Is It All In Your Head?

Philosophers throughout the ages have pondered the nature of reality. There is a duality to reality that to this day remains unresolved. There is subjective reality, which is the universe as each individual perceives it in his or her own mind. There is objective reality, which is the universe as it really is outside any perception by an individual. The problem is, no matter how hard we try to get out of our own heads, we cannot. We all see things from our own perspective. That is the reason that on certain subjects, such as the existence of God, people will never agree. For an atheist, such as myself, the idea of God seems simply absurd; the faithful, however, see a universe which cannot exist without a diety. For the same reason conservatives and liberals disagree so strongly. Their world views are "worlds" apart.

For most of us in our every day life, subjective and objective reality are essentially the same thing. We automatically assume what we ourselves view is what is real. We only run into trouble when we come in contact with someone who views reality differently from ourselves. But how do we know what we think is real, is what is actually out there? For example, some people have hallucinations and delusions. But from their point of view, the universe they inhabit is as real as the one we "sane" people inhabit.

There is also the case of dreams. While we are dreaming, our dreams, no matter how absurd, seem real. It is only after we are awake that we realize they are fantasies. But are they? Is it possible that the waking world is the fantasy and our dreams the reality?

That an objective universe exists is one of the basic assumptions of both science and religion. Nonetheless, it remains simply an assumption. There is not or ever can be any positive proof of this. For more definitive discussion of these concepts, read the writings of the eighteenth century philosophers David Hume and Bishop Berkley.

The ideas I've put forth are sometimes used by science fiction and fantasy authors. Two novels that I've enjoyed much which have a premise of the unreality of the objective universe are Ubik by Philip Dick and The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula LeGuin. In Ubik strange events occur to the protagonist until he finally realizes that he is really dead and his dying brain are giving him illusions. In The Lathe of Heaven, the protagonists dreams become reality.

The House of Frankenstein

One of my all-time favorite movies is The House of Frankenstein, released in 1944. It was the fifth of a series of movies about Frankenstein's monster and friends. The first was released in the 1930s. It was loosely based (and I mean loosely, they didn't even get the scientist's first name right) on Mary Shelley's novel. The Bride of Frankenstein was a direct sequel. It started where the first movie left off and described the events that occurred when the monster wants a bride. It deviates even more from the novel. In the third movie, Son of Frankenstein, Frankenstein's son returns to the castle to take over. (The son is English. No explanation is given as to why he was raised in Britain. Ah, Hollywood.) In Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, the wolfman searches for Frankenstein's notes in order to cure himself of werewolfism. Finally in House of Frankenstein, everybody's favorite monsters (of that time), the monster, a mad doctor, a hunchback and Dracula, are all together for the first time. The final movie in the series was House of Dracula, whose plot was similar to Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, only it is Dracula who wants to be cured of vampirism.

All of these movies are worth seeing and entertaining. The reason I liked House of Frankenstein best was the acting and the subplots. Note: if you intend to watch the movie, the next three paragraphs contain spoilers.

The film focuses on the exploits of the vengeful Dr. Gustav Niemann, who escapes from prison with his cellmate, the hunchback Daniel, to which he promises to create a new, beautiful body. The two murder a traveling showman and take over his horror exhibit. To exact revenge on Hussmann, who had once caused his imprisonment, Niemann revives Count Dracula. Dracula seduces Hussmann's granddaughter-in-law and kills Hussmann himself, but in a subsequent chase, Niemann disposes of Dracula's coffin, causing the vampire to perish in sunlight. Niemann and Daniel move on to the flooded ruins of Castle Frankenstein, where they find the bodies of the Frankenstein Monster and Lawrence Talbot, the Wolfman, preserved in the frozen waters. Nieman thaws out the two and promises Talbot to cure him from werewolfism. However, in fact he is more interested in reviving the Frankenstein monster and exacting revenge on two former associates than in his promises to Daniel or Talbot. Talbot transforms into a werewolf and kills a man, arousing the villagers.

Talbot is also envied by the hunchback Daniel as both love Ilonka, a gypsy girl. She has fallen in love with Talbot but is the object of Daniel's affection. Daniel reveals Talbot's curse to Ilonka but she is not deterred and promises to help him in fighting the curse.

Things enter a critical stage at night, as Niemann revives the Frankenstein monster and Talbot again turns into a werewolf. Talbot is shot by Ilonka with a silver bullet, thereby releasing him, but Ilonka is killed in the process. Daniel blames her death on Niemann and begins to choke him. The Frankenstein monster intervenes, throws Daniel out of the window, and carries the half-conscious Niemann outside, where the villagers begin to chase them and drive them into the marshes. There, both the monster and Niemann drown in quicksand.

The movie had a superb cast as follows:

• Boris Karloff as Dr. Gustav Niemann
• Lon Chaney, Jr. as Lawrence Talbot/The Wolfman
• J. Carrol Naish as Daniel
• Elena Verdugo as Ilonka
• John Carradine as Dracula a. k. a. Baron Latos
• Glenn Strange as the Monster
• Anne Gwynne as Rita Hussman
• Peter Coe as Karl Hussman
• Lionel Atwill as Inspector Arnz
• George Zucco as Bruno Lampini
• Sig Ruman as Bürgermeister Hussman
• William Edmunds as Fejos
• Charles F. Miller as Tobermann
• Philip Van Zandt as Müller
• Julius Tannen as Hertz
• Hans Herbert as Meier
• Dick Dickinson as Born

J. Carrol Naish performance is especially good as the lovesick hunchback in love with a gypsy girl, also well played by Elena Verdugo. Karloff and Carradine are also superb. And of course, Lon Chaney, as always, plays the werewolf with sympathy and pathos. Excellent acting by everyone in the cast. They deserved, but never received, Oscars. In fact the movie was panned by most critics. That's why I never listen to critics.

The Alien Movies

My absolute favorite movies were the Alien series of film. Everything about them was great. Sigourney Weaver was astounding as the tough, brave Officer Ripley. In the first movie, The Alien, the starship sets were as so realistic while watching the movies you felt that you were aboard a real starship. Artist H.R.Giger's design of the alien spaceship and the alien creature itself was superb. The suspense and terror rocked me to the very core. The sequel, Aliens, was as great and in some ways as the original Alien. Although not quite up to par with the first two, the third and fourth films, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, in the series were also quite good. The only disappointment was the fifth in the series, Alien vs Preditor, which was a complete bomb. This is the only one that Sigourney Weaver was not in.

Alien garnered both critical acclaim and box office success, receiving an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, Saturn Awards for Best Science Fiction Film, Best Direction for Scott, and Best Supporting Actress for Cartwright, and a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, along with numerous other award nominations. It has remained highly praised in subsequent decades, being inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2002 for historical preservation as a film which is "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and being ranked by the American Film Institute in 2008 as the seventh-best film in the science fiction genre.

Here is a summery of the plot of Alien. It contains spoilers. So, if you haven't seen the film and intend watching it, skip this part of my post. The commercial towing spaceship Nostromo is on a return trip from Thedus to Earth carrying its seven-member crew in hypersleep. Upon receiving a transmission of unknown origin from a nearby planetoid, the ship's computer awakens the crew. Acting on orders from their corporate employers, the crew lands on the planetoid, resulting in some damage to the ship. Captain Dallas, Executive Officer Kane, and Navigator Lambert set out to investigate the signal's source while Warrant Officer Ripley, Science Officer Ash, and Engineers Brett and Parker stay behind to monitor their progress and make repairs. The signal is coming from a derelict alien spacecraft. Inside they find the remains of a large alien creature whose ribs appear to have been exploded outward from the inside. Ripley determines that the signal transmission is some type of warning. Kane discovers a vast chamber containing numerous eggs, one of which releases a creature that attaches itself to his face. Dallas and Lambert carry the unconscious Kane back to the Nostromo, where Ash allows them inside against Ripley's orders to follow the ship's quarantine protocol. They unsuccessfully attempt to remove the creature from Kane's face, discovering that its blood is an extremely corrosive acid. Eventually the creature detaches on its own and is found dead. With the ship repaired, the crew resume their trip back to Earth.

Kane awakens seemingly unharmed, but during a meal before re-entering stasis he begins to choke and convulse until an alien creature bursts from his chest, killing him and escaping into the ship. Lacking conventional weapons, the crew attempt to locate and capture the creature by fashioning motion trackers, electric prods, and flamethrowers. Brett follows the crew's cat into a large room where the now-fully-grown Alien attacks him and disappears with his body into the ship's air shafts. Dallas enters the shafts intending to force the Alien into an airlock where it can be expelled into space, but it ambushes him. Lambert implores the remaining crew members to escape in the ship's shuttle, but Ripley, now in command, explains that the shuttle will not support four people.

Accessing the ship's computer, Ripley discovers that Ash has been ordered to return the Alien to the Nostromo's corporate employers even at the expense of the crew. Ash attacks her, but Parker intervenes and decapitates him with a blow from a fire extinguisher, revealing Ash to be an android. Before Parker incinerates him, Ash predicts that the other crew members will not survive. The remaining three crew members plan to arm the Nostromo's self-destruct mechanism and escape in the shuttle, but Parker and Lambert are killed by the Alien while gathering the necessary supplies. Ripley initiates the self-destruct sequence and heads for the shuttle with the cat, but finds the Alien blocking her way. She unsuccessfully attempts to abort the self-destruct, then returns to find the Alien gone and narrowly escapes in the shuttle as the Nostromo explodes.

As she prepares to enter stasis, Ripley discovers that the Alien is aboard the shuttle. She puts on a space suit and opens the hatch, causing explosive decompression which forces the Alien to the open doorway. She shoots it with a grappling gun which propels it out, but the gun is caught in the closing door, tethering the Alien to the shuttle. It attempts to crawl into one of the engines, but Ripley activates them and blasts the Alien into space. Ripley puts herself and the cat into stasis for the return trip to Earth.

If you haven't seen these movies, you've missed a great treat. Be sure to watch them on the largest screen you can find. I can't imagine what they would be like on IMAX in 3D.

Is Jurassic Park Possible

Among my movie favorites are the Jurassic Park trilogy. If you recall from the first movie, the dinosaurs were created by mixing dinosaur DNA with frog DNA. In those days, reptiles were considered the closest species to dinosaurs. If the movie were made today, probably they would have used birds. But, anyway, the dinosaur DNA was extracted from dinosaur blood within mosquitoes encased in amber. Actually, even on the face of it, this seemed very unlikely. How many insects encased in amber would you need before you found one that had bitten any particular dinosaur species? The chances would be one in a million that you would find any dinosaur blood at all.

In addition, biologists and paleontologists pooh-poohed the idea that biological matter would last millions of years. Even the original skeletal material in the bones of dinosaurs and other extinct species found has been replaced by inert minerals. Thus, the entire idea of recreating an extinct species that roamed the earth millions of years ago was considered impossible. Until very recently!

In a recent Scientific American article, Mary H. Schweitzer, a paleontologist, using a microscope, wrote how she and her assistant discovered tiny red spheres inside a slice of fossilized dinosaur bone. The slice was from a dinosaur that lived 67 million years ago. Since then, other bits of organic material such as bones, blood cells and claws have survived the ages.

Of course, at this point it is not known whether the organic material contains enough of the original DNA that was in it when the creature was alive. And even if it were, how could it be used to create a replica? But who knows? Maybe in the future some enterprising entrepreneur may open a Jurassic Park.