Distopías y apocalipsis: breve repaso a un subgénero.

Por Francisco Blázquez

Es muy posible que las peores películas de la historia se encuentren dentro del género de ciencia ficción. Plan número 9 del espacio exterior (Ed Wood, 1956) es una muestra excelente de ello. Reconozco, sin embargo, una fascinación por este tipo de cine que inventa mundos alternativos y futuros inquietantes llenos de milagros tecnológicos y pesadillas científicas.

Pero no nos engañemos. Estas películas, aunque se desarrollen en el futuro siempre son una proyección de los miedos y esperanzas del presente. Hoy nos ocuparemos del subgénero que se ha dado en llamar cine distópico.

David Lodge. A novelist and a teacher

Por Juan Carlos Andrés

Despite the fact that since the time of my being an undergraduate I usually have followed the piece of advice I was given about refraining from reading novels published less than twenty years before, I must confess that there are some exceptions that are worth to observe.

This is the case of David Lodge’s novels. Just nowadays I am reading his latest work, A Man of Parts, released last September through Viking-Penguin and, believe me, I am lingering in its pages and chapters because of the intellectual pleasure it endlessly gives.

Its very title deserves to be explained, as it is in the preliminary quotations. There you can find the definition that reads as follows: Parts PLURAL NOUN 1. Personal abilities or talents: a man of parts. 2. short for private parts. (Collins English Dictionary)

Taken into account that the plot consists on H. G. Wells’ life, the English writer whose The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible man or The War of the Worlds, among many others, are well known all over the world, you can deduce what this story is about: sex and literature. Better said, a biography interspersed with metafiction, in which sex plays a key role from the beginning.

Review on ‘The Kappillan of Malta’ by Nicholas Monsarrat

Por Juan Carlos Andrés

Taking advantage of a five day holidays I could enjoy at the beginning of March, my wife and I went to Malta, an island we had been longing to visit for years.

At last our wish was accomplished. And I can tell you that making such a trip was it worth actually. A marvelous sunbathed island in the middle of the Mediterranean, full with historical remnants and, above all, an amazing witness of the huge wars that different cultures and beliefs have carried out for their supremacy  from  Prae-history to the 20^th century, and throughout  Middle and Modern Ages.

The day before coming back home, and on our last strolling inLa Valletta’s streets, wrapped in the golden sunset rays and the cool humidity from the shimmering deep blue waters of the sea, I came across a bookshop window in Republic Street and couldn’t help loitering over the various titles in search for something that could be considered kind of a souvenir.