Drawing on his own teen-aged self, Krugman argues that social theorists, economic model-builders, and other big thinkers began as, and remain, afionados of big world-building science-fictions.
Does that apply to world-building historians, too? If so, strap on a mask, take your vaccine certificate, pick an unpopular showing, and get yourself to Dune. I went today, a 12:00 noon showing, an IMAX presention, about 10% occupancy in the theatre, and everyone distanced and masked. My first go-to movie in about twenty months. The experience was wonderful. And Dune is a marvel not to be missed -- if you are one of us, anyway.
Update, October 31: Russ Chamberlayne suggests we consider Dune and Doon:
Dune is clearly the movie to see. All the comment I've seen is positive. But world-building historians - let's not let that concept get out of hand! History-trained President Biden seems to know better.
Hollywood spectaculars are great entertainment, but long after the Dune enthuniasm has passed, we'll still have costume-and-location productions, though ones that tell a local story, the one that people (yes, still largely whites) can relate to, the one that's less mythic and stupendous because more real.
In this part of Ontario, those stories are at Doon Heritage Village, part of the Waterloo Region Museum. Living history museums, as they slowly move away from their artifact-oriented origins, may wind up being the real world-builders, the world of the village and the neighbourhood.
The Village is featured as a case study of how museum interpretation has developed [over decades]. Mary Tivy completed her PhD dissertation, "The Local History Museum In Ontario: An Intellectual History, 1851-1985" at the University of Waterloo in 2006.
