There’s just never a U-boat around when you need one.
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Definitely do. He also directed 2 Doctor Who episodes…
His stuff is very intense…
I think it’s good, but I didn’t think that the part of the movie that comes after the atomic bomb captured the weirdness of the book… Crash, of course, is a confirmed classic!
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So it takes 7 months, in theory at least, to get to Mars from Earth, and if I were planning such I’d definitely interview people who lived through this about certain things.
Imagine the class structure that will arise on board any such trip, especially without being able to walk off the ship ever few days, at least not without a spacesuit. Will those who mostly are funding the trip rule and form the upper crust, or will those who keep the ship running and the passengers alive float to the top. Will race, assuming there is racial diversity, be an issue? If the Earth/Mars transfer transit ship is going back with a crew of non-explorers/settlers/wannabe planetary overlords how will that affect the social dynamic?
Will there be pets, I mean emotional support animals, and how will that impact social interaction. Heck, we know there will be “pets,” if only tardigrades, skin mites, or possibly emotional support sourdough cultures if they do a thorough sterilization of everything else. At least you won’t feel guilty when, due to hunger, your crewmates eat Bubbles, but instead join in with them, and look forward to when you can do it all over again tomorrow.
A quick search didn’t turn up for me any NASA studies of cruise line passengers on long cruises, but it wouldn’t surprise me if some had been done. It isn’t the NASA types who would screen candidates for every possible criteria long before assembling a crew that would have this sort of problem. If certain other parties are planning their own expedition, though, I wonder if they’re taking note.
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sunnyi melles is just fucking fearless in this particular role; I laughed so hard the whole storm and dining-room scene, it almost did burst my lungs…
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The household furniture in the stadium in Empire of the Sun is very creepy.
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All aboard SS Planet Earth!
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Agreed, but this is hardly “great evil.” This all sounds pretty petty.
We are capable of occasional great evil, and occasional great good. Mostly, I think we just wobble around mediocrity.
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I thought about that when I recently read about a three year cruise (especially since I initially misread a bit about it being a “lifetime cruise” as being for the rest of one’s life, as there are people who have retired to live on endless cruises). Sadly, the people putting the cruise together didn’t know what they were doing, so it didn’t happen - except the customers only found out after they sold their homes and belongings and flew to what was supposed to be the starting city, and were out the money they were going to spend the next three years living on. (Granted, seems like there’s a Ballard story in that, too.)
But in the last six or so years, I’m constantly feeling like something is a Ballard story, so…
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Yeah, that three-year cruise deal was a real mess. They hadn’t even acquired a ship that would be ready on time and capable of completing the itinerary they had planned. I predict a raft of lawsuits. Or maybe I should say, a boatload.
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Pettiness is a key part of being evil, not giving a shit about others and treating them poorly for no reason other than you believe you’re somehow more entitled to this kind of treatment. It’s at the heart of the capitalist system, how it shapes us as subjects, and makes the evil things possible.
I mean…
That’s the thing… there is very little actual “great evil” in the sense of some seriously twisted person doing cruel things… it’s mostly just this kind of banal pettiness dished out by completely “normal” people…
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… I always thought “In Time” was very Ballardian in style and subject matter, though it’s not Ballard
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I’ve never heard of this but I love everything about it already. To the MaxApp, or whatever it’s called today.
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That they had selected a ship and then wondered if it would actually hold enough fuel to cross the bodies of water they planned to cross… (You know they almost certainly hadn’t considered whether anything else about the ship would be suitable for three years of habitation.)
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I’d also interview the crew that man submarines- I don’t know how long their tours are, but one would imagine that it takes a certain type of personality to deal with being sealed into essentially a big steel can for that period of time. I could be way off, though.
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I might take a 3-hour tour on the SS Minnow, but I’d never set foot on one of those monster cruise ships where the owners’ only goal is to pack in more & more people.
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Just like “flying bus” airlines, consumers do have other options to avoid being packed in with a lot of people. Those generally mean paying more money, though. There are cruise ships that only carry hundreds of passengers, fewer numbers than some commercial aircraft. 
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Back around the turn of the century I worked on ships that circumnavigated the globe on the Europe/Antipodes run. A decision was made to turn one of the ships into a cargo-liner. One deck of the accomodation was converted to house 12 fare paying passengers. 12 is the Board of Trade maximum number of pax not to need extra crew/lifeboats/medical equipment than otherwise required for the crew.
The pax were considered “supernumerary” crew which meant during Board of Trade Sports (Friday afternoon fire and boat drills) they watched our antics from the comparative safety of the bridge wing.
Some were artists looking to be away from the hurly burly of modern life or working on books etc. I assume the lack of communication was the big draw (TELEX-never had a good one). One was a Very Senior Diplomat who was retiring and wanted to leave Australia in the way he had arrived.
Parties were held by both crew and officers with the passengers and joint barbecue nights or “horse racing” events helped to pass the time on the long outbound or return voyages (12 week round trip).
In general, for me, they were happy trips, perhaps because of the social life or because less “authoritarian” senior officers were appointed, who can tell at this distance in time.
Any how, thanks for stirring the pond of memory and allowing this bubble of marsh gas to see the light of day.
Happy New Year everyone. Stay Safe.
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well there’s always the indefinite cruise of the world ™
by some reports it’s maybe 2 million minimum for a condo ( if anyone is selling ) plus annual fees which are in the hundreds of thousands
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small cruise ships
I wonder if those are more prey to piracy. 
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There was this incident:
Cruise lines probably choose routes and ports/destinations to maximize safety. However, reporting states incidents of piracy are increasing. Considering the goals for this nine-month cruise, there are some locations on the list of world wonders that I would give a pass for security reasons. Hopefully, passengers are keeping that in mind, too. 
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