The Wordforge Reading/Viewing List...

OK. Awhile back we made Nick go see "Galaxy Quest". And some of us have been trying to get TKO to rent "Real Genius". What are the other movies, TV series, and books you think Wordforgers should experience?

I bring this up because I absolutely think Lethesoda should read "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." Really, anything by Hunter S. Thompson, but "Fear and Loathing" is the best known. Given his personality here, I think he'd get a big kick out of the book. Back when I was 19-20 I had the first two pages or so memorized--the whole bit with the bats and everything.

What else do people need to see? A friend put me on to "Coupling". Sadly I don't have access to the series now. It was pretty clever. They had an episode that was a bit like "Go" (which was a take on "Run Lola Run" IIRC). One of the girls is meeting a guy for a blind date and things go hilariously awry. Then the story starts over from someone else's perspective and we get a couple more of the jokes that were set up in the earlier bits. Lather, rinse, repeat. It was quite good. The girl thought her date was her gynecologist, but he turned out to be a guy who owns a comic book shop with hilarious results. The "John Hurt" joke was to die for.

Red Dawn.

Movies-

Evil Dead trilogy.

Re-Animator.
(West is best!!)

Transformers The Movie
(the animated one. For the gen-x pop culture references if nothing else)

Princess Bride.
(Mrs. A hasn't seen it. Bad girl! Bad!
Shame on everyone else who hasn't seen it too!)

Time Bandits.
(A gaggle of time traveling friggin midgets. How this isn't a WF staple is beyond me )

Caveman.
(A movie with its own language! You must all see this, so we can all say "pooka", "macha", and "zug-zug", and know what we mean)

Blade Runner.
(Natch)

2001
(Natch)

Full Metal Jacket.
(Natch. These are easy)

Conan The Barbarian.
(Duh)

Stand By Me.
(I'll forgive some of you gen-y and gen-z kiddies for not having seen this by now, but the clock is ticking)

Forbidden Planet.
(The seed of Star Trek)

The Time Machine.
(Not the shitty remake, the good old one. Makes a good double bill with...)

Time After Time.
(H.G. Welles vs. Jack the Ripper. Written by Nick Meyer. You know you want it in your eyeballs right now)

Books-

Hitchhikers quintology.
(Required. Just fuckin' required, dammit. It's geek oxygen).

Dune sextology.
(I'd forgive you for stopping after four though)

The Dark Knight Returns.
(Ah, Frank in his prime before he went all propagandist crackpot on us)

Watchmen.
(Nuff said)

Strangers From The Sky.
(Best Trek novel that ever roamed the earth)

Anything by Vonnegut.

The Age Of Reason.
(Always gotta recommend this one, it's reflex action at this point)

Gulliver's Travels.
(Beautiful indictment of humanity. Taste the delicious cynicism. You're soaking in it).

Idiocracy! It's like holding up a mirror to America IMO.

Top Gear.

Especially Chris

Ok, here's my addition

--Sci Fi Books--
R A Heinlein
-Starship Trooper
-Stranger In A Strange Land
-Time Enough For Love
-Citizen of the Galaxy
-The Rolling Stones
-Friday
-Methuselah's Children
-Job: A Comedy of Justice
-The Cat Who Walked Through Walls
-The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress
-Number of the Beast
Larry Niven
-Ringworld
-Neutron Star
-The Mote In Gods Eye
-The Long ARM of Gil Hamilton
-Lucifers' Hammer
-N Space
-Oath of Feality
Julian May
-The Pliocene Saga
-The Galactic Milieu books
----Surveillance, Metaconcert, Jack the Bodiless, Diamond Mask, and Magnificat
Alan Dean Foster
-any of the "Humanx" books. Very "Star Trekkie" in tone
Joe Haldeman
-The Forever War
-Worlds
-Worlds Apart
-Worlds Enough and Time
Robert Adams
-The Horseclans books (rocking good adventure stories set in a post apocalyptic America)
James White
-The Sector General Books (multi-species hospital in space)

Also, for books:

Tom Perotta:
Election
Little Children
Joe College
Bad Haircut
The Wishbones

T.C. Boyle:
The Tortilla Curtain
Talk Talk
The Inner Circle
The Road to Wellville

and here's some fantasy
--Fantasy Books--

JRR Tolkien
-The Hobbit
-The Lord of the Rings
David Eddings
-The Belgariad
-The Mallorean
-The Sparhawk books
----The Diamond Throne, The Ruby Knight, The Sapphire Rose, Dome of Fire, The Shining Ones, The Hidden City,
Steven Brust
-The Vlad Taltos books
Raymond Feist
-Magician: Apprentice
-Magician: Master
-Silverthorn
-A Darkness At Sethanon
Marion Zimmer Bradly
-The Mists of Avalon
-The Darkover books (technically sci fi, but reads like fantasy)
Roger Zelanzy
-The Amber books
-Lord of Light
Michael Moorcock
-The Eternal Champion Cycle (especially the Elric books)
Fred Saberhagen
-The Empire of the East
-The "Book of Swords" novels

Piers Anthony
The Incarnations of Immortality (series of novels)

3/4 of Real Genius is one of the funniest movies of the 80s.
The last 1/4 depicts despicable acts of treason that should land those kids in federal prison for life.

I mean, what did they THINK they were making a 10 megawatt laser for?

Parke Godwin's "Waiting for the Galactic Bus"
Original 'Stargate' novel UNCONNECTED with the movies or show.
Anything by Garth Nix.
Anything by Neil Gaiman, especially Smoke and Mirrors
Anything by Terry Pratchett, especially Thud!
Anything by Neil Gaiman AND Terry Pratchet is required to remain alive.
Disco Bloodbath is not required, but recommended.

The fact that no one's mentioned OSC yet is deplorable, but I refuse to do so on principle.

Necroscope Books by Biran Lumley.

Clive Barker books such as hellbound Heart and The Great And Secret Show.

TV series:

Greatest American Hero.
Poltergeist.
Land Of The Lost (Original) for the kids
Justice League
Odyssey 5
Stagate SG1 before the big changes.
Hercules
V The original Miniseries.
BSG (Both original and New BSG)
Eureka
Heroes
Highlander
American Gothic
Babylon 5
Forever knight


Movies:

Night Of The Living Dead (George A Romero) series.
Return Of The Living Dead (non Georrge A Romero)
Evil Dead Trilogy (the one with Ash)

Is Real Genius the one that ends with them filling someone's house with 5 tons of popcorn?

Harry Harrison. I was going to specify a few titles, then realised just how futile that would be.

Tried reading one, felt it was one of the absolute worst novels I ever read. Utter garbage.

I like this idea. A Wordforge: Essentials list, a listing of 20 or so films, books, TV shows, etc. that are as close to universal in our on-line culture as possible. Things that we constantly reference, discuss, debate, make jokes about, etc. (I noted that many of the things on Dicky's list meet that criteria.)

For starters, I'd nominate:

Films
Blade Runner
Real Genius
Romero's Zombie films
Forbidden Planet
Alien
Evil Dead series
Conan the Barbarian
Terminator

TV Shows
Star Trek (TOS)
Battlestar Galactica (new)
Firefly
South Park
Dr. Who

Books
The Lord of the Rings
The Fountainhead (or Atlas Shrugged)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Dune
The Dark Knight Returns
Harry Potter series
(and something by Heinlein; I dunno which--I've never read any though I like the film Starship Troopers)

*ahem*


I guess I should finally admit to not having seen Real Genius either....

Don't shoot!

The forgotten gem Wierd Science.

I am assuming you are referring to "Enders Game". Probably the most over-rated book I have ever read. Good book, excellent in places, but nowhere near "Teh bestest evar!!!111" fanboys like to claim.

More along the lines of Children of the Mind, but yeah. Ender's Game wasn't as spectacular as it seemed to be, but the series as a whole was quite impressive to me. All seven of them.

Not the best ever, but pretty good.

Bah. Ender's Game AND Dune. Two perfectly good novels, ruined by their sequels--which degenerate in quality at an exponential rate.

And on that note:
Jaws (but none of the sequels)
Rocky (ditto)
First Blood (again)
Star Trek II-IV, VI, and VIII

From the John Hughes ouerve(?):
Ferris Bueller
Breakfast Club
Sixteen Candles
The rest are optional.

Did we ever try a book group?

Could work with films as well. Personally, I couldnt join in, as I'm not doing my required reading atm, let alone extra, but i bet a few of you would get kicks out of it.

Thread goes up, book/film set, people start discussing a week later (otherwise, the discussion would start with people being behind, or get too developed before others can join in.)

Night Of The Comet
Omega Man
Toho Godzilla movies.

Books;

Being There - Jerry Kozinski
Shadow Divers - Robert Kurson?
The Bounty Trilogy - Hall and Norhoff?
The Heart of Darkness - Conrad
The Call of the Wild - Jack London
Executioners Song - Norman Mailer
Shogun -? Clavell???






Authors to look for - good story tellers and character development

Larry MacMurtry
James Lee Burke
Joseph Wambaugh
Elmore Leonard

Movies

Being There - Peter Sellers
Heat
Solo - rock climbing documentary
Dr Strangelove
Cool Hand Luke
Shrek
Tombstone
The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming
The Shining - Nicholson
Barbarella - pre Hanoi Jane
Riding Giants - 50's 60's to present surf documentary
Lords of Dogtown
Raising Arizona
Fargo
Resevoir Dogs
O Brother Where Ar't Though

Shit. I'm so ashamed that I only just realized it:
the original...

"Night of the Living Dead."

double

triple

Wow, a triple, the board is really fucking up.