The Shape of Things to Come - Shoghi Effendi reads Sci Fi
Channel: Sen McGlinn
Date: 2024-04-02

This video shows that Shoghi Effendi read H.G. Well's utopian work "The Shape of Things to Come," and quotes from it in his 1936 letter "The Unfoldment of World Civilization," which is one of the "World Order" letters. The video also has a fat furry cat and a vocal duck, so there's something for everyone. 

The Shape of Things to Come is available as a free text on Project Gutenberg:
https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301391h.html

Shoghi Effendi's letter, "The Unfoldment of World Civilization," is available on Bahai-Library.

"The Generation of the Half-Light" at page 168 is here: 
https://bahai-library.com/writings/shoghieffendi/wob/woball.html#168
"The Age of Frustration" at page 171 is here:
https://bahai-library.com/writings/shoghieffendi/wob/woball.html#171
and "the sharpening and refinement of the human brain" at page 204 is here:
https://bahai-library.com/writings/shoghieffendi/wob/woball.html#204

There is a trailer for one of the film versions of “The shape of things to come” on YouTube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og8ulS9W4Mw
it has transformers and a pretty lead actress, but also terrifying music and people screaming. I recommend cats. 

Some of the film versions, and reviews, can be found under “Things to come,” including the 1936 version which is now in the public domain:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22things+to+come%22 

Did Shoghi Effendi go to the movies? Did the movies go to Haifa? 
Violetta, please find out! People want to know! 

I warmly recommend Violetta Zein’s YouTube presentation about Shoghi Effendi in Oxford:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFjTX-XJggY
and her online illustrated chronology that matches that:
https://theutteranceproject.com/the-guardian-part-4/
This is seriously good scholarship, charmingly presented. 

Her presentation is one of a series of videos on Bahai history, carried on the Clearwater Bahai channel: @ClearwaterBahais
This channel has 894 Bahai videos, so they too have something for everybody.