Calif. August 6, 2009. Vampire Fest 2009 will take place in the beautiful city of New Orleans from October 23 – 26, 2009.
Filmmakers have heard our call, and Vampire Fest has already received submissions from the United States and around the world. Vampire Fest has a number of activities planned—feasts for the mind as well as the eyes—including a literary panel hosted by writer Gabrielle Faust and events around the Vieux Carré and the Garden District. The festival will screen an international slate of vampire and gothic features and shorts and include costume parties, fashion shows and performance artists.
Vampire Fest is proud to call its home New Orleans with its fabulous nightlife, Gothic architecture, international cuisine, voodoo history, beautiful necropolises, and the birthplace of jazz and Anne Rice.
Submissions Are Still OPEN
Vampire Fest is seeking narrative or experimental films of all lengths that emphasize the grotesque, mysterious or desolate. Since the legends of the werewolf and other supernatural creatures are interconnected with that of the vampire, Vampire Fest also accepts films of the Gothic, zombie, werewolf, witch or ghost genre.
Full schedule of events, details will be announced on our site in the coming weeks and ticket sales will begin by month’s end. Please visit our site at www.vampirefilmfestival.com or contact festival headquarters at (504) 298-VAMP. Get bitten at Vampire Fest in New Orleans!
I still remember staying up late on weeknights in my youth watching episodes of The Twilight Zone. I appreciated the interesting storylines and twist endings, but as a child, and later as a teenager, I was rarely able to appreciate the depth of the issues involved in many of the episodes as Rod Serling and other writers engaged in some of the best writing and social commentary on television. As an adult, repeated viewing of The Twilight Zone, both in the various holiday marathons on television, and in my growing personal collection on DVD, has helped me appreciate the program as not only solid entertainment, but also in providing commentary on pressing social issues of the past, of the time period when the program aired, and I believe in application to issues of the present day.
One of the episodes that recently appeared in a collection of “best of” for the series was “The Obsolete Man” which first aired on June 6, 1961. This episode was written by Serling, and his opening narration for the piece went like this:
“You walk into this room at your own risk, because it leads to the future, not a future that will be but one that might be. This is not a new world, it is simply an extension of what began in the old one. It has patterned itself after every dictator who has ever planted the ripping imprint of a booth on the pages of history since the beginning of time. It has refinements, technological advances, and a more sophisticated approach to the destruction of human freedom. But like every one of the superstates that preceded it, it has one iron rule: logic is an enemy and truth is a menace. . . . This is Mr. Romney Wordsworth, in his last forty-eight hours on Earth. He’s a citizen of the State but will soon have to be eliminated, because he’s built out of flesh and because he has a mind. Mr. Romney Wordsworth, who will draw his last breaths in the Twilight Zone.”
As this episode begins we find Wordsworth (played by Burgess Meredith) entering into a hall of judgment for the State. A long table sits before him, and at the end of the table is a tall podium where the judge for the State, the Chancellor (played by Fritz Weaver), announces the sentence of death upon Wordsworth and works out the details for the accused as to the manner of execution. Wordsworth is an enemy of the State who has lost his usefulness. As a result he has become obsolete. Yet he uses his final moments on earth through the means of execution to make the point to the State that the individual matters, as does freedom, and in so doing brings embarrassment upon the Chancellor. After Wordworth’s death the Chancellor returns to the same hall of judgment to resume his duties only to find that only to find that the State now finds him worthy of death. In the chilling final scene the Chancellor pleads for his life by arguing that he still serves a useful function to the State, only to find the government’s representatives chanting repeatedly, “Obsolete! Obsolete!” The episode concludes with Serling’s final narration:
“The Chancellor – the late Chancellor – was only partly correct. He was obsolete. But so was the State, the entity he worshipped. Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of man, that state is obsolete. A case to be filed under ‘M’ for mankind . . . in the Twilight Zone.
Airing as it did in the first decades following World War II, it is no surprise that The Twilight Zone included several episodes that critiqued the dangers of Nazism, fascism, and other forms of totalitarianism. As such Serling’s concern for government abuses of the past still serves as a valid critique for our reflection on history. But I would also suggest that this episode has much to say to us today about current issues as well.
Citizens of the United States are currently embroiled in a debate over reforming healthcare. If the Administration’s healthcare plan is implemented it will give the government control in one seventh of the country’s economy. This follows on the heels of the government’s bailout and resulting financial interest in large segments of the auto industry and banking industry. In response to a worldwide recession the government has grown larger and more powerful.
This growth and power is not only the result of the Obama Administration’s actions. For several presidential administrations over several decades, both Republican and Democrat, and despite promises to reduce government during Republican administrations, the government has grown, and with it has come greater power and finances in the hands of political leaders across party lines.
Perhaps Serling has something to say to us in the twenty-first century. As government grows more powerful and is poised to take control over a major aspect of the individual, in the name of reformation and cost savings will some members and segments of our society be declared obsolete? Regardless of the party affiliations of my readers, I hope we will pause to think through what our government is currently proposing, openly debate the issues involved, and that we will also take to heart Serling’s closing narration for this episode lest our State become obsolete in the quest for hope and change.
Last year I discovered accidentally that Halloween begins early at Michaels stores when I sensed the first hints of fall and this wonderful holiday in the air in late August. Today I was out and about on a Sunday afternoon and I thought I’d poke my head into Michaels even though I was sure that the first weekend of August was way too early for stores to carry Halloween merchandise. To my pleasant surprise Michaels has begun to carry their Halloween merchandise with a small collection that will grow over the next couple of months. But even now the Lemax Spooky Town collection can be found in the store in its entirety.
Little needs to be said for those familar with Spooky Town, which represents one of the highest search engine hits that bring readers to TheoFantastique. But for those who have not heard of it this is a special set of Halloween collectibles that began in 2001 and which is focused around various themes, including Gothic and classic horror, Egyptian mummies, pirates, and southwestern frights. Spooky Town includes large pieces with light, sound, and many times motion, as well as smaller table top pieces. For those interested in learning more about the background and history of Spooky Town see my interview with distributor Joe Davis, and my post on the 2009 product line.
I must say after standing in the Spooky Town aisle at Michaels with the various pieces creeking, groaning, and moving around me, I drooled with wide eyed wonder like a ten-year-old horror geek on Halloween night. Somehow Spooky Town manages to introduce new and interesting pieces each year, and 2009 is no exception. As in previous years, this year’s offerings include the Michaels exclusive pieces that include the House of Wax, Transylvania Transport, Flaming Skull Motorcycles, Morbid Manner, and the Spooky Town Express train. The new pieces will be a good addition to any collection as Spooky Town not only builds its imaginative collection, but also seems to provide greater attention to detail with each year’s additions.
The Spooky Town collection in my neighborhood Michaels is now selling at a twenty percent discount, but this won’t last long. I encourage collectors to visit Michaels early and often, and to add to their collection before they sell out by mid-October at the latest. As October approaches keep your eyes open for dramatic discounts as the store seeks to move its Halloween items in preparation for Christmas.
I’ll be seeing you at the Spooky Town aisle at Michaels as I feed this addiction for the next several months.
With another post inspired by a feature in Entertainment Weekly, indeed, back to back posts, readers may wonder about my magazine reading habits, or think that I am on the payroll for EW. Neither situation should be of concern, but it is interesting that the magazine has now featured aspects of horror in two consecutive issues. Issue #1059 from August 7, 2009 features a cover focus on vampires which includes responses to questions on the current crop of romantic vampire treatments by five female vampire fiction authors, including Stephenie Meyer, Melissa De La Cruz, Laurell K. Hamilton, Anne Rice, and P. C. Cast.
The feature also includes a listing of the “20 Greatest Vampires,” where, surprisingly given the largely female reading audience for EW, and that the vampire feature focuses on the romantic aspect of the contemporary upsurge in vampires, Christopher Lee comes in at number two, Bela Lugosi comes in at number three, and Keifer Sutherland from The Lost Boys comes in at number fourteen. Blade portrayed by Wesley Snipes also makes the list at number sixteen, as does Angel by David Boreanaz coming in at number seven. Many of the other picks are not surprising given the perspective of the magazine’s readers and focus, but the absence of Frank Langella’s 1972 portrayal of Dracula is given the strong romantic focus of the film. Noticeably absent from the list for vampire and horror fans in general are Chris Sarandon’s character Jerry Dandridge from Fright Night, an interesting film from the 1980s that includes elements of both romance and horror, the vampiric family from Near Dark, as well as 30 Days of Night.
In a sidebar that one would only see in an entertainment magazine is a chart titled “Vampire Hair: The Kindest Cuts.” Here other surprises await as Christopher Lee comes in at the “Scarily Good” end of the chart, followed closely by William Marshal from Blacula, and Sutherland’s David in third, and Gary Oldman in “Bram Stoker’s Dracula holding the final slot for “Scarily Bad.”
A recent copy of my wife’s ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY magazine for July 31, 2009 includes an article with information that I found surprising. The piece is titled “Horror Films…and the Women Who Love Them!” by Christine Spines.
I was not surprised to find an increasing presence of the feminine in horror, and that this has reshaped certain expressions of the genre. In a previous post I discussed how gender has shaped the vampire icon, but what I did find surprising was Spines’ claim that women are now the major viewers of horror films, which in turn is changing not only the way women are depicted in the genre, but also the types of horror films being produced. An excerpt from the article discusses this:
“I don’t think there was anyone who expected that women would gravitate toward a movie called The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” says Chainsaw producer Brad Fuller of the 2003 remake, which became a female-driven $81 million hit. “For us, the issue now is that it’s harder for us to get young men into the theater than women who are, like, 35 years old at horror movies and they’re like, ‘Oh, our husbands are with the kids and we all came out together,'” says Clint Culpepper, the president of Screen Gems, which is releasing a remake of the 1987 slasher film The Stepfather in October. “Men stop seeing horror at a certain age, but women continue to go on.”
Far be it from me to question these filmmakers since they conduct careful market research in order to determine the demographics of their audience, their viewing preferences, and how films can be tailored to meet audience desires. But in my experience most women don’t care for horror, and at present it tends to be teenage fare across gender lines, and a form that also appeals to men beyond “a certain age.” This article calls this into question and adds another cultural element into the mix for the evolution of horror films.
Personally I don’t care which gender produces and consumes horror so long as it is quality material that is offered. If the increasing involvement of women in horror results in silver screen scares like The Descent then I’m fine with it. It it shifts us increasingly toward the Twilight end of the spectrum then I hope the trend is short lived.
America seems doomed never to be able to move beyond its struggles with racism. Despite having elected an African-American president, and other great strides since the days of slavery and the Civil Rights era, charges of racism continue to haunt the country in pop culture. From Al Sharpton connecting race with Michael Jackson’s death, to Jessie Jackson making charges of racism with every possible national news story, to President Obama making the arrest of Professor Henry Gates a national issue through insinuations of police racial profiling in a prime time press conference, racism remains a heavy burden for the country.
One might wonder why charges of racism continue. Certainly we must acknowledge that racism exists in some quarters since it is impossible to erase racism among all of a population’s people. But it must also be acknowledged that the country has made great strides in moving beyond its racist past, exemplified most vividly with the election of Barack Obama, touted as the first post-racial president. Even so, it seems as if there are segments of the population that refuse to let strong charges of national racism go, going so far as to form something of a cottage industry with personalities like Sharpton and Jackson, and now perhaps with Gates as well. Again, why do such charges of racism continue despite how far we have come from the days of slavery and the civil rights struggles of the 1960s?
I’d like to suggest that science fiction might provide us with an insight. In a recent post I mentioned my appreciation for the Planet of the Apes series of films, particularly Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, for its social commentary in its hard-hitting attempt at grappling with racism through the depiction of ape slavery at the hands of human beings. At the climax of the film the apes revolt under the leadership of an intelligent, talking ape, self-named Caesar (played by Roddy McDowall). After the apes have subdued their former captors Caesar has an exchange with MacDonald (played by Hari Rhodes), a human government official and African-American. MacDonald is concerned about the violence associated with the revolt, and the apparent desires of Caesar to mete out lethal justice in the wake of his past oppression.
MacDonald:
Caesar, this is not how it was supposed to be.
Caesar:
In your view, or mine?
MacDonald:
Violence prolongs hate, hate prolongs violence. By what right are you spilling blood?!
Caesar:
By the slave’s right to punish his persecutors.
I think Caesar’s words in the final sentence from this dialogue excerpt are especially important, and possibly applicable to the situation we see in the United States in regards to race. No matter how far the nation has come, or will come, in its efforts to overcome racism we can never be a post-racial nation so long as those and the descendants of those who were wrongly persecuted in the past believe that it is their right to punish their former persecutors and their descendants. There seems to be some kind of racial ethic of retributive justice at work here in my view, much as Caesar argued for in Conquest.
Again I would draw the reader’s attention to the originally scripted ending of Conquest where Caesar calls for lethal justice to be leveled upon Breck, the government official who despised the apes and kept them in slavery, even attempting to kill Caesar so as to forestall a potential ape revolt. As I commented in my previous post on this film, this ending fits the developing storyline more naturally, and certainly the developing emotion of Caesar and the apes. But Twentieth Century Fox opted for a revised conclusion which necessitated bringing Roddy McDowall back into the studio for some voiceover work for a closing narration that calls for the apes to move beyond their violence and put away their weapons. The original violent conclusion was understandable in a film coming out in the early 1970s when America was still dealing with the throes of racism and civil rights issues. But the producers opted for something more peaceful in the film’s conclusion. It is debatable as to which ending is more appropriate to the storyline, but regardless of this cinematic and storytelling question, I hope we can learn from the change in ending. Might it be that the original ending was appropriate for the circumstances and mood of the 1970s, but the revised ending is one for our time in twenty-first century America? I hope so, and I’d like certain segments of our society to consider setting aside the slave’s right to continue punishing their (former) persecutors.
A few weeks ago I was thumbing through the program for the American Academy of Religion conference that will be meeting in November of this year. One of the areas of interest is religion and popular culture, and several presentation topics caught my eye. One was by Titus Hjelm of the University College, London. He will be presenting a paper that is based upon his contribution to the book The Lure of the Dark Side (Equinox, 2009) with the chapter titled “Celluloid Vampires, Technology, and the Decline of Religion.” I was able to track Titus down through the Internet and he was willing to discuss the interesting change in vampire mythology.
TheoFantastique: Titus, thank you for giving me a preview of your presentation at AAR. It’s good to learn of scholars with similar research interests. What is your personal interest in the vampire and how does this connect to your academic pursuits in religion and popular culture?
Titus Hjelm: I can’t remember what the first vampire film I saw was, but my parents were quite lax about my television viewing habits, so I was probably too young when I saw it, haha! Anyway, I’ve been interested in all kinds of monsters since I was a kid and the vampire has always touched a chord more than any other creature. Later, I took an academic interest in Satanism and evil in general, so the popular culture representations of the vampire became a natural part of that project.
TheoFantastique: In your essay you discuss the “migration of the vampire soul.” What do you mean by this phrase as it relates to your central thesis?
Titus Hjelm: Basically my thesis is that in recent vampire fiction (both film and books) the vampire has undergone a change from a religious figure into a scientifically defined villain. In other words, whereas the crucifix used to be the best weapon against Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee, the likes of Wesley Snipes and Kate Beckinsale are more concerned about biological weapons used against them. These are what I call the ‘old paradigm’ and ‘new paradigm’ celluloid vampires, respectively.
TheoFantastique: What cinematic vampire sources did you draw upon in analyzing the old and new paradigms for vampires?
Titus Hjelm: I mainly compared the Hammer Studios portrayals of Dracula and some female vampires with recent mainstream films such as the Blade trilogy and Underworld—now a trilogy as well. The picture might have been different if I had added the host of indie vampire films produced in recent years, but that would have been a different project. I also left out all references to Buffy the Vampire Slayer because—I have to admit—I’ve never really followed the series, and also because that is a somewhat different discussion altogether.
TheoFantastique: In your analysis of these paradigms you address three characteristics. Can you describe them?
Titus Hjelm: I thought that from the perspective of declining religiousness and an emerging emphasis on science and genes, it would be interesting to look separately at the portrayals of the origin and motivation of vampires, and their nemesis—that is, how vampires are destroyed in the films. Although overlapping in many ways, all aspects revealed interesting changes in the fictional lore. For example, the Hammer vampire was a mystical, malevolent creature that shied away from religious symbols and was killed by supernatural means. In contrast, the modern vampires are represented explicitly as an outcome of a gene mutation. Their main motivation is not to spread ‘evil’ in itself, but to survive, and for some, to rule humans. Therefore, it is not a question of satanic vampires vs. good Christians, but a question of racial supremacy. Finally, as I mentioned above, the new films often employ metafiction in reference to religious symbolism, saying that unlike popular culture teaches us, ‘crosses don’t do squat.’
TheoFantastique: What are some of the reasons for this migration of the vampire soul in ways that, as you put it, “The Devil’s spawn of the classic era of vampire films has become a freak of nature, a genetic defect”?
Titus Hjelm: I think the first rule of cultural analysis is not to read too much meaning into the text itself, so answering that question is notoriously difficult. One plausible thesis would be that religious symbols have lost at least some of the common resonance ground they once had, therefore making the religious, ‘old paradigm’ vampire somewhat obsolete in contemporary culture. On the other hand, the need for ‘enchantment’ has not disappeared, now we’re just enchanted by the possibilities of science gone awry rather than religious evil.
TheoFantastique: How does the new paradigm for vampires in cinema reflect both secularization and pluralization?
Titus Hjelm: Secularization is another tricky concept, and I would not go too far in interpreting that the move away from religious towards a scientific worldview in vampire films is a very strong implication of secularization. But it might be a sign of pluralisation in the sense that as religion becomes increasingly a matter of individual choice, there is less room for provincialism. In other words, the less there is reference to a particular religious tradition, the more broadly a vampire film can reach its audiences. There is a classic gag about this already in Polanski’s The Fearless Vampire Killers. To the surprise of the heroes, one of the vampires does not recoil when presented with a crucifix, but only comments: ‘Sorry, I’m Jewish.’ Perhaps it is this attitude that has now permeated the genre more broadly.
TheoFantastique: Does this mean that the supernatural vampire of a previous age is gone?
Titus Hjelm: It is clear by now that science has not made religion disappear, despite some early sociological predictions. Similarly, I don’t think the ‘old paradigm’ will disappear, but rather that the interest in the supernatural vampire goes in cycles. The demonic and supernatural vampire might be hibernating somewhere underground while its genetic peers rule the silver screen, only to make a comeback sooner or later—to put it poetically!
TheoFantastique: Titus, thank you again for your academic work and your contribution to this topic. I hope you continue such endeavors in the future.
It has been said that art imitates life, but with the symbiotic relationship between the two, and the strong influence of various facets of art on popular culture, many times the influence moves in the other direction. This was illustrated over the last week or so in which it could be said that life imitates sci fi art.
First, we had a disturbing story that the military has developed a robot that can refuel itself through the consumption of biological material, including human corpses. As WIRED reported,
researchers at Robotic Technology say the robots will collect organic matter, which “could” include human corpses, to use for fuel. But if you picked up anything on flesh-eating robots over the years you know they’ll ignore that tasty soybean field and make a chow line right to the nearest dead body. And, if the machines can’t find enough dead people to eat, they can always make new ones.
Of course this brings images from The Matrix to mind with humans serving as living batteries for machines, as well as Terminator-esque type machines as well. And if this wasn’t bizarre enough, TIME magazine is reporting on a mysterious mass organism found floating in the Arctic in a story that draws upon the classic science fiction film The Blob:
A group of hunters aboard a small boat out of the tiny Alaska village of Wainwright were the first to spot what would eventually be called “the blob.” It was a dark, floating mass stretching for miles through the Chukchi Sea, a frigid and relatively shallow expanse of Arctic Ocean water between Alaska’s northwest coast and the Russian Far East. The goo was fibrous, hairy. When it touched floating ice, it looked almost black.
But what was it? An oil slick? Some sort of immense, amorphous organism adrift in some of the planet’s most remote waters? Maybe a worrisome sign of global climate change? Or was it something insidious and, perhaps, even carnivorous like the man-eating jello from the old Steve McQueen movie that inspired the Alaskan phenomenon’s nickname?
It turns out the the mass is an algal bloom, but it is interesting to see the influence of science fiction in pop culture and how our technology and experiences with nature mirror and are interpreted through the lens of this genre.
In September 2006 Baylor University released a survey which mentioned that a “surprising level” of belief in the paranormal by Americans. 
I still remember staying up late on weeknights in my youth watching episodes of The Twilight Zone. I appreciated the interesting storylines and twist endings, but as a child, and later as a teenager, I was rarely able to appreciate the depth of the issues involved in many of the episodes as Rod Serling and other writers engaged in some of the best writing and social commentary on television. As an adult, repeated viewing of The Twilight Zone, both in the various holiday marathons on television, and in my growing personal collection on DVD, has helped me appreciate the program as not only solid entertainment, but also in providing commentary on pressing social issues of the past, of the time period when the program aired, and I believe in application to issues of the present day.
With another post inspired by a feature in Entertainment Weekly, indeed, back to back posts, readers may wonder about my magazine reading habits, or think that I am on the payroll for EW. Neither situation should be of concern, but it is interesting that the magazine has now featured aspects of horror in two consecutive issues. Issue #1059 from August 7, 2009 features a cover focus on vampires which includes responses to questions on the current crop of romantic vampire treatments by five female vampire fiction authors, including Stephenie Meyer, Melissa De La Cruz, Laurell K. Hamilton, Anne Rice, and P. C. Cast.
A recent copy of my wife’s 
America seems doomed never to be able to move beyond its struggles with racism. Despite having elected an African-American president, and other great strides since the days of slavery and the Civil Rights era, charges of racism continue to haunt the country in pop culture. From Al Sharpton connecting race with Michael Jackson’s death, to Jessie Jackson making charges of racism with every possible national news story, to President Obama making the arrest of Professor Henry Gates a national issue through insinuations of police racial profiling in a prime time press conference, racism remains a heavy burden for the country.
A few weeks ago I was thumbing through the program for the 
It has been said that art imitates life, but with the symbiotic relationship between the two, and the strong influence of various facets of art on popular culture, many times the influence moves in the other direction. This was illustrated over the last week or so in which it could be said that life imitates sci fi art.
