For me, it is Blackwood's idea of nature as sentient that dazzles - even more than his weird tales of psychic detectives and retributive ghosts and ancient demons summoned by old words and spells.
They "extend the range of animals who are self-aware," he says, a mental ability that is necessary if one is to behave in a sentient rather than machinelike manner.
I found strange alien monuments here, and a few more sentient lifeforms than I'd anticipated.
In that last passage, were no more sentient verbs available than the vapid "find" and "comprehend," no noun more vigorous than "passageway," no trope more personal than "maze" that would give body to his quest?
"But their transport and the stress of unfamiliar surroundings as well as their use as props rather than sentient, sensitive individuals have still not been addressed".
In navigating the world and deciding what is rewarding, humans are closer to zombies than sentient beings much of the time.
"It is a mechanistic use of animals that seems to perpetuate the notion of their being merely tools for human use rather than sentient creatures," the Humane Society of the United States says in its position paper on the practice.
While some may balk at the outlandish final act, there's no doubting the infectious affection of the film's descent into the mouth of madness, and Whedon's admirable desire to treat fans as sentient beings rather than brainless dorks.
Children very soon might grow up viewing machines as sentient beings rather than feats of engineering.
