Author(s): Hartmann, Jörg
Journal: Journal of New Frontiers in Spatial Concepts
ISSN 1868-6648
Volume: 2009;
Issue: 1;
Start page: 134;
Date: 2009;
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Keywords: Aerial view | Automobile | Blumenberg | Cyberspace | Early flying | Film | Flight into virtual space | Le Voyage dans la Lune | Le Voyage a Travers L’Impossible | Méliès | Metaphor | Mobility | New spatial frontiers | Risks | Shipwreck with Spectator | Science Fiction | Space | Space opera | Spaceship | Technological evolution
ABSTRACT
Fantasies of man travelling into space form a main part of the popular movie genre ‘Science Fiction’. These celluloid visions are not only fantasies of improving transport, they also convey a meaning in a figurative sense. They can be seen as a modern adoption of one of humanities oldest metaphors, ‘life as a sea fare voyage’: the meaning, which was once expressed by this ‘nautical metaphor’, has been transferred and can nowadays be found in films, which show astro-nauts crossing the frontier from known space into the unknown space. In order to conclude on their attitude towards technological progress in the early 20th century, the two oldest space travel movies, Le Voyage dans la Lune (F 1902) and Le Voyage a Travers L’Impossible (F 1904) will be analyzed.
Journal: Journal of New Frontiers in Spatial Concepts
ISSN 1868-6648
Volume: 2009;
Issue: 1;
Start page: 134;
Date: 2009;
VIEW PDF
DOWNLOAD PDF Original pageKeywords: Aerial view | Automobile | Blumenberg | Cyberspace | Early flying | Film | Flight into virtual space | Le Voyage dans la Lune | Le Voyage a Travers L’Impossible | Méliès | Metaphor | Mobility | New spatial frontiers | Risks | Shipwreck with Spectator | Science Fiction | Space | Space opera | Spaceship | Technological evolution
ABSTRACT
Fantasies of man travelling into space form a main part of the popular movie genre ‘Science Fiction’. These celluloid visions are not only fantasies of improving transport, they also convey a meaning in a figurative sense. They can be seen as a modern adoption of one of humanities oldest metaphors, ‘life as a sea fare voyage’: the meaning, which was once expressed by this ‘nautical metaphor’, has been transferred and can nowadays be found in films, which show astro-nauts crossing the frontier from known space into the unknown space. In order to conclude on their attitude towards technological progress in the early 20th century, the two oldest space travel movies, Le Voyage dans la Lune (F 1902) and Le Voyage a Travers L’Impossible (F 1904) will be analyzed.