Reading Response: Carl Abbott

This article discusses one of the future cities shown in science fiction films—”migrant city”. Migrant cities have been given a certain degree of “life” by science fiction writers, allowing them to fly, walk, float or even merge with surrounding places as live things. In science fiction, migrant cities always seem to assume the role of collapse, escape or resistance. Indeed, science fiction films provide audiences with the ultimate sensory experience through their stunning visual effects and unfettered plots, but all kinds of crises in the film point back to our real world. The future city is the product of the

Continue readingReading Response: Carl Abbott

Reading Response: Carl Abbott

In the reading piece migartory city,the most significant difference between city in real life and the scifi-city is that the migartory cities are not considering enough real life problems. A city in real life needs to consider energy, water and other problems, as a stationary city it is quite easy to get consistent souces. But in the passage, the migartory city can move with huge legs, wheels, and even monsters leading the city. Therefore in conclusion, real life city needs to consider many aspects, city in scifi-novels ignores many physical principals and other problems. It only focus on maybe one

Continue readingReading Response: Carl Abbott

Reading Response: Carl Abbott

In science fiction, cities always seem to collapse, be fled, and be rebelled. However, when the author looked at the various forms of the future city, he talked about the possible crisis. I was gradually attracted by this diverse and heterogeneous civilization form, where things and ideas are constantly declining and collapsing, and new knowledge and creation are continually being born. In this chapter, the author mentioned the migratory city, which can also relate to our urban trends. He takes New York as an example, a big migrant city containing lots of migratory workers and hobos. Due to that situation,

Continue readingReading Response: Carl Abbott

Reading Response: Carl Abbott

In science fiction films, there are many so-called “migratory cities,” which are the cities that can move from place to place. For example, some utilize extensible legs to walk, change their town to an airship, and use trains on the wheel. These migratory cities are not just for fun but also educational purposes. The main objective may be appealing to people to protect the environment since people choose to migrate their city to avoid environmental disasters and massive tectonic disruptions in the SCI-FI film. Besides, there are evident classic divisions, such as the elite living at the top of the

Continue readingReading Response: Carl Abbott

Reading Response: Carl Abbott

In this article, the author gives an illusion of migratory cities in different appearances and features. These urban models are fairly popular in the science fictions. Indeed, the concept itself is appealing and novel enough. However, we can find some similarities to our own history.  Always under migration, seeking better resource and living condition, such pattern conforms the development of human civilization. Under certain contradictions, our forefathers chose to return to the road of  abandon and resettling.  For herdsmen who leave their former colony or foreign immigrants arrives in a new nation,they are always migratory people with migratory civilization. While

Continue readingReading Response: Carl Abbott

Reading Response: Carl Abbott

As described in the article, the concept of the migratory city has appeared in many science fiction novels and films. Generally speaking, these cities have spawned movable features from ordinary immovable cities, mostly due to environmental destruction, resource depletion, severe pollution and inevitable natural disasters. These fictional and cinematic settings are not just about environmental protection and the sustainable use of resources, but also include other elements such as energy, social class, and humanity. The concept of these mobile cities is not a figment of the imagination, they are also based on real cities. In The Scar, the city Armada

Continue readingReading Response: Carl Abbott

Reading Response: Carl Abbott

In Abbott’s article, migratory cities in science fiction are able to ‘fly, walk, crawl, roll, creep and float’ under future advanced technologies. These cities have the ability to break down geographical boundaries and maintain high mobility, and a concept of urban dystopia inside these cities often exists. Fictional examples include the eternally-moving train in Snowpiercer to face the man-made ice age, self-sustained movable robots depicted in Walking City,high-tech ships shown in Battlestar Galactica etc. In my opinion, these migratory cities stimulate the imagination about what our future looks like by providing a visualization of a fictional world. We can imagine

Continue readingReading Response: Carl Abbott

[Reading Response: Carl Abbott]

Our traditional notion is that cities are static. I am using the word ‘traditional’ here, but the notion is by no means outdated. I do not think that Tokyo is moving, nor do I believe that there are any plans for its migration. Despite this, there are many movies that portray migratory cities. For example, in Snowpiercer, a city is presented in the form of a constantly moving train. As far as I know, this is because the movie depicts a world (presumably in the future) where environmental problems have forced people to live in a train that collects energy

Continue reading[Reading Response: Carl Abbott]

Reading Response: Carl Abbott

Abbott’s reading depicts how movies echos with society. For instance, the idea of a moving city seems unrealistic, but is built for very realistic reasons in movies. Such as the rising sea level in Flood(2009), ice age due to human-engineered failure in Snowpiercer(2013). These environmental and social crises are inspired by real-life issues such as global warming, then exaggerated through movies to act as a warning to society. But why setting in a movable city instead of a normal one? In my opinion, the limited space in them makes movies more likely to criticize the seamy side of society and

Continue readingReading Response: Carl Abbott

Reading Response: Carl Abbott

Movable city refers to moving, machine-like cities. The cities tried to produce and sustain on its own and the people there as well. One of the forms of these cities is a train on a trail. These movable cities usually plotted on dystopian contest, like environmental crisis and mass destruction etc. Fictional cities are self-sustaining and fragile. For example, the train city in Snowpiercer cannot live without the engine in front of the train.  So, the city may depend on certain object a lot.Also, dystopian meanings like extreme social stratification and monopoly of power can be added into these contexts

Continue readingReading Response: Carl Abbott