Paradox,
“And didn’t the Bird’s Nest stadium look like a Jim Burns painting brought to life? For anyone who saw the whole of the opening ceremony, the future is here, and it is so sfnal. And with 2008 wu shu performers demonstrating their own kind of harmony.”
This is well said. As I watched the ceremony, I kept thinking of the Drummers from Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age, among other things.
The women’s fencing, with its LED lights on their masks, and the wires running down their backs, sure looked SFnal to me. Almost retro-SFnal, like those unfortunate James Bond movies where they substitute some goofy videogame for a good old round of baccarat.