Space-related dilated time: Did Queen predict Christopher Nolan’s ‘Interstellar’?
Given the era in which Queen rose to fame, their commercial orbit was never really that far from exploring intergalactic realms. After all, their popularity coalesced with a time when many of the major players started utilising space themes as a means to explore the human condition through abstract concepts, like David Bowie, who created entire aliases rooted in otherworldly artistic expression.
However, just how close did Queen come to predicting one of the film industry’s biggest space epics?
The overlap between science fiction and art formats isn’t a new phenomenon, nor is it particularly surprising, given that the entire idea quite literally provides endless opportunities for artistic exploration. While he certainly wasn’t the first to place space at the centre of his artistic vision, Bowie’s navigation of the concept largely stemmed from his desire to appear as an outsider and reflect the walls of societal and political disillusionment using space as a sounding board.
Throughout music history, other artists have attempted to achieve a similar feat, using scientific or intergalactic themes to push the boundaries of musical artistry while establishing their own artistic identity. The list of space-obsessed musicians seems endless, reaching countless names from Duran Duran and Gary Newman to Pink Floyd and Björk, but perhaps Brian Eno best expressed this fixation when he said space is the ultimate canvas for unlimited expression.
“We’ve become used to translating our feelings and understandings about space into metaphors, mental playgrounds where we’re allowed to imagine how it could be,” he said. Adding: “That process of imagining is unanchored to experience, unconfined by any demand other than it be in some way true to our feelings. Making music about space, then, is sheer fantasy, or perhaps sheer metaphor.”
In the broader conversation, Queen isn’t usually a name that comes up, but even they weren’t opposed to exploring the theme in one way or another. The most famous instance occurred with the Brian May-penned song ’39’, which he described as a “sci-fi folk song” about an astronaut who travels to a place near the speed of light, returning home 100 years later but only having aged a year.
Unlike others, May’s exploration came from a studious place after being educated on astrophysics and uncertainties about his background and choices after dropping out to pursue a music career. In this way, the song also reflected many of his personal thoughts about leaving what he knew behind to venture into unknown territory, and what better way to conceptualise that than with a story about an estranged astronaut?
Many claim ’39’ to be Queen’s unintentional prediction of another artistic epic, Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, which follows a similar theme: using the theory of relativity, Nolan presents the story of an astronaut who ventures out searching for a new habitable planet. On his quest, it’s revealed that time is dilated, meaning 23 Earth years pass while he is left unaged. While there’s no official connection between ’39’ and Interstellar, many have noticed the similarities and wondered whether May’s earlier musings subconsciously influenced Nolan.
That said, while there are undeniable parallels, musicians and writers have been exploring the concept of space-related dilated time for decades, using the intrigue of having a protagonist figuratively stuck in time while his loved ones age on Earth. For Nolan and May, this formed the basis of a broader exploration of human connectivity with space, forming the perfect foundation for human anxieties about ageing, distance, and ostracisation.
