@@TheGreatPower365 honestly I could have spell checked but I was typing it while on my shift at work and didn't wanna get caught piddling on my phone too much
30:12 Terl's obsession with "leverage leverage leverage leverage" suddenly makes much more sense when you think about Scientology's auditing and blackmail tactics
We have decided to have you review this book for another fifty videos. With endless options for renewal! With endless options for renewal! With endless options for renewal!
The book is a fantastic proto-example of author wish-fulfillment trash. The further the story goes on the more reality warps to show how the main character is the wisest, cleverest, most wonderful being that has ever existed.
It's also telling about Hubbard's mindset when the 'Hero' is basically a superhuman con-man and fixes most non-violent conflicts with outright cons, lies and showmanship.
@Mako Cat I will admit I read way to many of those trash tier isekai stories and it really does feel like Battlefield earth is almost a tutorial on the cliches.
Why is it a proto-example? This book is from the 80s I think the cliches started in the 60s. (It’s kind of a nitpick-y comment, I know sorry for that.)
To add some context, this is one of the books that Hubbard wrote after the Church of Scientology was in full swing. A lot of the Really Over the Top Gary Stu moments are actually Scientology ideology being inserted into the story. For example Johnny being able to will his nerves to heal with psychic powers is something that you are supposed to be able to do once you're a full operating thetan.
The part where Johnny can heal himself using his thoughts is definitely from Scientology. They believe all illness is just in your head (sort of) and once you go through their programs you can just purge yourself of all that stuff.
With how much the Psychlo dude keeping Johnny captive is helping and looking after him, I half expected it to turn into an unrequited and super messed up sort of love story
@monica Aboites He's famous for founding Scientology, he wrote Sci-fi before that, and drew a lot of the mythology of Scientology from his previous writings, he also famous for saying "if you want to be rich, invent a religion." Fun fact his third wife was named Mary Sue, which explains his terrible character development.
The only reason, and I mean the ONLY reason, why Scientology hates psychologists is because the APA gave L Ron Hubbard a bad review on one of his books.
And here I thought it wad because understanding how psychology works is one of the best ways to protect yourself from falling under a cult's thrall. But if what you're saying is true - and I can definitely believe it, it's consistent with the Church of Scientology's treatment of critics - he got horribly, horribly lucky by happening to have _just_ the right petty bone to pick to make him especially dangerous.
The Church of Scientology are the world champions in holding petty grudges and having no self-awareness. While many religions have this same problem, the CoS took it to a whole another level. This, and a total lack of imagination(even if the whole Xenu-thing would say they have too much of it) means that people were literally able to troll them to death. Yes, it still exists, but as a shadow of what it once was.
@@JamesTullos You're acting a _lot_ like him in those ways. I'm almost tempted to ask you to read _Empress Theresa_ (like he did) and Onision's three books just to see how they'd compare to Battlefield Earth.
@@JamesTullos Oh, and if you have time for something actually worth reading (and if research for your _The Boys_ review made you want to read a superhero story that's actually good), try reading _Worm_ by Wildbow. It's about a teenage girl named Taylor Hebert, who's been chronically bullied by a local super-"hero" named Sophia Hess (as well as the clique of Sophia's friends and hangers-on). Taylor gets bug control superpowers in a locker prank involving _used_ tampons, takes down the local Yakuza kingpin (a guy named Lung, who literally turns into a Dragon when he gets angry), gets treated like dirt by a socially-incompetent superhero, and then the first actual friends she's had in years are a quartet of local supervillains called the Undersiders, so she joins them. Taylor ends up robbing banks, fighting a deranged bomb-toting Yakuza boss named Bakuda, ruling much of the city as a warlord, fighting giant city-destroying monsters called Endbringers, fending off a roving band of serial killers called the Slaughterhouse Nine, assassinating a wannabe Bond villain, and stopping a _Multiversal_ doomsday scenario.
@@strategicgamingwithaacorns2874 Whoo! A fellow lover of Worm! It's also worth noting that she accomplishes all of this not by being incredibly powerful or lucky (in fact she's outclassed in terms of sheer brute force pretty much from the word 'go') but by being smart, very good at using the people and assets she has, and most especially very, very resourceful. A few minor warnings: Worm is *long*, clocking in at nearly 1,680,000 words (basically 26 novels-worth), albeit with very little wasted space or filler content. It also gets extremely dark in places, especially near the end. Notably the version found online is actually a first draft, so the writing quality, while consistently good, is not always great (and there's a very jarring timeskip in the last third of the story, which apparently is/will be addressed in the books proper). Nonetheless, it is probably one of the best pieces of superhero fiction in existence and I highly recommend it.
That is a thing with most of those older sci fi books. They often get into explaining the technology and world for way to long. Not that it changed much since then.
Back in the days of Pulp Sci-Fi, authors were paid by the page and sometimes by the word or paragraph. In order to make good money, they would purposely bloat their stories.
36:14 rather fascinatingly, the production company that produced Battlefield Earth actually overstated the budget NEARLY BY A FACTOR OF TWO and pocketed the leftover. They got caught - obviously - and it brought down the company.
I mean, if elrond wanted to base the novel in actual colonialism... when Europeans first came to America, they found these brilliant structures made of earth and hypothesized that there must've been a race of ancient giants, completely ignoring the whole ass civilizations just chilling there. But I guess just forgetting that humans built cities is an option too.
Yeah, I don't think it's by any means inappropriate to have a colonialist society be propagandized into believing other sentient species are little more than animals....you can look to our own history both in the mentioned example with Native folks and also in the example of how slaves were treated/viewed in America. Despite there being "whole ass" countries populated and ruled by Africans simultaneous to the slave trade. Cognitive dissonance is a strong thing. That being said...Hubbard doesn't go there in dissecting such a nuance out of it all.
" mean, if elrond wanted to base the novel in actual colonialism... when Europeans first came to America, they found these brilliant structures made of earth" You mean the big dirt mounds? Those are simple and they are far from brilliant and uniques, such structures extremely prevalent anywhere in the world where people do any kind of work. "hypothesized that there must've been a race of ancient giants, completely ignoring the whole ass civilizations just chilling there." What civilization? By the time Europeans or those Europeans that hypothesized they where built by giants the societies that built them where dissolved centuries ago at the very least, even then the town builders responsible where on the same level of civilization as Europeans of the late stone age. The Indians they encountered where almost certainly less numerous and sedentary then the mound builders from centuries ago and it would be reasonable to doubt that if this exact kind of people inhabited the land previously they would not have the will and the labor capacity and simply the desire to build a large structure of anykind, a different people with greater labor capacity due to greater physical strength being responsible would sound like a reasonable alternative to a nomadic, seminomadic, or hamlet building people being responsible. "and also in the example of how slaves were treated/viewed in America. Despite there being "whole ass" countries populated and ruled by Africans simultaneous to the slave trade. Cognitive dissonance is a strong thing." If you had any actual idea what the "countries" in Africa and specifically the West coast Africa(Which was actually probably one of the most advanced parts of Black Africa) where like at the time and not some idiotic leftoid propaganda you would know that there would be no cognitive dissonance seeing the slaves they bought from these countries as being below them. They where Iron age age at best petty kingdoms, chiefdoms, or simple empires with an at best level of technology and social organization equal to where Europe was a thousand years ago. And unknown to the Europeans of the time this was an extremely recent state of affairs that came about as a result of the dissemination of South West Asian civilization vie the Islamized peoples of the Sahel, going back to the middle ages a few centuries ago before the age of colonization began in earnest this region was described by the historian Ibn Khaldun as follows; "To the south of this...there is a Negro people called Lamlam. They are unbelievers. They brand themselves on the face and temples. The people of Ghanah and Takrur invade their country, capture them, and sell them to merchants who transport them to the Maghrib. There, they constitute the ordinary mass of slaves. Beyond them to the south, there is no civilization in the proper sense. There are only humans who are closer to dumb animals than to rational beings. They live in thickets and caves and eat herbs and unprepared grain. They frequently eat each other. They cannot be considered human beings." EDIT Your both idiots Natahlia and Lane. "except that's not based in reality. For West Africa in particular, Europeans had been trading with the various river cultures there for so long that referencing Timbuktu was common practice for "somewhere far away." Songhai especially was a known entity, and the collapse of that empire after being looted by Moroccan excursions was specifically one of the major impetuses for continued exploitation of the region. It was only later that a revisionist narrative of how inherently poor and unenlightened the people of the region were was established, ignoring the lengthy history of the region." That doesn't actually do anything to counter the point that these where all iron age at best chiefdoms or petty kingdoms with a tribal empires that where surpassed by nearly every single nation north of them starting with North Africa, I literally cited a guy Ibn Khaldun who the modern narrative claims was a great scholar and lived in north Africa during medieval times and he said what I wrote in my comment. Europeans traded with everyone in the world and that doesn't change the fact that most of the world when the Europeans came was inhabited by people who where seriously behind them in most ways with the exception of north Africa and south and east Asia. Like holy shit mentioning how Morocco trivially destroyed the Songhai "empire" once they decided that having local strong men of their religion across the massive desert to extract valuable resources and send it to them in exchange for civilization was less important then settling a debt with the ottomans doesn't paint the region as having been an advanced place with powerful and highly functional civilizations. "And no, citing the fact that there were cultures who looked down on others cultures at various points is not useful for understanding what became systematized exploitation of a region." Citing the conclusion literally everyone else reached regarding the region throughout history doesn't mean anything? "That's fundamentally misunderstanding what chattel slavery was," I forgot slavery is only really bad if White people do it, source; professor Jewstein and cice narrative. Also somehow despite the fact slavery Arab Muslims practiced had all the objective characteristics of chattel slavery it somehow wasn't that, and it wasn't racist despite the proven views and actions of Arab Muslims like just for one example Morocco in the 17th century enacting a law that all Blacks within its borders where to be slaves, even if they where previously free and Muslim. "And it also ignores the point being made about how in the US during the height of slavery, American perception was that all Africans were inferior and unable to have their own societies while there had been plenty of known about examples to the contrary within recent historical memory and concurrent with the time." Looking at what many try to pass as societies in that region I can see why they thought that such societies should as well not exist or are pretty much on the border of nonexistence and that something like theirs should be practiced by those people. "And don't even try to call something else propaganda when you are showing your lack of any knowledge from non-propagandistic sources about the mound cultures of North America...and the specific ways in which their "mounds" got lumped in as "something found all over the world" when that's absolutely not an accurate description of them. The few that are left from people not destroying them are pretty damn impressive to visit." You dumb blunt I have fricking been to those mounds and they are surpassed by many things from the old world by a large margin, like holy shit you are the one showing some profound ignorance knowing nothing of Chinese and other oriental earthworks or ancient and post roman empire European earthworks and the incomparable for the time land reclamation practiced by the medieval germans/dutch. The only thing that most of the nate mounds differ in is that they often have no real purpose then to be higher then the surrounding ground while mounds elsewhere where often built elsewhere for measurable practical purposes such as defense or control over water flow and they also tended to be allot bigger if not vertically then horizontally by a large margin. "Also, trying to cite a concept like "iron age" to describe the technology of a culture is some age of empires level understanding of the subject. Maybe try to not be lost in history books written in the 1950s when you attempt to learn anything about history. That's the same kind of shit as citing frenology when talking about the human brain." You prove your own stupidity once again, the entire idea of the Iron age is far from disproven as a valid concept even in the consensus of "modern"(read ciced) academia, and wow once again you demonstrate your profound lack of understanding by claiming that no history book after the 1950s discussed the iron age as valid concept and at the same time thinking that phrenology was commonly advanced at the time when it had fallen out of any mainstream favor around a century before then in the 1840s.
@@CuckHunt except that's not based in reality. For West Africa in particular, Europeans had been trading with the various river cultures there for so long that referencing Timbuktu was common practice for "somewhere far away." Songhai especially was a known entity, and the collapse of that empire after being looted by Moroccan excursions was specifically one of the major impetuses for continued exploitation of the region. It was only later that a revisionist narrative of how inherently poor and unenlightened the people of the region were was established, ignoring the lengthy history of the region. And no, citing the fact that there were cultures who looked down on others cultures at various points is not useful for understanding what became systematized exploitation of a region. That's fundamentally misunderstanding what chattel slavery was, and ignoring the complexities of international and inter-cultural exchange before the age of European colonialism. And it also ignores the point being made about how in the US during the height of slavery, American perception was that *all* Africans were inferior and unable to have their own societies while there had been plenty of known about examples to the contrary within recent historical memory and concurrent with the time. And don't even try to call something else propaganda when you are showing your lack of any knowledge from non-propagandistic sources about the mound cultures of North America...and the specific ways in which their "mounds" got lumped in as "something found all over the world" when that's absolutely not an accurate description of them. The few that are left from people not destroying them are pretty damn impressive to visit. Also, trying to cite a concept like "iron age" to describe the technology of a culture is some age of empires level understanding of the subject. Maybe try to not be lost in history books written in the 1950s when you attempt to learn anything about history. That's the same kind of shit as citing frenology when talking about the human brain.
7:33 the villains talk weird and it's hard to take them seriously? who would have expected this of L. Ron Hubbard, the man who once described a fictional genocide with the phrase "goof the floof"
"Your manuscript must be perfect before submission" and then "here, let an editor get their greasy hands all over it and change up the style and wording, character and place names because the book clearly isn't perfect without someone else's elbow grease justifying their own employment by turning the book into what *they* want. Who cares if it is not the story the author intended? The author isn't anyone before publication."
@@KarmaSpaz12I can tell you right now, because I'm working with an editor as we speak, that editors are _essential_ for making sure you tell the story you want to, in the way you want to. An editor isn't someone who just goes in and changes shit behind your back, it's someone who reads your work, makes suggestions, and then hands it back to you. You talk with them about it, make the changes yourself, and then discuss further.
Thank you for touching on how bad L. Ron Hubbard was as a person. He's infinitely worse than Ben Shapiro if only because his cult ended up being so terrifyingly successful. I live in Clearwater (the city of Scientology) and it's incredibly messed up. Words can't describe.
P.S - Interesting fact... A lot of Clearwater is in fact actually owned by the Church of Scientology. All those weird tan buildings on the skyline? They're theirs. But all the streets around there are also basically deserted because normal people don't have a reason to be there, and tourists stick to the resort areas and the beaches normally. Fucking creepy ass cult shit.
Yo, ex-Scientologist here (parents were in) - regarding your statement 'terrifyingly successful' - it's big in Clearwater and LA, everywhere else, it's small and unnoticeable. The church is actually shrinking slowly. Just wanted to mention that most scientologists are decent people, but they do shitty things believing they are helping people / the cult. There are of course a few fanatical diehards. Also depends how deep they're in. Most of what's in Clearwater is what would be analogous to the top clergy of the church, so they're in pretty deep. But basically they think they're saving the world. Just my thoughts, have a good one
@@skullmonkey5633 Thanks for your perspective. Living (literally) in the shadow of Scientology on a day to day basis has probably skewed my impression of how successful they are. I do feel really bad for the well meaning people who get pulled into it. Nobody joins a cult on purpose. Glad you got out of there.
If you give enough of your income to the Church of Scientology, you will be rewarded with ENDLESS OPTIONS FOR RENEWAL! ENDLESS OPTIONS FOR RENEWAL! ENDLESS OPTIONS FOR RENEWAL!
Others may have mentioned this, but Psychlos is more likely a reference to Psychology and Psychiatry. Scientology has great animosity toward the mental health field as they see it as enabling and perpetuating mental problems and preventing people from achieving real health through the actual curative practices of the Church. Rather than referring to "psychos," it refers to the people who treat the psychos.
If I recall that is one of the areas which they do explain-they all speak different languages and learn the Psycho language so they can understand each other [similar to English as the language of the air].
Sir, you did NOT need to torture yourself like this just to make content for us. Please get yourself a stiff drink and a strong joint. You've earned it.
Does anyone else get Empress Theresa vibes? More competently written, but the character wants to do something and it gets done and causes them to get rich from it. They finally get to a problem that they have to actually have to work for (stable galactic politics/multiple HAL users) and the character just decides "I'm doing the crazy idea and dont care what everyone else thinks" and it just magically works. And they end up becoming the smartest people in the world and have ways to try and teach the masses and own crazy amounts of money. And any legal opposition just gets shut down due to stupid reasons.
The best story I ever read based in Paris about Parisians made no mentions of the Louvre, the Eiffel tower, or the arc. I live in Chicago, and haven't even been by a landmark in months. Can always tell when a tourist, or someone whose never been here writes about my city. We never, or rarely go to the bean, navy pier, john hancock, or the tower formely knows as sears.
I liked the book quite a bit when I was a kid. I read it for the first time in middle school. It was just one of the hundreds of books in my dad's collection of fantasy and scifi to me. Some of the concepts were interesting, although most of the scifi elements are impossible. Like a life form made from viruses, or a planet with an atmosphere that explodes in the presence of radiation. Admittedly, the book is not ACTUALLY good, but my much younger self enjoyed it.
Dude, how long did it take you to finish that book? It's over a thousand pages long! I'm 16 and my attention span with books is kinda low despite loving books
@@colonynaut1627 maybe your right. I definitely think more people of this generation should read more books to broaden their minds, it's just a small problem I have where I can't always read more than two pages even if I'm interested in the book I'm reading
I watched Battlefield Earth 4 times: on my own, with an unfortunate friend, on a train in colorado, and with two unfortunate friends. I never want to touch the movie again with a 50 foot stick
The whole slavery angle is pretty laughable in this book because you could literally take a look at American history for ideas. Like, African American slaves were banned from reading and writing because their owners knew that if they did learn how to, they could send messages and communicate with each other in the same way white people could. As a matter of fact, Africans who were taken as slaves were forced to learn English by word of mouth and speaking. This has a plethora of historical side effects; the way how black people talk in the modern day is heavily affected by the vernacular created from that era. AAVE or African American Vernacular English (the kind of speech pattern that merges words and created modern speech like “dawg”,“yo”, “homie”, etc) is an entire set of linguistics that emerged from this era. Slavery is such a complex topic that could be explored in interesting ways if some research was done, but Hubbard has such a poor understanding of how slavery works and how It’s propagated that it’s laughable. No slave master would teach their slaves about how the world works if they could help it, because a slave with perspective is a slave that rebels.
People think of the Atlantic slave trade (especially in relation to the British colonies and later US) because it was relatively recent and solidified race-based indefinate enslavement. It is a good place to start, but there are so many versions of this institution (modern and ancient) that can be explored. For example, Rome had an entire class of enslaved people educated in household management and white collar professions.
I've never heard of so much focus on finances in a fictional book AND how that manages to add an extra layer or two to the plot holes. It's kind of fascinating in a way. BTW I can't help but think that Jonny became the Master of the Universe(s?). And my mind went straight to el James.
I think the whole "willing real hard" to heal himself is in Scientology too. I know it is for the mental stuff at least -- and since the physical issues were because of brain damage...
@@jdgustofwinddance.7748 Yes, that could be it ! I don't remember much about them to be honest (outside the Semi-SM 'vibe :) Someone told me they were written by a 'genius'the greatest Sci-fi ever etc. ..(Now in hindsight I know it was a Scientologist who recommended them ) I was a young and just discovered Dune , Hyperion., etc. So I think i was just disappointed. Maybe his books are O.K, but it was expecting too much.
@@spiritualanarchist8162 ha. SM is tricky in literary format. Not that shades bullmess, though. That’s trash. Hamilton, Lovecraft, Bradbury, Clarke, Phillip K Dick, Wells are scifi geniuses; not Hubbard.
Everybody in this thread: James very often uses German in his thumbnail and I so want to know why! My theory is that he learned German in highschool for a while and never had a use for it and now uses it in his thumbnails so he can honestly say that he uses his German skills in his professional life. A kind of inside joke between James and himself.
@Mako Cat He gave me an explanation in an original comment I made somewhere here in this comment section. Just look for my username and profile picture if you're interested.
Scary thing about Hubbard is that you'd mistake him for an idiot based off his books, when he was in fact a dangerous genius. The man has a catalogue of thousands of books - no exaggeration. It's clear he was playing the numbers. Write as many books as possible with minimal literary effort, and you'll sell at least a few copies of each one because people are curious. It's actually interesting he didn't make his books mandatory or compulsory for scientologists, just the Dianetics ones. He may have been very aware they were shit
Your videos are the conversations with friends I don’t get to have because none of them have the same interests as me/like me enough to talk to me for more than an hour. Best thing to wake up to an upload!
Terl went out with less fanfare than Zorg in the Fifth Element, and that was a case where the main villain and the main hero never even met face-to-face. (Fifth Element was the first thing that sprang to mind, since I saw it just the other day for the first time all the way through.)
"Leverage, leverage, leverage!" Basically, it's just Hubbard using his own thought pattern when he was leading his cult while he was writing his sci-fi drivel.
0:50 I haven't watched the review yet but I just want to say at this point that the clip of battlefield earth was so bad it made my internet die and it didn't come back for a half hour.
You know what would have been cool? If instead of wanting revenge for humanity, he realized how doomed they were and wanted to work WITH them instead. Think about those he would have to fight to keep his village with him, think about how interesting it would be if he and the main "villain" had to work together to convinc the others about human/alien relationships and how its benifitial! idfk I am on some wild shit.
sentience is the ability to experience your surroundings through your senses. almost all animals are sentient and some plants might be. Humans on the other hand are Sapient, which is the ability to take information and be able to reason with it. Some animals might be on the lower end of sapience such as the Kea or Octopus. It's kinda of a nitpicky thing, but people using sentience as sapience is a pet peeve of mine. Edit: COLORADO FREN!!!!! and I know what you mean specifically about colorado representation. there was a fairly bad book series I read a while ago but one of the best parts was the is was clear that the author lived in Denver at least at some point in his life. he mentioned very specific places that I recognized like a certain restaurant on a certain street. It was kinda cool being able to actually picture the scenes with such detail. You know what the Rocky mountains don't have much of? Gold. You know what they Rocky Mountains have quite a bit of? Yellow Cake. Boy I wonder which one an advanced alien civilization would value more. -.-
If that second movie was made, and it was nothing but peace talks with similar acting as the first one, I think we all kinda would want too see it. But in all honesty, L.Ron wrote most of his stuff when scifi writers were paid by the word count. So he wrote a lot. More than anyone. When Theodore Sturgeon said that 90 percent of scifi is crap, (as with everything) its likely closer to about 95% because of people like L.Ron. For anyone who may have missed or forgotten this: Once Hubbards book was nominated for a Hugo. The result of that was, I thought, pretty funny.
The way he’s described as being so perfect, I can only imagine Jonnie as a shirtless Fabio (in his prime) running around doing all this weird sci-fi shit.
BE is one of those movies that have a most peculiar quality. You watch it and it's absolutely terrible and as time passes you see a bit of it and you think. "Hey it couldn't have been all that bad after all." And after viewing it again you go "It's definitely terrible, no doubt about it." And watching the review I caught myself going "I need to rewatch it because it may not have been terrible after all." It's horribly insidious ...
Saw your entire review. If I had any notion of checking this book out just to give it a benefit of the doubt, watching your video felt like I've read it myself. LoL, very thorough and etertaining analysis. Thanks!!!
I remember reading this in highschool. I found it interesting since it didn't really follow the movie at all the most part and went way further past where the movie ended. I did not realize how much of a gary stu the protagonist was.
Hubbard hated psychology. The name psychlo is psychology, but also is psycho. The reason he hated counselors is because they could figure him out and see through his bs,.
@@ronsee6458 You don't need to be crazy, just not very well informed on psychology. CoS still exists because their doctrine sounds plausible and seems to work in the beginning (they don't work for the reasons they tell you though). With that on the bottom, it's so much easier to reel you in and get you to accept and believe all the rest of it.
Me: Oh, this video is interesting and fun to watch. I love rant videos. Me when I notice James’ shirt: This is the best video I’ve ever seen, I need to burn it onto a dvd and worship it.
If a fiction book is meant to be like a found and compiled documents thing, or like a log(book) or diary or whatever I actually like fake translator notes (or fake editor notes). I think that’s sort of cute. If it’s a novel however, then it’s weird.
![Eminem - Fuel (feat. JID) [Official Lyric Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/t5H_CewqpKA/mqdefault.jpg)
*"It was written by L. Ron Hubbard-"*
Wait, why do I know that name?
*"-the founder of Scientology."*
Oh.
L. Ron Hubbard. His full name was Lafeyette Ronald Hubbard.
@@TheGreatPower365 His nickname as a kid was "Laffy"
@@TheGreatPower365 honestly I could have spell checked but I was typing it while on my shift at work and didn't wanna get caught piddling on my phone too much
As a UFO religion, Raëlism beats the pants out of Scientology any day.
It's obvious
30:12 Terl's obsession with "leverage leverage leverage leverage" suddenly makes much more sense when you think about Scientology's auditing and blackmail tactics
Oh shit!
While you were still learning how to SPELL YOUR NAME, I was being trained to READ TERRIBLE BOOKS!
"You just adopted Bad Literature, I was born on it, moulded by it!"
We have decided to have you review this book for another fifty videos. With endless options for renewal! With endless options for renewal!
With endless options for renewal!
oof
And to read anything less is a disgrace to me and my entire line
@@abcdef27669 I never read a good book until I was already a man and by then it was nothing but kindling.
"I was tempted to film this whole review at a Dutch angle"
You know, that would have been great for a comedic bit...
The book is a fantastic proto-example of author wish-fulfillment trash. The further the story goes on the more reality warps to show how the main character is the wisest, cleverest, most wonderful being that has ever existed.
It's also telling about Hubbard's mindset when the 'Hero' is basically a superhuman con-man and fixes most non-violent conflicts with outright cons, lies and showmanship.
@Mako Cat I will admit I read way to many of those trash tier isekai stories and it really does feel like Battlefield earth is almost a tutorial on the cliches.
Why is it a proto-example? This book is from the 80s I think the cliches started in the 60s. (It’s kind of a nitpick-y comment, I know sorry for that.)
@@gijsvandergiessen1150 The chliche of a OP Self-Insert or of a Con-OP-Self-Insert?
To add some context, this is one of the books that Hubbard wrote after the Church of Scientology was in full swing. A lot of the Really Over the Top Gary Stu moments are actually Scientology ideology being inserted into the story. For example Johnny being able to will his nerves to heal with psychic powers is something that you are supposed to be able to do once you're a full operating thetan.
"The main villain just yeeted himself into a fucking star."
This got me good.
Kinda what just what happened in a recent Marvel movie xD Made me laugh more knowing that
I wish they'd included that in the movie.
The part where Johnny can heal himself using his thoughts is definitely from Scientology. They believe all illness is just in your head (sort of) and once you go through their programs you can just purge yourself of all that stuff.
And considering how much this religion hates pyschology, this fact is hilarious.
@Vladimir PutinL 5ltle
@Vladimir Putin Yeah space ghosts
How well did that work out with COVID?
That is not in the book!
With how much the Psychlo dude keeping Johnny captive is helping and looking after him, I half expected it to turn into an unrequited and super messed up sort of love story
Less "psychos because they're the evil dudes" and more "psychos because L Ron hated psychologists".
I was going to comment the same thing. What about Chinkos though? Shrinks? (Shrink-Os?)
@@evilbob840 He hated Chinos. He insisted that anyone who wore anything besides Dockers pleated pants was fair game.
Yep
@@evilbob840 L Ron also hated the Chinese. It's the reason their name's a letter off from being a racial slur.
@@firewolfandrewb That's one I didn't know, but I'm not exactly surprised.
WITH ENDLESS OPTIONS FOR RENEWAL
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"Most famous for founding the Church of Scientology".
That explains a lot, if not everything.
What it explains best is the book's appearance on the New York Times bestseller list.
I had the exact same thought.
L. Ron Hubbard was famously quoted saying "if you ever want to become rich, start a religion"
Then he started a religion
I had a run in with some of then just a hour ago.
All i saw was the logo and thought: *NOPE* !!!
Death of the author is not needed in this context. Both the work and the artist belong to the bottom of the trashcan :/
@🌟༻🅹🅰🆈🅵🅰༺ ✓ • 5 years ago by who???????
@monica Aboites He's famous for founding Scientology, he wrote Sci-fi before that, and drew a lot of the mythology of Scientology from his previous writings, he also famous for saying "if you want to be rich, invent a religion." Fun fact his third wife was named Mary Sue, which explains his terrible character development.
Also the Psychlo faction that installed the psychiatry chips were called the Catrists. The Psychlo Catrists. Master of subtlety...
The only reason, and I mean the ONLY reason, why Scientology hates psychologists is because the APA gave L Ron Hubbard a bad review on one of his books.
And here I thought it wad because understanding how psychology works is one of the best ways to protect yourself from falling under a cult's thrall. But if what you're saying is true - and I can definitely believe it, it's consistent with the Church of Scientology's treatment of critics - he got horribly, horribly lucky by happening to have _just_ the right petty bone to pick to make him especially dangerous.
The Church of Scientology are the world champions in holding petty grudges and having no self-awareness. While many religions have this same problem, the CoS took it to a whole another level.
This, and a total lack of imagination(even if the whole Xenu-thing would say they have too much of it) means that people were literally able to troll them to death.
Yes, it still exists, but as a shadow of what it once was.
Teryl's 3 thoughts:
1. GOLD!!! (Yosemite Sam impression)
2. Leverage, Leverage, Leverage
3. That animal
Also laughing
"While you were learning how to SPELL YOUR NAME"
This sounds kind of like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy but played completely straight.
Oh dear god. You’re right.
The Uber Driver's Guide To The Galaxy
-Book full of tabs
-Talking about deranged authors.
James Tullos is KrimsonRogue confirmed.
Have you ever seen us in the same room before? I think not.
*X-Files theme plays*
@@JamesTullos You're acting a _lot_ like him in those ways. I'm almost tempted to ask you to read _Empress Theresa_ (like he did) and Onision's three books just to see how they'd compare to Battlefield Earth.
@@JamesTullos Oh, and if you have time for something actually worth reading (and if research for your _The Boys_ review made you want to read a superhero story that's actually good), try reading _Worm_ by Wildbow.
It's about a teenage girl named Taylor Hebert, who's been chronically bullied by a local super-"hero" named Sophia Hess (as well as the clique of Sophia's friends and hangers-on). Taylor gets bug control superpowers in a locker prank involving _used_ tampons, takes down the local Yakuza kingpin (a guy named Lung, who literally turns into a Dragon when he gets angry), gets treated like dirt by a socially-incompetent superhero, and then the first actual friends she's had in years are a quartet of local supervillains called the Undersiders, so she joins them. Taylor ends up robbing banks, fighting a deranged bomb-toting Yakuza boss named Bakuda, ruling much of the city as a warlord, fighting giant city-destroying monsters called Endbringers, fending off a roving band of serial killers called the Slaughterhouse Nine, assassinating a wannabe Bond villain, and stopping a _Multiversal_ doomsday scenario.
@@strategicgamingwithaacorns2874 Whoo! A fellow lover of Worm! It's also worth noting that she accomplishes all of this not by being incredibly powerful or lucky (in fact she's outclassed in terms of sheer brute force pretty much from the word 'go') but by being smart, very good at using the people and assets she has, and most especially very, very resourceful.
A few minor warnings: Worm is *long*, clocking in at nearly 1,680,000 words (basically 26 novels-worth), albeit with very little wasted space or filler content. It also gets extremely dark in places, especially near the end. Notably the version found online is actually a first draft, so the writing quality, while consistently good, is not always great (and there's a very jarring timeskip in the last third of the story, which apparently is/will be addressed in the books proper).
Nonetheless, it is probably one of the best pieces of superhero fiction in existence and I highly recommend it.
The online version is a FIRST DRAFT?!
Turl "Leverage" The Psychlo
Also apparently the term for the aliens arose out of Hubbord's hatred of... get this... Psychology.
How dare he not get common logic and basic facts
...although that sounds like sarcasm it’s not
Mother of God, that book has a thousand pages. How? That is *SO LONG!*
You could probably bludgeon a scientologist with it.
Fun fact when u slap the book a whole bunch of fluff comes out
Simple. Books get longer when written on a soapbox.
That is a thing with most of those older sci fi books. They often get into explaining the technology and world for way to long. Not that it changed much since then.
Back in the days of Pulp Sci-Fi, authors were paid by the page and sometimes by the word or paragraph. In order to make good money, they would purposely bloat their stories.
"Schleim" is actually just German for "slime". I... guess he took inspiration from Star Wars naming Vader with the dutch word for father?
36:14 rather fascinatingly, the production company that produced Battlefield Earth actually overstated the budget NEARLY BY A FACTOR OF TWO and pocketed the leftover. They got caught - obviously - and it brought down the company.
Life mimics art, huh?
the production company was simply method acting
That’s funny because the actors were probably getting paid scale + a specific file folder *not* getting leaked to the gossip press.
james: oh I live 40 minutes away from there
his stalkers: 👁👄👁
nunya business that helped me a lot
I mean, if elrond wanted to base the novel in actual colonialism... when Europeans first came to America, they found these brilliant structures made of earth and hypothesized that there must've been a race of ancient giants, completely ignoring the whole ass civilizations just chilling there.
But I guess just forgetting that humans built cities is an option too.
"The whole ass civilizations"
That sounds incredibly funny.
Yeah, I don't think it's by any means inappropriate to have a colonialist society be propagandized into believing other sentient species are little more than animals....you can look to our own history both in the mentioned example with Native folks and also in the example of how slaves were treated/viewed in America. Despite there being "whole ass" countries populated and ruled by Africans simultaneous to the slave trade. Cognitive dissonance is a strong thing.
That being said...Hubbard doesn't go there in dissecting such a nuance out of it all.
" mean, if elrond wanted to base the novel in actual colonialism... when Europeans first came to America, they found these brilliant structures made of earth"
You mean the big dirt mounds? Those are simple and they are far from brilliant and uniques, such structures extremely prevalent anywhere in the world where people do any kind of work.
"hypothesized that there must've been a race of ancient giants, completely ignoring the whole ass civilizations just chilling there."
What civilization? By the time Europeans or those Europeans that hypothesized they where built by giants the societies that built them where dissolved centuries ago at the very least, even then the town builders responsible where on the same level of civilization as Europeans of the late stone age. The Indians they encountered where almost certainly less numerous and sedentary then the mound builders from centuries ago and it would be reasonable to doubt that if this exact kind of people inhabited the land previously they would not have the will and the labor capacity and simply the desire to build a large structure of anykind, a different people with greater labor capacity due to greater physical strength being responsible would sound like a reasonable alternative to a nomadic, seminomadic, or hamlet building people being responsible.
"and also in the example of how slaves were treated/viewed in America. Despite there being "whole ass" countries populated and ruled by Africans simultaneous to the slave trade. Cognitive dissonance is a strong thing."
If you had any actual idea what the "countries" in Africa and specifically the West coast Africa(Which was actually probably one of the most advanced parts of Black Africa) where like at the time and not some idiotic leftoid propaganda you would know that there would be no cognitive dissonance seeing the slaves they bought from these countries as being below them. They where Iron age age at best petty kingdoms, chiefdoms, or simple empires with an at best level of technology and social organization equal to where Europe was a thousand years ago. And unknown to the Europeans of the time this was an extremely recent state of affairs that came about as a result of the dissemination of South West Asian civilization vie the Islamized peoples of the Sahel, going back to the middle ages a few centuries ago before the age of colonization began in earnest this region was described by the historian Ibn Khaldun as follows; "To the south of this...there is a Negro people called Lamlam. They are unbelievers. They brand themselves on the face and temples. The people of Ghanah and Takrur invade their country, capture them, and sell them to merchants who transport them to the Maghrib. There, they constitute the ordinary mass of slaves. Beyond them to the south, there is no civilization in the proper sense. There are only humans who are closer to dumb animals than to rational beings. They live in thickets and caves and eat herbs and unprepared grain. They frequently eat each other. They cannot be considered human beings."
EDIT
Your both idiots Natahlia and Lane.
"except that's not based in reality. For West Africa in particular, Europeans had been trading with the various river cultures there for so long that referencing Timbuktu was common practice for "somewhere far away." Songhai especially was a known entity, and the collapse of that empire after being looted by Moroccan excursions was specifically one of the major impetuses for continued exploitation of the region. It was only later that a revisionist narrative of how inherently poor and unenlightened the people of the region were was established, ignoring the lengthy history of the region."
That doesn't actually do anything to counter the point that these where all iron age at best chiefdoms or petty kingdoms with a tribal empires that where surpassed by nearly every single nation north of them starting with North Africa, I literally cited a guy Ibn Khaldun who the modern narrative claims was a great scholar and lived in north Africa during medieval times and he said what I wrote in my comment. Europeans traded with everyone in the world and that doesn't change the fact that most of the world when the Europeans came was inhabited by people who where seriously behind them in most ways with the exception of north Africa and south and east Asia. Like holy shit mentioning how Morocco trivially destroyed the Songhai "empire" once they decided that having local strong men of their religion across the massive desert to extract valuable resources and send it to them in exchange for civilization was less important then settling a debt with the ottomans doesn't paint the region as having been an advanced place with powerful and highly functional civilizations.
"And no, citing the fact that there were cultures who looked down on others cultures at various points is not useful for understanding what became systematized exploitation of a region."
Citing the conclusion literally everyone else reached regarding the region throughout history doesn't mean anything?
"That's fundamentally misunderstanding what chattel slavery was,"
I forgot slavery is only really bad if White people do it, source; professor Jewstein and cice narrative. Also somehow despite the fact slavery Arab Muslims practiced had all the objective characteristics of chattel slavery it somehow wasn't that, and it wasn't racist despite the proven views and actions of Arab Muslims like just for one example Morocco in the 17th century enacting a law that all Blacks within its borders where to be slaves, even if they where previously free and Muslim.
"And it also ignores the point being made about how in the US during the height of slavery, American perception was that all Africans were inferior and unable to have their own societies while there had been plenty of known about examples to the contrary within recent historical memory and concurrent with the time."
Looking at what many try to pass as societies in that region I can see why they thought that such societies should as well not exist or are pretty much on the border of nonexistence and that something like theirs should be practiced by those people.
"And don't even try to call something else propaganda when you are showing your lack of any knowledge from non-propagandistic sources about the mound cultures of North America...and the specific ways in which their "mounds" got lumped in as "something found all over the world" when that's absolutely not an accurate description of them. The few that are left from people not destroying them are pretty damn impressive to visit."
You dumb blunt I have fricking been to those mounds and they are surpassed by many things from the old world by a large margin, like holy shit you are the one showing some profound ignorance knowing nothing of Chinese and other oriental earthworks or ancient and post roman empire European earthworks and the incomparable for the time land reclamation practiced by the medieval germans/dutch. The only thing that most of the nate mounds differ in is that they often have no real purpose then to be higher then the surrounding ground while mounds elsewhere where often built elsewhere for measurable practical purposes such as defense or control over water flow and they also tended to be allot bigger if not vertically then horizontally by a large margin.
"Also, trying to cite a concept like "iron age" to describe the technology of a culture is some age of empires level understanding of the subject. Maybe try to not be lost in history books written in the 1950s when you attempt to learn anything about history. That's the same kind of shit as citing frenology when talking about the human brain."
You prove your own stupidity once again, the entire idea of the Iron age is far from disproven as a valid concept even in the consensus of "modern"(read ciced) academia, and wow once again you demonstrate your profound lack of understanding by claiming that no history book after the 1950s discussed the iron age as valid concept and at the same time thinking that phrenology was commonly advanced at the time when it had fallen out of any mainstream favor around a century before then in the 1840s.
@@CuckHunt except that's not based in reality. For West Africa in particular, Europeans had been trading with the various river cultures there for so long that referencing Timbuktu was common practice for "somewhere far away." Songhai especially was a known entity, and the collapse of that empire after being looted by Moroccan excursions was specifically one of the major impetuses for continued exploitation of the region. It was only later that a revisionist narrative of how inherently poor and unenlightened the people of the region were was established, ignoring the lengthy history of the region.
And no, citing the fact that there were cultures who looked down on others cultures at various points is not useful for understanding what became systematized exploitation of a region. That's fundamentally misunderstanding what chattel slavery was, and ignoring the complexities of international and inter-cultural exchange before the age of European colonialism. And it also ignores the point being made about how in the US during the height of slavery, American perception was that *all* Africans were inferior and unable to have their own societies while there had been plenty of known about examples to the contrary within recent historical memory and concurrent with the time.
And don't even try to call something else propaganda when you are showing your lack of any knowledge from non-propagandistic sources about the mound cultures of North America...and the specific ways in which their "mounds" got lumped in as "something found all over the world" when that's absolutely not an accurate description of them. The few that are left from people not destroying them are pretty damn impressive to visit. Also, trying to cite a concept like "iron age" to describe the technology of a culture is some age of empires level understanding of the subject. Maybe try to not be lost in history books written in the 1950s when you attempt to learn anything about history. That's the same kind of shit as citing frenology when talking about the human brain.
@@tahlialysse damn, you tore him apart, put him back together again, then slapped him and spat in his face.
7:33 the villains talk weird and it's hard to take them seriously? who would have expected this of L. Ron Hubbard, the man who once described a fictional genocide with the phrase "goof the floof"
excuse me WHAT
Ah yes, famous author, Elrond Cupboard
Elrond like CastItInTheFire Elrond ?
Edwin Blubber
Ram rod Scabbard
Aron Clubbord
Elron Horseteeth Hubbert
"Schleim"? Seriously? The alien is just called "slime" in German? Okay, Hubbard.
Lol Bilingual bonus! 😆
When people say "golden age of sci fi" they mean when an editor would let this go out with their imprint on it
"Your manuscript must be perfect before submission" and then "here, let an editor get their greasy hands all over it and change up the style and wording, character and place names because the book clearly isn't perfect without someone else's elbow grease justifying their own employment by turning the book into what *they* want. Who cares if it is not the story the author intended? The author isn't anyone before publication."
@@KarmaSpaz12 ...What the hell are you basing that on?
@@KarmaSpaz12I can tell you right now, because I'm working with an editor as we speak, that editors are _essential_ for making sure you tell the story you want to, in the way you want to.
An editor isn't someone who just goes in and changes shit behind your back, it's someone who reads your work, makes suggestions, and then hands it back to you. You talk with them about it, make the changes yourself, and then discuss further.
Thank you for touching on how bad L. Ron Hubbard was as a person. He's infinitely worse than Ben Shapiro if only because his cult ended up being so terrifyingly successful. I live in Clearwater (the city of Scientology) and it's incredibly messed up. Words can't describe.
P.S - Interesting fact... A lot of Clearwater is in fact actually owned by the Church of Scientology. All those weird tan buildings on the skyline? They're theirs. But all the streets around there are also basically deserted because normal people don't have a reason to be there, and tourists stick to the resort areas and the beaches normally. Fucking creepy ass cult shit.
the fact tom cruise himself supports it!
@@maymay5600 John Travolta too!
Yo, ex-Scientologist here (parents were in) - regarding your statement 'terrifyingly successful' - it's big in Clearwater and LA, everywhere else, it's small and unnoticeable. The church is actually shrinking slowly. Just wanted to mention that most scientologists are decent people, but they do shitty things believing they are helping people / the cult. There are of course a few fanatical diehards. Also depends how deep they're in. Most of what's in Clearwater is what would be analogous to the top clergy of the church, so they're in pretty deep. But basically they think they're saving the world. Just my thoughts, have a good one
@@skullmonkey5633 Thanks for your perspective. Living (literally) in the shadow of Scientology on a day to day basis has probably skewed my impression of how successful they are.
I do feel really bad for the well meaning people who get pulled into it. Nobody joins a cult on purpose. Glad you got out of there.
If you give enough of your income to the Church of Scientology, you will be rewarded with ENDLESS OPTIONS FOR RENEWAL! ENDLESS OPTIONS FOR RENEWAL! ENDLESS OPTIONS FOR RENEWAL!
HAHAHAHAHA!
Is the alien’s name Turl? Because everytime he said it, I heard turtle.
Teryl, which was actually a popular girl's name in the 30's so I think Hubbard was saying else by naming the main villain that
@@kingsadvisor18 Oh, thank you!
Battlefield Earth: its 50's sci-fi way past its expiration date.
That kind of mean to 50s Sci-Fi
Like sour milk.
Others may have mentioned this, but Psychlos is more likely a reference to Psychology and Psychiatry. Scientology has great animosity toward the mental health field as they see it as enabling and perpetuating mental problems and preventing people from achieving real health through the actual curative practices of the Church. Rather than referring to "psychos," it refers to the people who treat the psychos.
It sounds like he tried to outdo Dune and lost badly.
My thoughts exactly.
Why would populations that have been separated for 1000 years still speak modern English?
If I recall that is one of the areas which they do explain-they all speak different languages and learn the Psycho language so they can understand each other [similar to English as the language of the air].
I wonder who the villain is, the evilers, the badlors or the gooduns.
Sir, you did NOT need to torture yourself like this just to make content for us. Please get yourself a stiff drink and a strong joint. You've earned it.
james having a degree in finances is the biggest reveal tbh
Ugh! Mine earth for metals? Just go find a supernova’s nebula! GOLD! GOLD EVERYWHERE!!!
Does anyone else get Empress Theresa vibes? More competently written, but the character wants to do something and it gets done and causes them to get rich from it. They finally get to a problem that they have to actually have to work for (stable galactic politics/multiple HAL users) and the character just decides "I'm doing the crazy idea and dont care what everyone else thinks" and it just magically works. And they end up becoming the smartest people in the world and have ways to try and teach the masses and own crazy amounts of money. And any legal opposition just gets shut down due to stupid reasons.
The best story I ever read based in Paris about Parisians made no mentions of the Louvre, the Eiffel tower, or the arc. I live in Chicago, and haven't even been by a landmark in months. Can always tell when a tourist, or someone whose never been here writes about my city. We never, or rarely go to the bean, navy pier, john hancock, or the tower formely knows as sears.
I liked the book quite a bit when I was a kid. I read it for the first time in middle school. It was just one of the hundreds of books in my dad's collection of fantasy and scifi to me. Some of the concepts were interesting, although most of the scifi elements are impossible. Like a life form made from viruses, or a planet with an atmosphere that explodes in the presence of radiation. Admittedly, the book is not ACTUALLY good, but my much younger self enjoyed it.
I also enjoyed the book in my mid teens but the movie is literally a POS of the lowest order.
Agreed. Elements of the story are quite innovative.
Dude, how long did it take you to finish that book? It's over a thousand pages long! I'm 16 and my attention span with books is kinda low despite loving books
@@colonynaut1627 maybe your right. I definitely think more people of this generation should read more books to broaden their minds, it's just a small problem I have where I can't always read more than two pages even if I'm interested in the book I'm reading
@@colonynaut1627 Thank you the advice.
I watched Battlefield Earth 4 times: on my own, with an unfortunate friend, on a train in colorado, and with two unfortunate friends. I never want to touch the movie again with a 50 foot stick
Wow, you have probably watched it more than anyone else on the planet. I feel sorry for you.
Would you touch it with a 15 241 mm stick? :)
@@TheGreatPower365 I watched it 4 times more than anyone had to watch it. Oh yeah, and all this was in the span of 2 months
@@grantingtherant1465 you should let the Guiness Book of World Records know- they might want to do an entry on you.
I apologize for my state, I didn't know the department of transportation had become pure evil.
Blowing up a whole civilization without knowing it? Becoming a God-Emperor of the universe? Why does that remind of things
Me: The movie was terrible.
James: Let me spell your name.
The whole slavery angle is pretty laughable in this book because you could literally take a look at American history for ideas.
Like, African American slaves were banned from reading and writing because their owners knew that if they did learn how to, they could send messages and communicate with each other in the same way white people could. As a matter of fact, Africans who were taken as slaves were forced to learn English by word of mouth and speaking. This has a plethora of historical side effects; the way how black people talk in the modern day is heavily affected by the vernacular created from that era. AAVE or African American Vernacular English (the kind of speech pattern that merges words and created modern speech like “dawg”,“yo”, “homie”, etc) is an entire set of linguistics that emerged from this era.
Slavery is such a complex topic that could be explored in interesting ways if some research was done, but Hubbard has such a poor understanding of how slavery works and how It’s propagated that it’s laughable. No slave master would teach their slaves about how the world works if they could help it, because a slave with perspective is a slave that rebels.
People think of the Atlantic slave trade (especially in relation to the British colonies and later US) because it was relatively recent and solidified race-based indefinate enslavement. It is a good place to start, but there are so many versions of this institution (modern and ancient) that can be explored.
For example, Rome had an entire class of enslaved people educated in household management and white collar professions.
Some slaves worked in taverns and stores.
@@sarahtaylor4264 this is also true! There’s so many real world examples to look to.
You’re criticizing dialogue written in 1982. There was a time when “crap” was a new and edgy term.
thank you so much for doing what you do- you make great videos
I've never heard of so much focus on finances in a fictional book AND how that manages to add an extra layer or two to the plot holes. It's kind of fascinating in a way.
BTW
I can't help but think that Jonny became the Master of the Universe(s?). And my mind went straight to el James.
Yikes
I think the whole "willing real hard" to heal himself is in Scientology too. I know it is for the mental stuff at least -- and since the physical issues were because of brain damage...
Yep.I tried to read a few Hubbard books years ago. .In short: Two dimensional heroes ...( and women in leather with whips ?)
So, pretty damned good, right?
@@jdgustofwinddance.7748 LOL Sounds spicy right ?..But it's written rather tedious.
@@spiritualanarchist8162 Mission Earth series is what you’re talking about, right? I liked a few of them.
@@jdgustofwinddance.7748 Yes, that could be it ! I don't remember much about them to be honest (outside the Semi-SM 'vibe :)
Someone told me they were written by a 'genius'the greatest Sci-fi ever etc. ..(Now in hindsight I know it was a Scientologist who recommended them ) I was a young and just discovered Dune , Hyperion., etc. So I think i was just disappointed. Maybe his books are O.K, but it was expecting too much.
@@spiritualanarchist8162 ha. SM is tricky in literary format. Not that shades bullmess, though. That’s trash. Hamilton, Lovecraft, Bradbury, Clarke, Phillip K Dick, Wells are scifi geniuses; not Hubbard.
I speak German, I’m not sure what I should think about the thumbnail
Same here
I mean its almost right
I was wondering what this was about. German here as well
Everybody in this thread: James very often uses German in his thumbnail and I so want to know why! My theory is that he learned German in highschool for a while and never had a use for it and now uses it in his thumbnails so he can honestly say that he uses his German skills in his professional life. A kind of inside joke between James and himself.
@Mako Cat He gave me an explanation in an original comment I made somewhere here in this comment section. Just look for my username and profile picture if you're interested.
I saw Battlefield Earth at a Barnes and Noble a few weeks ago. They still try to push this book!
They believe that it’s a good way to lure in victims, that readers will become curious about him and then look into Scientology
Off topic
James your hair looks good.
Underrated comment
He should shorten it a bit so he doesn't need to keep it constantly out of his face.
Username makes this comment even better.
I’ve avoided it lol. I remember as a kid watching the movie and liked it. Then watched it a few years ago.... man lol
Scary thing about Hubbard is that you'd mistake him for an idiot based off his books, when he was in fact a dangerous genius. The man has a catalogue of thousands of books - no exaggeration. It's clear he was playing the numbers. Write as many books as possible with minimal literary effort, and you'll sell at least a few copies of each one because people are curious.
It's actually interesting he didn't make his books mandatory or compulsory for scientologists, just the Dianetics ones. He may have been very aware they were shit
Your videos are the conversations with friends I don’t get to have because none of them have the same interests as me/like me enough to talk to me for more than an hour. Best thing to wake up to an upload!
Terl went out with less fanfare than Zorg in the Fifth Element, and that was a case where the main villain and the main hero never even met face-to-face. (Fifth Element was the first thing that sprang to mind, since I saw it just the other day for the first time all the way through.)
The absolute worst thing about Zorg's death was that it ended Gary Oldman's screentime. I could watch him chew the scenery any day.
This sounds like the unlicensed Chinese version of Frank Herbert's dune.
For some reason, my dad's favorite movie is Battlefield Earth. Like he'll even recommend it to people.
"While you were still learning how to SPELL YOUR NAME, I was already editing Stones to Abbigale into an internet meme classic!"
*Leverage leverage, I need leverage on that guy"
Is that a Freudian slip by mr Hubbard, mayhaps?
Would love to see you tackle Mission Earth. It makes the criticism of things like psychology that Hubbard includes in this book look subtle.
80's Onision
"Leverage, leverage, leverage!"
Basically, it's just Hubbard using his own thought pattern when he was leading his cult while he was writing his sci-fi drivel.
(17:40) Then imagine how non-US people feel reading these books, that for the most part takes place in USA ;)
Just like with many other USA books and movies, we aren't surprised. XD
James, reading the Patreon list: *mentions the name "Brother Santodes"*
Me, a TTS fan: [uncontrollable excitement] IT'S OUR BOYYYY!!
Ordo Draigo present! We will provide the Hams!
~Marsy Boys...
Bionic Babies... I want to enter your temple.
*BEEP*
I want to be just like him when I get fucking murdered.
“Push me on the swing, daddy, push me!”
What do you expecting coming from the guy who started Scientology?
Supposedly, he’s also the most published author in history
nothing... nothing at all
Not good names, that’s for sure. Scientology? Really?
Over an hour long video? Certain to be more entertaining than the book.
I’ll mostly watch movie reviews but this was my first book review. It was really entertaining. Really well explained.
TBH Hubbard probably wanted psychlos to sound like psychiatrists/psychologists.
I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but the movie was much better simply because of how campy it is.
Fun fact: L. Ron Hubbard's wife was named Mary Sue.
Over one thousand pages of dutch angles. You sir are a trooper.
L Ron Hubbard. Several years past his predicted resurrection and we're glad of it. But somehow scientologist's seem to overlook that point.
After college in the early 00s, I "won" a 10 volume set of Hubbard's Mission Earth. I also lost the bet in that I read it.
I would like to destroy some evil today.
Hubbard, the DarkSydePhil of science fiction.
0:50 I haven't watched the review yet but I just want to say at this point that the clip of battlefield earth was so bad it made my internet die and it didn't come back for a half hour.
What a coincidence, I just watched Battlefield Earth and it also sucked.
I hope the actors in _Battlefield Earth_ had good dental insurance, considering how much they chewed the scenery.
You know what would have been cool? If instead of wanting revenge for humanity, he realized how doomed they were and wanted to work WITH them instead. Think about those he would have to fight to keep his village with him, think about how interesting it would be if he and the main "villain" had to work together to convinc the others about human/alien relationships and how its benifitial! idfk I am on some wild shit.
sentience is the ability to experience your surroundings through your senses. almost all animals are sentient and some plants might be. Humans on the other hand are Sapient, which is the ability to take information and be able to reason with it. Some animals might be on the lower end of sapience such as the Kea or Octopus.
It's kinda of a nitpicky thing, but people using sentience as sapience is a pet peeve of mine.
Edit: COLORADO FREN!!!!! and I know what you mean specifically about colorado representation. there was a fairly bad book series I read a while ago but one of the best parts was the is was clear that the author lived in Denver at least at some point in his life. he mentioned very specific places that I recognized like a certain restaurant on a certain street. It was kinda cool being able to actually picture the scenes with such detail.
You know what the Rocky mountains don't have much of? Gold. You know what they Rocky Mountains have quite a bit of? Yellow Cake. Boy I wonder which one an advanced alien civilization would value more. -.-
You should have done the Dutch angle idea. Would have been the funniest shit I've ever seen.
If that second movie was made, and it was nothing but peace talks with similar acting as the first one, I think we all kinda would want too see it.
But in all honesty, L.Ron wrote most of his stuff when scifi writers were paid by the word count. So he wrote a lot. More than anyone. When Theodore Sturgeon said that 90 percent of scifi is crap, (as with everything) its likely closer to about 95% because of people like L.Ron.
For anyone who may have missed or forgotten this: Once Hubbards book was nominated for a Hugo. The result of that was, I thought, pretty funny.
The way he’s described as being so perfect, I can only imagine Jonnie as a shirtless Fabio (in his prime) running around doing all this weird sci-fi shit.
Five seconds in and I can tell that this broke him
An L. Ron Hubbard product that sucked?!! SHOCKED! I AM SHOCKED, I TELL YA!
BE is one of those movies that have a most peculiar quality. You watch it and it's absolutely terrible and as time passes you see a bit of it and you think. "Hey it couldn't have been all that bad after all." And after viewing it again you go "It's definitely terrible, no doubt about it." And watching the review I caught myself going "I need to rewatch it because it may not have been terrible after all." It's horribly insidious ...
Saw your entire review. If I had any notion of checking this book out just to give it a benefit of the doubt, watching your video felt like I've read it myself. LoL, very thorough and etertaining analysis. Thanks!!!
I remember reading this in highschool. I found it interesting since it didn't really follow the movie at all the most part and went way further past where the movie ended. I did not realize how much of a gary stu the protagonist was.
Your t-shirt is nice 👍
Hubbard hated psychology. The name psychlo is psychology, but also is psycho. The reason he hated counselors is because they could figure him out and see through his bs,.
Thank you for feeding my anti scientology binge! and I like your glasses
Alright, next book:
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health
I think that book can actually make you crazy if you take any of it seriously.
@@Thobeian I think you’re already crazy if you take dianetics seriously
@@ronsee6458 You don't need to be crazy, just not very well informed on psychology. CoS still exists because their doctrine sounds plausible and seems to work in the beginning (they don't work for the reasons they tell you though). With that on the bottom, it's so much easier to reel you in and get you to accept and believe all the rest of it.
Yaaaaaay! An hour and a half long review of a bad book! My favourite!
Can you do video about how intelligent was Darth Plagueis in the Star Wars Expanded Universe was in universe?
Not psychlo as in Psycho, psychlo as in Psychotherapist. It's mentioned later in the book. I am not kidding.
Me: Oh, this video is interesting and fun to watch. I love rant videos.
Me when I notice James’ shirt: This is the best video I’ve ever seen, I need to burn it onto a dvd and worship it.
You're a better person than I am. I tried ... and failed to read that awful piece of work.
Don't sell yourself short.
I didn't even try.
If a fiction book is meant to be like a found and compiled documents thing, or like a log(book) or diary or whatever I actually like fake translator notes (or fake editor notes). I think that’s sort of cute. If it’s a novel however, then it’s weird.
It was on sale on Kindle and I was like "eh... I have too much to read"