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Sitaram · Site Admin Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 1079

"Supertoys Last All Summer Long"

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Spielberg's movie, "A.I.", is based on a screen story by Ian Watson and
the short story by acclaimed science fiction writer Brian Aldiss.

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1099998

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/...pertoys_pr.html

The above link appears to be the entire short story by Brian Aldiss.

I loved the movie! The story really came alive for me when an
acquaintance pointed out that, just possibly, Teddy (the robotic toy bear),
was seeking love and recognition from David (the robotic boy) in the
same fashion that David sought it from his human adoptive parent,
Monica.

What is also fascinating for me, is that "Monica" is the name of Augustine's
mother, who lead him to Christianity. It is one thing to be "lead," but
quite another to be "lead on." In "A.I.", the quest for the "holy grail" of
Mommy's love leads David onward and upward in a fashion similar to the
way that Dante is lead onward and upward by the "holy grail" of Beatrice.

Look at this one unbelievably powerful line from that short story by Aldiss:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Aldiss
An overcrowded world is the ideal place in which to be lonely.

I marvel that there can be such power in one sentence, or one word, or
one name.

We tap into such wellsprings of power when we point to some hidden
place with the magic wand of allusion. Yet, if that wand is used too
frequently, or falls into inept hands, then that wellspring stales to a
hackneyed puddle.

Allusion becomes Illusion as we create a fictive alternate universe; a
world in which we rule and things happen.

Take a video camera and walk around your home or office, or a park,
shooting, and then view the tape. What do you notice? The first time I
used a video camera in the late 1980's, I noticed that nothing was
happening. We are so conditioned by fiction and film to behold constant
action, drama, tension of psychodynamics between larger than life
personas.

But in our home movie, all is quiet; nothing happens. It is strangely
relaxing and peaceful to sit and watch nothing happening as the camera
pans about a room, zooming in on objects, dwelling for a moment, and
then moving on like some bee in a petrified garden.

Nothing ever happens (except for the occasional tsunami or volcano,
which is nature's drama). Nothing ever happens unless we make it happen
with our minds, in our minds.

Evil writes the best scripts! Literature owes quite a debt to the devil. Milton
has Satan say, "Evil, be thou my good." The final page of a certain
revealed scripture speaks of God as "a refuge from the evil of the
sneaking one who whispers in the hearts of men;" a scripture which
describes itself as "a guidance to those who ward off evil." Without the
devil and evil, what is the value of a charm to ward off evil?

There is a joke about a man who meets God, and God offers to reward
him any one request. The man requests to see what heaven and hell are
like. First God take him to hell. He sees an infinitely long, narrow, table,
with people seated on either side, facing one another across the table.
Each person has ridiculously long spoons permanently affixed to their
hands. The table is set with the most delicious dishes of food. The starving
banqueters are eternally frustrated as they try in vain to reach the plate
set before them with a spoon that is too long. Next, God whisks our
spectator away to Heaven. His eyes widen and his mouth drops open as
he beholds THE EXACT SAME SCENE of an infinitely long narrow table,
and people with long spoons affixed to their hands. But all the people in
this scene are happy and smiling, for each has learned that, though the
long spoon is too long to reach the plate set before them, yet that same
long spoon is just long enough to reach the plate of the person opposite,
and to spoon some food into that neighbor's mouth. So everyone in
heaven is cooperating and feeding each other. But notice, same scene,
same long spoons, same predicament. The difference lies in the
characters of the captives and their attitude towards others.

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