Imagine.

Jack Malik: John, Paul, George and Ringo, The Beatles. Yesterday, it’s one of the greatest songs ever written.

Carol: Well, it’s not Coldplay, it’s not Fix You.

 - Yesterday

Note:  the following posting contains a minor spoiler for the movie Yesterday - okay, perhaps a major spoiler, it's a matter of opinion.  A spoiler, anyway.

My interest in science fiction and fantasy is well established, but most people are unaware that I'm a complete fool for romance as well (just ask my wife).

As such, I'm pleasantly surprised by how many romantic-comedy fantasy films there are. On the face of it, it seems like an odd sub-genre. I can't think of a lot of war movie or western rom-coms, but there's a substantial list of fantasy-themed takes on boy-meets-girl:  Kate and Leopold, Splash, Groundhog Day, Isn't It Romantic?, About Time, Shallow Hal, and so on - I'm not sure that Princess Bride is romantic enough to qualify, but you get the idea.

Yesterday, the latest addition to the list, is perhaps more comedy than romance, although romance is certainly part of the story. The film's concept is quite simple - Jack Malik, a failing English musician on his way home from what he has decided is his last performance, is knocked off his bike by a bus during a 12-second global blackout.

After he painfully regains consciousness in the hospital, he slowly comes to the realization that, in this new post-blackout reality, the Beatles never existed.* Jack is now the only person in the world who remembers the music of John, Paul, George and Ringo.

 

He  decides to capitalize on his unique knowledge, and uses his memory of the Beatles' catalogue** to springboard himself into a position of international fame and fortune, while struggling with the morality of whether or not he should claim credit for the music which is making him famous.  At the same time, he's slowly losing touch with his long-time friend, supporter and part-time manager Ellie, who finally admits to her love for him when she feels that she's lost him to his newfound role as " the world’s greatest singer-songwriter".

Jack is brilliantly played by British actor Himesh Patel, who also does all of his own singing in Yesterday.  The movie cleverly relies upon solo performances backed only by guitar for most of the songs, which helps to level the playing field in terms of where they originate in the history of the band:  there's a big jump from Help! to Magical Mystery Tour.  It also recognizes the uncertain knowledge that most of us have regarding song lyrics - it's easy to put yourself in Jack's shoes as he struggles to recreate the words to Eleanor Rigby.

In selecting the Beatles over the Rolling Stones or the Who, the writers acknowledge the incredible cultural impact of their music.  I've always thought that five hundred years from now, the Beatles will be one of the lasting legacies of the the 20th century, much as Shakespeare is the only playwright that anyone recognizes from the Elizabethan era.

The what-if alternate timeline concept is a common one, whether caused by a time traveller's errant foot killing a butterfly or a quantum shift into another version of reality, common enough that both The Simpsons and Family Guy have done episodes based on the idea.   Science fiction often attempts to describe the future based on the present - alternate reality stories describe the present based on a different past.

Not surprisingly, there are a couple of other versions of the no-Beatles reality available, both of which revolve around time travel rather than alternate realities: a French graphic novel, also called Yesterday, and 1963: Fanfare for the Common Men, a Peter Davison Doctor Who audio play in which the Beatles have been replaced by Mark, James and Korky - The Common Men.***

The real question is whether or not the Beatles would succeed in 2019 or more accurately, whether their music would.  Yesterday takes it almost as a given that the answer is yes. Jack is quickly hailed as a musical genius, and his first album is anticipated to be the greatest record of all time.

 

However, there are larger implications to a world without the Beatles (although, honestly, I feel that a world without cigarettes would be a much more intriguing one - think of all the people who didn't die from related cancers, it would have to add up). Changing history is like dropping a stone into a pool - the splash is obvious, but the ripples will travel a lot further.  Yesterday concentrates on splash, but it spends a little time looking at the ripples as well, most notably Jack's meeting with a 78-year-old John Lennon.

It's a meeting made possible by the fact that, in a world where Lennon never publicly announced that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus, Mark David Chapman would never even know his name, let alone wait for him outside a New York apartment building with a .38 calibre revolver.  The Lennon scene has proven to be somewhat controversial, but for me, it made perfect sense as one of the most powerful consequences of the Beatles never coming together, and I found it to be an unexpectedly touching element in the framework of the story.

I quite enjoyed Yesterday - it's not perfect, but it's an entertaining little fantasy concept movie that doesn't attempt to change the world - no pun intended.   Would the music of the Beatles succeed in a different era?  Impossible to say, but I'd hope that it would.

Ultimately, I'd like to think that, as per John Lennon's animated alter ego in Yellow Submarine, nothing is Beatle proof.

- Sid

* Along with cigarettes, Coca-Cola, and Oasis - which, as Jack comments, does make sense, although it leads to a bit of a hole in the plot regarding a key performance from his school days.  Oh well, wibbly wobbly, timey wimey...

** Not surprisingly, close to half the film's budget was dedicated to the rights for the Beatle's music.

***  I've only explored a few of the Doctor Who radio plays/audio books, but I'm tempted to look this one up - as I've explained to Karli, the key to Doctor Who is that it's ALWAYS aliens, and as such I'm curious to see if Korky turns out to be from Arcateen V.

Khlûl′-hloo?

The first syllable pronounced gutturally and very thickly. The u is about like that in full; and the first syllable is not unlike klul in sound, hence the h represents the guttural thickness.

H.P. Lovecraft

As we were paying for our purchases at Munro's, Karli glanced down at my little stack of books and said, "Oh, a Cthulhu book, good for you!"

I was a little touched by her comment - it's a testament to her ongoing support that she knows about Cthulhu, let alone being able to pronounce it correctly (insofar as anyone can).

Just when I think I can't find another reason to love you, Karli...

- Sid
 

A cover IS nice. (With apologies to Mary Poppins Returns)

Karli and I are spending the weekend in Victoria, and as part of our visit, we did a little shopping at Munro's, Victoria's excellent independent bookstore.  As I stood looking thoughtfully at the shelves in the science fiction section, I realized that in spite of conventional wisdom, I first judge a book by its cover.

As someone who works in the graphics industry, I appreciate a well-conceived book design, but outside of that, I have all kinds of memories and associations that go with particular books, which is one of the reasons that when I buy a replacement copy, I try to get the same edition - or at least, the same cover.*  As an example, I'm probably on my third copy of the 1965 Pyramid publication of E. E. Smith's Second Stage Lensmen and its unique Jack Gaughan cover artwork.  It's the version that my mother owned, and the one that I read first.

I feel that there's a time in the 60s and 70s when almost everything had a cover by either Jack Gaughan or Kelly Freas**, and a period in the 1970s and early 80s when almost everything had a cover by Michael Whelan - other times, other customs, as the Romans said. (I remember when Whelan generously withdrew his name from further consideration at the Hugos after winning 15 awards - 13 as best professional artist - and a SuperHugo at the 50th Annual Worldcon in 1992 for being the best artist in the last 50 years.)

My Edgar Rice Burroughs collection is all over the map in terms of cover art: green Martians by Gino D'Achille and Michael Whelan for the Mars books, the classic Roy Krenkel Jr. covers from the early 60s for the Venus series, Neal Adams' skillfully muscular take on Tarzan, and a couple of  Frazetta covers for Pellucidar - pretty much a who's who of fantasy art.  It's a little tempting to get some kind of consistent set of editions, but I bought all these books at different times in my life, and the covers all bring back different memories of those times.That being said, I'm a little tempted by the Michael Kaluta covers that I found while researching this posting, they have a great steampunk/art nouveau feel to them that's ideally suited to John Carter's adventures on Barsoom.

Burroughs, by Krenkel, Whelan, and Kaluta.

This posting could easily become a book on its own, there are so many memorable artists: Frank Frazetta's Conans, Josh Kirby's great work on Terry Pratchett's Discworld paperbacks, the Pauline Baynes illustrations that perfectly visualized Narnia and its inhabitants, the incredible mixed bag of Ace Double covers, and so on and so on and so on.

 

As with fans of vinyl and classic album artwork, I mourn the possible end of science fiction and fantasy cover art due to the switch to digital editions. I know that there will still be artwork - the cover artwork by Michael Gauss for the ebook version of my friend Annie's prequel novel, Children of Lightning, is brilliant - but somehow the impact of a 200 pixel thumbnail just isn't the same.

 - Sid

* I've never understood the surprisingly common habit of doing something strange with cover art in later editions of novels - borders, framing, and other little tricks that minimize the actual art.

** This mockup is a deliberate homage to Kelly Freas and his characteristic affection for red shadows on faces.