I know I shouldn’t really write this here – I suspect a few sci-fi fans on this course – but I’m struggling to bring myself to view – let alone write about – some of the more sci-fi-ish films.

On an abstract level, I totally get the idea that genre fiction can do “big themes”. For example, I’m halfway through and totally loving Sarah Water’s The Little Stranger where the ‘ghost story’ genre is used to explore the pain of (prewar) bereavement, wartime trauma and postwar social upheaval.

On the level of personal preferences I just can’t get to grips with sci-fi though – although I get it’s often about human/social relationships with the technological -  and may have to watch discussion of The Matrix etc. from afar.

Second thoughts on Worldbuilder – actually a very depressing film about male desire.

Here’s the narrative, such as it is: man creates cyber world for girlfriend/would-be girlfriend; girlfriend/would-be girlfriend gambols delightedly though idealised cyber dreamworld, observed, without her knowing it, by her admirer/lover, until called back to the reality of the intensive care ward.

The flower has significance in this story: initially it’s just a kitsch detail of the world creator caressing cyber objects into life (think Michelangelo’s detail of God’s finger infusing Adam with life) but returns as a real flower inserted into a vase by the side of his unconscious girlfriend/would-be girlfriend. Yes, I wrote ‘inserted’.

It’s a troubling short: more about male inability to connect with the female ‘other’ except through fantasy and idealisation. This is why I think it’s about porn – although in porn idealisation (of the body: toned, tanned, pert, erect and ever-prepared) mixes with debasement (woman as object or ’slut’ constantly available).

What’s my take on the ‘message’ of this film? Real world or ‘meatspace’ is messy and complicated; cyberspace clean and uncomplicated. Guys, get yourself a girlfriend if you must – preferably a comatose one – and a fast broadband connection.