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Comment by iainmerrick | Hacker News Reader

I mostly agree about Interstellar, but I think it was the first time a lot of people encountered the idea of time dilation.

It’s old hat in written SF, of course, but hadn’t come up much in major movies before (or at least that’s the impression I get from reactions and reviews by people who don’t read SF).

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Time dilation is a great and underutilized storytelling device. Far and away the best example I know of is Gunbuster. Most Western audiences don't want to sit through two and a half hours of 80s anime, regardless of the quality.

Time dilation is used to great effect in the Ender series by Orson Card, though not in the first book (Ender's Game). Highly recommend reading the rest of them if you've only read the first (or seen the movie).

Any time Ender's Game is mentioned I immediately think of this review that was way more entertaining than the source material: http://somethingshortandsnappy.blogspot.com/2013/03/enders-g...

Ah, yes, the infamous Rip Van Winkle effect.

I consider time dilation to be an inherently literary format, and Forever War is where the idea is turned up to eleven. There's also a short comic adaptation if you like.

There is a great Dr. Who episode called “World Enough and Time” that is all about time dilation: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6340138/

Far better than the treacly Interstellar, in my judgement.

The first installment of Ursula K. Le Guin's Hainish universe is a time dilation story in the style of a folk tale: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dowry_of_Angyar

The book that comes to my mind is the awesome "The Forever War", a classic.

Seconded. I read The Forever War and Ender's Game for the first time, back to back. The Forever War is superior in every way.

Yes! I’ve always felt that would make a great movie.

There's a movie called Time Trap that sort of uses this as a plot device. While the time slipage isn't caused by the effects of a black hole, it is still an interesting sci-fi. Not a big budget film that I had never heard of, but the pandemic has allowed me to watch a lot of stuff I probably wouldn't have had time for before.

Agree with this. I think the time dilation was the best part of the movie - had not seen that used in major movies before.

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