Description
Book Synopsis During the 2010s, science fiction''s immortal adversaries King Kong and Godzilla, representing our conflicts per Carl Sagan''s dream dragons analogy, made comebacks in American cinema. The blockbuster Kaiju resurged onto the screen, depicting these protectors of an Earth plagued by mankind''s hubris and folly. With Earth''s future hanging in the balance, their climactic 2021 staging settled a score between the two giant monsters, resolving Toho''s classic 1963 film King Kong vs. Godzilla.
As formidable creatures emerging from Time''s Tomb on Mother Earth, metaphorical Kong and Godzilla are considered here in light of new millennial environmentalism''s stark reality. This book, nostalgic in tone, explores the meaning of Kong and Godzilla as planetary saviors--titanic protectors of a theoretical living Earth Gaia--defending the globe from a prehistoric plague of adversaries.
Table of Contents
- Foreword by J. D. Lees
- Preface: A Future of Biblical Proportions
- Introduction: Two Towering Titans of Terror and Tumult
- One. King Kong and Godzilla: Immortal Adversaries—21st-Century Daikaiju
- Two. Dinosaur Movies and Cryptozoological, Anachronistic Prehistoric Monsters of Film
- and Literature (1853 to 1963): The Path to King Kong and/versus Gojira
- Three. Merciless Gaia in Geological Time
- Four. Kong-frontations: Introducing King Kong
- Five. Conjuring Classic Godzilla
- Six. Let Them Fight
- Seven. Godzilla and Kong: Primal Struggle
- Eight. Colossal Conflict
- Nine. Rematch Demanded
- Ten. Non-Classical Daikaiju: Godzilla in New Millennial Alternate Apocalyptic Media
- Eleven. Paleo-Apocalyptical Dino-Monsters: Reflections of Doomsday?
- Epilogue: C'mon. So What?—You Can Never Go Back.
- Appendix: An Assortment of Titans, Dino-Daikaiju and Dino-Monsters
- Chapter Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
