Time Traveling
Let’s go back in time. The distant past! To the days when terrible lizards roamed the imaginations of prepubescent minds.
I’m talking about the 1950s.
Dino Evolution
Back then, dinosaurs were juggernauts: massive, lumbering brutes that had more in common with locomotives and steam shovels than with the T-rexes and Velociraptors envisioned today.
That said, it occurs to me that zeitgeist has much to do with how each successive generation envisions its dinosaurs. Consider (below) the red-in-tooth-and-claw serpents of the 19th century, the lumbering tyrant king of the 20th, and the aerodynamic Blue from the recent film Jurassic World: Dominion.
But for the kid within me, dinosaurs will always be the Godzilla-like T-rex painted by Ottmar von Fuehrer (above center) or the thunder lizards of Charles R. Knight’s Field Museum murals (below).
Books as Time Machines
All of this brings us to Richard Marsten’s Danger: Dinosaurs! with its archaic beasts and outdated technology.
The former are described as ectothermic reptiles that “lifted their heads to sniff the air, raised their dull, flat eyes to the sun, and came forth to soak up the warmth.”
The latter is depicted as an “intricate combinations of tubes and coils and relays and knobs and dials and knife switches.”
Nevertheless, I’ll be damned if the book doesn’t work for me.
For me, rereading Danger: Dinosaurs! is like time traveling, if not to an authentic version of the Jurassic age, then at least to the mid-20th century and a Philadelphia library where I first discovered the Winston science fiction series.
Additional Commentary
You can hear more about Richard Marsten’s Danger: Dinosaurs! by clicking the player below.
The 60-second video features commentary and some classic dino images accompanied by music from my EP Veins: The Soundtrack.
The reel is part of a series of One-Minute Videos I’ve been posting on Instagram and Vimeo. You can also find them on this website by clicking the Vblog tab on my main menu or at the top of this page.
Check them out, and let me know what you think by posting a comment here or on social media (via the buttons for Facebook and Instagram below).
Now … let’s take a ride in the one-minute time machine.
Leave a Reply