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So. Listening to Tom Smith's /Rocket Ride/, and contemplating the differences implied between rocket ships and spaceships.
Spaceships... well, they're kind of impervious. They exist in space. There's an implication that they're designed to cruise between the stars, kind of hanging in the void for however long they need to, and you'll barely have to consider where you can from, just how to keep the ship running. You know, one computer memory malfunction and your descendants will start snickering at the silly ideas of originally coming from some mudball called "urth". That kind of thing.
Rocket ships, on the other hand, took off from somewhere. That's what rockets are *for*. Come from a planet, go to another one, carry maybe a handful of people, stop to refuel... they're more cars than standalone cities. And as such the technology can blend into the background a lot more--when it's a means of transportation, there's more room to pay attention on what you're being transported to and from.
And then you're morally obligated to duke it out with Ming the Merciless.
(I'm purely curious: who knows who Ming is (without Googling)? I mean, I think of it as common knowledge, but then I think of the meaning of an iron ring on the smallest finger of your working hand as common knowledge.)
And part of it is that the term is kind of antiquated. I mean--rocket ships. *Nobody* talks about rocket ships anymore, which means when the phrase does turn up, there's that much more of a grand heroic pulp vibe to it.
Give me technology that we can trust, and give it fins like a Cadillac...
God, I need to draw something with a skyline. And no root system.
Also, I really really want to see /Max Headroom/. My exposure to the character is limited to a vague memory of a TV spot, but the idea that the name comes from the last thing he saw before the car crash has kind of grabbed my attention. And it's not like there's anything that particularly moves me in the theatres right now.
(Okay, except /Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/, which I still want to see.)
Spaceships... well, they're kind of impervious. They exist in space. There's an implication that they're designed to cruise between the stars, kind of hanging in the void for however long they need to, and you'll barely have to consider where you can from, just how to keep the ship running. You know, one computer memory malfunction and your descendants will start snickering at the silly ideas of originally coming from some mudball called "urth". That kind of thing.
Rocket ships, on the other hand, took off from somewhere. That's what rockets are *for*. Come from a planet, go to another one, carry maybe a handful of people, stop to refuel... they're more cars than standalone cities. And as such the technology can blend into the background a lot more--when it's a means of transportation, there's more room to pay attention on what you're being transported to and from.
And then you're morally obligated to duke it out with Ming the Merciless.
(I'm purely curious: who knows who Ming is (without Googling)? I mean, I think of it as common knowledge, but then I think of the meaning of an iron ring on the smallest finger of your working hand as common knowledge.)
And part of it is that the term is kind of antiquated. I mean--rocket ships. *Nobody* talks about rocket ships anymore, which means when the phrase does turn up, there's that much more of a grand heroic pulp vibe to it.
Give me technology that we can trust, and give it fins like a Cadillac...
God, I need to draw something with a skyline. And no root system.
Also, I really really want to see /Max Headroom/. My exposure to the character is limited to a vague memory of a TV spot, but the idea that the name comes from the last thing he saw before the car crash has kind of grabbed my attention. And it's not like there's anything that particularly moves me in the theatres right now.
(Okay, except /Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/, which I still want to see.)
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