Friday, September 6, 2024

Red Matter and Black Holes

This is going to be a really quick follow-up to my last Karl Urban post.


I have not watched these new Star Trek movies, but apparently in the first of J.J. Abrams' reboots (the 2009 movie), there is a thing called Red Matter.  How this Red Matter is portrayed in the film caught my attention as I was quickly doing an online search to what this movie was about.  Again, I know next to nothing about it, but I was interested to see something "Red" and particularly how it was shown:



It is a Red Ball.  Or, I guess, the substance is contained within that Red Ball, and the made the Ball Red to reinforce that it contains Red Matter?  I don't know - I was just interested in the Ball.


That is because I think our Rose Stone is also Red.  It then got a little more interesting as it appears this Red Ball is capable of creating a Black Hole in the movie.  Here is a description from a fan site I found as I was trying to find out more about this Red Matter:


In 2387, the Romulan sun went supernova, threatening to destroy Romulus, the Romulan people, and the galaxy. Ambassador Spock piloted what he described as "our fastest ship" equipped with red matter in an effort to create a black hole to absorb the exploding star.


OK, I don't quite understand what is going on there (probably a taste of my own medicine for people who stumble upon my blog and wonder just what the heck they are reading).  I mean, ultimately wouldn't a Black Hole be more destructive and disruptive in the long run than the Supernova it is being created to absorb?  Again, it's J.J. Abrams, I suppose.


But the mention of a Black Hole was interesting, because that has been a symbol associated with the Rose Stone in particular.  So, it is true that even in terrible stories and plots we can find some interesting little winks, I guess.


In addition, that fan site description said that Spock carried the Red Matter on the "fastest ship".  So, there is this element of speed again.  I have suggested that the 'fastest' being - the Swift Messenger Jah ni hah - will carry the Rose Stone, so that seemed like a fairly direct reference.


Nothing else I really wanted to point out here, other than I saw a giant Red Ball that was said to create a Black Hole, and that seemed interesting.


I also should mention that the word "matter" apparently also can mean something like a story or narrative:  "From c. 1200 as "a subject of a literary work, content of what is written, main theme;" sense of "narrative, tale, story" is from c. 1300.".  So, the Red Story?  That would fit with all of the other symbols we've explored, and with what I think the Rose Stone represents.  Further, matter is yet again another French-based word that, complementary to that earlier definition of a story or tale, means, "the subject of a mental act or a course of thought, speech, or expression," from Anglo-French matere, Old French matere "subject, theme, topic; substance, content; character, education". 


It is both a mental act as well as thought-speech that I believe will be communicated to and from the Rose Stone, so that also fits with this name of Red Matter.


This hasn't, however, made me interested in watching these new Star Trek movies anytime soon, though.  I pulled up a couple clips, and I am not sure I could get into them.

4 comments:

  1. I daresay if you can handle the Captain Kirk Star Trek movies you can handle these. I'd watch them any day of the week over the originals personally.

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  2. Whoops. I meant to say the William Shatner movies, not Captain Kirk.

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  3. Really? Well, maybe I'll have to check out the 2009 reboot or whatever it is and see. I think I tried watching it once before and not making it very far in.

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  4. "Matter" can refer to a body of legendary material, as in "the Matter of Britain" (about Arthur) and "the Matter of France" (about Charlemagne). Cf. "Legend Red" in this post:

    https://narrowdesert.blogspot.com/2024/07/mont-rose.html

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