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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.
List of contents
Table of ContentsForeword 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
About the author
Allen A. Debus, a retired environmental chemist, has long been infatuated with dinosaurs, paleontology, science fiction, Godzilla and King Kong. He has written several books addressing prehistoric creatures--both real and fictional--in popular culture, and attends Chicagoland's Wizard World and G-Fest. He lives in Hanover Park, Illinois.
