Tons of fascinating stuff and yet another reminder to watch The Expanse, but I'm ashamed to confess my takeaway image is that after learning it's theoretically possible to breathe through one's rectum, I'm picturing little old ladies walking around pulling tanks of oxygen that rather than plug into their noses, snake up their dresses and, well, you get the picture.
Loved this—thank you! Had to read it aloud to the Hubs. It’s been too long since we’ve seen The Abyss (EH and MEM are SO good), and The Expanse is AMAZING! We also have scarred fingers from crossing. ;)
Many of the scifi B-movies of the 90s are better than we remember!
(I guess it was right on the cusp of CGI being so cheap that it could be used so liberally that the writers didn't even need to have a story to make the film viable - hey 'Battleship', I'm looking RIGHT at you, and is that Roland Emmerich and Michael Bay hiding behind you? COME OUT INTO THE LIGHT, GUYS WHERE WE CAN SHOUT AT YOU.)
So much love for The Expanse in this thread! Makes me happy. :)
All righty then! I'll have to get after it this summer. I'm a grizzled veteran of "The Wire" so dense, involved narratives are right up my alley! And I love sci-fi, though for whatever reason I haven't watched much sci-fi TV since STNG; there are some sci-fi movies on my all-time list, and my career makes it a natural fit, so I really should have seen more.
I'd completely forgotten about Abyss, to be honest. And as with so much of The Expanse, there are things I hadn't noticed until you pointed them out (though to be fair I found the books so painful at times that I might have blocked a lot of details out), like the Laconians in fluid, which I honestly don't even remember. I really really really want to see them do something great with those last three books but that's not news to you!
My first kid was a premature baby. At first reading that part I thought, hm, maybe that could really change things for preemies! But then I wondered about lung development. One of their top issues is that their lungs are fragile like soap bubbles and don't have a chance to expand before having to breathe air. Any fixes would have to help with that, too.
Oh wow. I did not know about your first baby. That's a hard thing to deal with at an already super-stressful time...
And yes, that's a case where doing things in a way that's tougher than normal on a person's body is no option at all. And it makes me wonder...how far along is medical science towards understanding the exact conditions of a baby in the womb, and the transition from fully breathing liquid to "practicing" breathing before emerging, so the baby's ready to go at birth?
One thing about a lot of scifi - it's fairly hand-wavey about these things (artificial wombs and the like), when the reality is surely going to be one of the greatest medical breakthroughs of all time, to calibrate the process down to the incredible sensitivity required to keep the baby safe.
(The plotline of "Barrayer", the third of Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan novels, revolves mostly around the fate of a baby 'grown' in an artificial womb - but she doesn't get much into the science of it, for understandable reasons.)
Oh, yeah, having a preemie is loads of not at all fun. But if you ever manage to get enough distance from it, the medical feats are mind-boggling. I don't know how far along it's gotten within the womb but I imagine it's progressing all the time. My kid was born at 32 weeks and required a lot of intervention, and at that time -- almost 15 years ago -- it was possible (though not always successful) to intervene if a baby was born at 22 weeks. I'm sure it's gotten even better since then. Which does open up questions of both ethics and self-determination that nobody really wants to touch yet.
Thanks for reminding me of The Abyss, Mike. It was a favorite of mine and I think I'll dig it up for another watch. That breathing scene is gut-wrenching and Ed nailed it perfectly.
I must admit that I gave a happy squeal at the mention of The Expanse. I only recently watched it and was amazed at how excellent it was; it more than exceeds everything I had heard about it from others. I'm now reading the books and, like so many others, have my fingers tightly crossed for a renewal of the show.
HOORAY FOR ALL THE EXPANSE-LOVE. :) Yay. And yes, the acting alone in The Abyss deserves a lot more credit than it seems to get. Especially since the actors were doing a lot of their own stunts, there in the water (as with Titanic). Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio in particular during [spoilers] You Know, That Scene - her acting was spectacular, she looked absolutely lifeless.
It's an amazing ride! The first few episodes of the first season are a bit of an infodump - it's dense, chewy stuff and I wasn't used to paying that much attention so it caught me by surprise. But the thing as a whole - it's incredible, it's all one story, and it knows *exactly* where it's going. Raised the bar so high for TV scifi that I'm worried nobody else will get near it for years to come...
Please do watch it! Like Mike said, the first few episodes are a bit much, but it is well worth the time invested since they lay down the foundation of the show.
This is really something, Mike. (Although it started to make me feel a little panicky watching Ed in the suit 😱 😂) Thanks for another fascinating read.
My pleasure, Jolene! And yes, it's an anxiety-inducing scene. I squirm every time. That little shake of the head he gives....yikes yikes all the yikes.
Tons of fascinating stuff and yet another reminder to watch The Expanse, but I'm ashamed to confess my takeaway image is that after learning it's theoretically possible to breathe through one's rectum, I'm picturing little old ladies walking around pulling tanks of oxygen that rather than plug into their noses, snake up their dresses and, well, you get the picture.
And probably want to block me now. :-)
IF NOBODY SAYS IT, IT MIGHT NOT HAPPEN
...BUT YOU SAID IT NOW. So whatever comes next is your fault.
*Yours*, Michael.
I'll accept that.
Loved this—thank you! Had to read it aloud to the Hubs. It’s been too long since we’ve seen The Abyss (EH and MEM are SO good), and The Expanse is AMAZING! We also have scarred fingers from crossing. ;)
Many of the scifi B-movies of the 90s are better than we remember!
(I guess it was right on the cusp of CGI being so cheap that it could be used so liberally that the writers didn't even need to have a story to make the film viable - hey 'Battleship', I'm looking RIGHT at you, and is that Roland Emmerich and Michael Bay hiding behind you? COME OUT INTO THE LIGHT, GUYS WHERE WE CAN SHOUT AT YOU.)
So much love for The Expanse in this thread! Makes me happy. :)
All righty then! I'll have to get after it this summer. I'm a grizzled veteran of "The Wire" so dense, involved narratives are right up my alley! And I love sci-fi, though for whatever reason I haven't watched much sci-fi TV since STNG; there are some sci-fi movies on my all-time list, and my career makes it a natural fit, so I really should have seen more.
Yes - The Expanse is The Wire of scifi. There. I said it.
(I think you'll love the intrigue, and also its refusal to paint anyone as entirely "good" or "bad" - exactly like The Wire....)
Sold! It's in my queue for the summer :)
You had me at "Expanse" 😂
I'd completely forgotten about Abyss, to be honest. And as with so much of The Expanse, there are things I hadn't noticed until you pointed them out (though to be fair I found the books so painful at times that I might have blocked a lot of details out), like the Laconians in fluid, which I honestly don't even remember. I really really really want to see them do something great with those last three books but that's not news to you!
My first kid was a premature baby. At first reading that part I thought, hm, maybe that could really change things for preemies! But then I wondered about lung development. One of their top issues is that their lungs are fragile like soap bubbles and don't have a chance to expand before having to breathe air. Any fixes would have to help with that, too.
Oh wow. I did not know about your first baby. That's a hard thing to deal with at an already super-stressful time...
And yes, that's a case where doing things in a way that's tougher than normal on a person's body is no option at all. And it makes me wonder...how far along is medical science towards understanding the exact conditions of a baby in the womb, and the transition from fully breathing liquid to "practicing" breathing before emerging, so the baby's ready to go at birth?
One thing about a lot of scifi - it's fairly hand-wavey about these things (artificial wombs and the like), when the reality is surely going to be one of the greatest medical breakthroughs of all time, to calibrate the process down to the incredible sensitivity required to keep the baby safe.
(The plotline of "Barrayer", the third of Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan novels, revolves mostly around the fate of a baby 'grown' in an artificial womb - but she doesn't get much into the science of it, for understandable reasons.)
Oh, yeah, having a preemie is loads of not at all fun. But if you ever manage to get enough distance from it, the medical feats are mind-boggling. I don't know how far along it's gotten within the womb but I imagine it's progressing all the time. My kid was born at 32 weeks and required a lot of intervention, and at that time -- almost 15 years ago -- it was possible (though not always successful) to intervene if a baby was born at 22 weeks. I'm sure it's gotten even better since then. Which does open up questions of both ethics and self-determination that nobody really wants to touch yet.
Thanks for reminding me of The Abyss, Mike. It was a favorite of mine and I think I'll dig it up for another watch. That breathing scene is gut-wrenching and Ed nailed it perfectly.
I must admit that I gave a happy squeal at the mention of The Expanse. I only recently watched it and was amazed at how excellent it was; it more than exceeds everything I had heard about it from others. I'm now reading the books and, like so many others, have my fingers tightly crossed for a renewal of the show.
HOORAY FOR ALL THE EXPANSE-LOVE. :) Yay. And yes, the acting alone in The Abyss deserves a lot more credit than it seems to get. Especially since the actors were doing a lot of their own stunts, there in the water (as with Titanic). Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio in particular during [spoilers] You Know, That Scene - her acting was spectacular, she looked absolutely lifeless.
I was not aware they did most of the stunts and am even more amazed by them now. MEM was incredible in that scene!
I think I'll be bumping this movie to the top of my list for the weekend.
Oh, thanks for the trip back to The Abyss! One of my faves... Ok, so maybe I'll have to give The Expanse a try?
It's an amazing ride! The first few episodes of the first season are a bit of an infodump - it's dense, chewy stuff and I wasn't used to paying that much attention so it caught me by surprise. But the thing as a whole - it's incredible, it's all one story, and it knows *exactly* where it's going. Raised the bar so high for TV scifi that I'm worried nobody else will get near it for years to come...
I LOVED the Expanse. You don't have to care about my opinion, but I'm just going to sow my delight in that show around anyway ...
Please do watch it! Like Mike said, the first few episodes are a bit much, but it is well worth the time invested since they lay down the foundation of the show.
Well you are just feeding my fantasy novel here.....
Hooray! I "INFLUENCED" SOMEONE. I knew it would happen one day!
Hahahaha OMG that's something i thought i'd never see. "‘breathe’ through their rectums."
Let's hope you never *do* see it. And that none of us do. LET US HOPE THIS, REALLY HARD. :)
This is really something, Mike. (Although it started to make me feel a little panicky watching Ed in the suit 😱 😂) Thanks for another fascinating read.
My pleasure, Jolene! And yes, it's an anxiety-inducing scene. I squirm every time. That little shake of the head he gives....yikes yikes all the yikes.