Damnation Alley, Part 1

Based on a novel by science fiction writer Roger Zelazny, Damnation Alley (1977) shows us an Earth that is tilted off its axis after a Third World War, covered in radioactive dust, and surrounded by bizarre red clouds and spasmodic flames. Like the iconic Big Bug movie Them! (1954), one of the new realities is monstrously transformed insect life. According to the film’s narrator, the climate has gone insane. Once the radiation settles down, all that is left for the few humans that remain is a struggle for survival and dominance, the film tells us, a struggle nearly thwarted by the monstrous insects created by nuclear war.

The first set of insect monsters in the film are giant blue scorpions that surround a compound where ex-military personnel now live. The scorpions attempt to attack a motorcycle rider, Tanner (Jan-Michael Vincent), who is returning from town with a stuffed life-size female doll. His roommate, Keegan (Paul Winfield) first believes Tanner has sacrificed a woman to the scorpions, but when he looks through his binoculars, he realizes it is a department store mannequin.

This comic scene in some ways separates Damnation Alley from earlier insect horror films with primarily serious tones. In an essay suggesting that these big bug movies were responding to “growing misgivings about the safety and effectiveness of modern insecticides,” historian William M. Tsutsui argues, “Critics and historians have invariably interpreted these cinematic big bugs as symbolic manifestations of Cold War era anxieties, including nuclear fear, concern over communist infiltration, ambivalence about science and technocratic authority, and repressed Freudian impulses” (1). Despite the comic effect, however, these scorpions are portrayed as monsters that must be avoided and destroyed, even though humanity’s addiction to war produced them.

1917 in 2020

The film 1917 with Bill was a nice distraction, with its long takes and subtle anti-war message. 

I will say, though, that the film managed to include only one woman character, a French mother whose speech was untranslated, suggesting even she did not have a voice. 

Director Sam Mendes sees the film as a tribute to relatives who fought in the war. But I just wonder when women’s stories might be as compelling for male directors. 

I think, for example, they could easily make a series of films about the valor of women nurses from the Crimean War forward. Why not move from the real Florence Nightingale to the fictional Anne Taylor sleuth and nurse, Hester Latterly (with their Crimean War experiences)? Stories could continue into later 19^th C. and the entire 20^th. 

Real ID

The EIU Business Office had trouble sharing my Social Security number with me, an odd security issue that requires our numbers be blacked out on our W2s. This actual x-ing out would go unnoticed if it weren’t for Illinois’s late in the game venture into Real ID territory. Yesterday I brought my packet of documents to the DMV and discovered my W2 was not in compliance. But today, armed with this new W2, a DMV manager quickly filled out the forms, took my picture and checked my eyes, and sent me on my way with a temporary ID that will serve as my Driver’s License for a month or so.

The other good news of the day was the late to the game switch made by the United Methodist Church. After years of wrangling with conservative parishes here in the US and in Africa, the church Bishops drafted an agreement they’ll vote on in May—and seems likely to pass. A NY Times article states, “In the months following [the contentious vote to tighten traditionalist doctrine], Bishop Harvey and 15 other church representatives came together in an informal committee that determined separation was `the best means to resolve our differences, allowing each part of the church to remain true to its theological understanding.’”

Other news is less optimistic. I did learn about the Kigali Accord—an amendment that will cut down on refrigerant CO2 emissions. But those 20 tree stumps still make my throat tighten every time I walk by them with the dog.

All of these event showcase my life. These are my Real ID.