Utopias and Gold Lame

Went to the Science Fiction museum in Seattle yesterday. It is its own museum (with separate admission) but is sort of attached to the Experience Music Project blob at Seattle center. The SciFi Museum has lots of stuff from movies and TV, like Captain Kirk's Gold tunic as worn by William Shatner and A Darth Vader helmet used in the making of one of the first Star Wars movies. This sort of thing is really appealling to look at and there is a lot of it. There are also exhibits of Science Fiction in its literary form, such as early copies of the War of the Worlds, one published in a periodical in the 1890s and later in its book format. These first editions and collectible books are interesting to see, but are overshadowed by the pop culture stuff.

Many of the exhibits come from the "Paul Allen Family collection". I picture the billionaire's attic finally getting so full of nerdy collectibles, that he finally had to create a museum to house it all, and so the museum is born. I do recommend visiting it, there are some interesting exhibits which really do explain the importance of SciFi as an art form that introduces ideas and philosopies and theories of science in an accesible way.