10 March 2005
Thursday 10 March 2005 21:30-22:15 (Radio 3)
China Mieville discovers why we are obsessed with aliens, extraterrestrial and manufactured, when he has a close encounter with leading cultural commentator Bryan Appleyard.
Programme Details
On Night Waves China Mieville discovers Lagos in London, as a new exhibition opens by young photographers showing life on the streets of Nigeria's southern city. China talks to them about the pleasures and pitfalls of photographing one country for consumption by another.
And what are aliens? Are they simply the latest incarnation of what we, in previous eras, used to call angels, demons or fairies? And what do they tell us about ourselves in modern times? Science writer Bryan Appleyard discusses the ways in which we have rationalised or celebrated them, from the joyful anthropocentrism of Star Trek to the nihilism of Stanislaw Lem.
And China talks to renowned journalist Fergal Keane about the connections he makes, between war reporting and literature and Ireland and Africa, in his new book All of These People.
Night Waves, live at 9.30pm here on BBC Radio 3.
Presenter: China Mieville
Producer: Kirsty Pope
Additional Information
1) All of These People by Fergal Keane is published by Harper Collins
2) Casanova, the three part drama by Russell T Davies, and starring Peter O'Toole and David Tennant, begins on Sunday March 13 at 10pm on BBC Three.
3) Aliens byBryan Appleyard is published by Simon and Schuster
4) Depth of Field: Images of Lagos and Londonis at the South London Gallery, from March 10 to May 8
