Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and This is the
Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow
Speaker 2: Your Mind, focusing in non mythical creatures, ideas and monsters
Speaker 2: in time. Our recent Weird House Cinema episode on the
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty one film Dragon Slayer got me thinking once
Speaker 2: more about dragon flight. In this film, noted for its
Speaker 2: superb dragon effects, we get to see Vermathra's pejorative soar
Speaker 2: terrifyingly across the sky like a fighter jet, as well
Speaker 2: as swooped down from craggy Peaks, but we don't see
Speaker 2: the creature engage in vertical takeoff. In the special features
Speaker 2: for the excellent twenty twenty three remastered Blu Ray release,
Speaker 2: the effects team indicated that they intentionally avoided depicting the
Speaker 2: dragon taken to flight in order to avoid challenges in
Speaker 2: making the feat seem believable, because, of course, dragons, while
Speaker 2: creatures of fantasy, should feel believable on the screen, and
Speaker 2: that may often mean choosing what to depict and what
Speaker 2: to leave to the audience's imagination. But in raising the
Speaker 2: specter of believable dragonflight, I was reminded of an older
Speaker 2: episode of Weird House Cinema in which I discussed the
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty two animated film The Flight of Dragons with
Speaker 2: Seth Nicholas Johnson. The film from Rankin in Bass was
Speaker 2: based on the nineteen seventy nine book by Peter Dickinson
Speaker 2: and illustrated by Wayne Anderson. Part coffee table fantasy art
Speaker 2: book and part speculative natural history of dragons. The book
Speaker 2: is an absolute delight, and affordable used copies are still
Speaker 2: very much in circulation. Dickinson lays out one of the
Speaker 2: more intriguing models for dragon biology and flight, which I'll
Speaker 2: briefly summarize here. For starters, the dragons of flight of
Speaker 2: dragonagons are quote flying bricks. They have thick bodies and
Speaker 2: short wings, but are very capable of flight. The wings
Speaker 2: for starters are too small to support their weight and
Speaker 2: are not proper limbs, but rather webbed spines that evolved
Speaker 2: from their ribs. The dragons only use these wings for
Speaker 2: propulsion and maneuvering because their large bodies contain lighter than
Speaker 2: air gas, specifically hydrogen, which the dragon produces via digestion
Speaker 2: of limestone. The fiery breath then is a byproduct of
Speaker 2: their mode of flight. They must regularly vent hydrogen as
Speaker 2: a means of lowering their altitude when in flight, or
Speaker 2: as a matter of course, when not engaged in flight.
Speaker 2: Via structure known as thors thimble and the roof of
Speaker 2: their mouth, the dragons are able to ignite the hydrogen
Speaker 2: as a great burst of flame. The film does a
Speaker 2: fine job relating all of this, and the book ruminates
Speaker 2: on the speculative evolution, life cycle, and biology of fire
Speaker 2: breathing dragons as well as dragon slayers. It's a great
Speaker 2: deal of fun, but also rather insightful and clever. I
Speaker 2: highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in the
Speaker 2: monster sciences. While we don't have any terrestrial organisms that
Speaker 2: engage in this mode of flight, science fiction contains numerous
Speaker 2: other examples of creatures that fly via bladders of lighter
Speaker 2: than atmosphere gas. Artist and author Wayne Barlow, a legend
Speaker 2: in his field, for example, envisioned the Eosapiens in his
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety book Expedition. Barlow envisioned them as the most
Speaker 2: advanced life form on the planet Darwin four, floating in
Speaker 2: the atmosphere via two bladders of methane in the planet's
Speaker 2: oxygen rich atmosphere. Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster, Fact,
Speaker 2: The Artifact, or Anamalia Stupendium each week. As always, you
Speaker 2: can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your
Speaker 2: Mind dot com.
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