Hard News: Problems
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Oh, and Russell, if we're having a Christmas party this year you better separate me from Fiona otherwise I'm going to bore her to death explaining who the folks at BFM totally missed the political and religious/spiritual point of Battlestar Galactica. And you've got to love the delicious irony that the most sophisticated and nuanced exploration of religion in American television was cooked up by two avowed atheists...
And, Paul, if more people were paying attention to Battlestar Galactica in the D.C. they might have gotten a firmer grip on the notion that torture is a very very bad thing.
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If I'd paid attention to Battlestar Galactica I might know what the hell you guys are on about, but I bet it wouldn't have helped the recession. It would just be another thing I was watching for free on MySky.
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Craig, I think the point of the matter is that people in DC were not watching Battlestar Galactica; they were watching Fox News. They were probably relieved that the liberals were watching sci-fi sagas and reading comic books (sorry, graphic novels) rather than doing anything that threatened authority. Doubtless, allegory is a wonderful thing, but it does not change anything.
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As Peter Cook once said, "The best satire of the 20th century was the Weimar cabaret, and they managed to stop Hitler in his tracks."
Oh yeah, and Peter Cook didn't see any point in doing satire, did he? He gave it all up and became an accountant.
Or more bluntly, argument of the excluded middle. Satire did not stop Hitler, therefore satire is wrong/worthless. Er, nope.
Somehow I think that Kafka's fantasies actually did have something to say about Europe in the thirties and afterwards, and maybe, just maybe, Eric Blair's stories of talking farm animals and the far-off future of the nineteen eighties may just have entered public consciousness and added some much-needed scepticism to the minds of 'realists' in the West who wanted to establish a utopia that was in fact a far more absurd fantasy?
people in DC were not watching Battlestar Galactica; they were watching Fox News.
So your point is that they should have been watching Battlestar Galactica?
anything that threatened authority.
You should have a look at the death lists that dictators compile. Quite a few writers of 'irrelevant' fantasies appear on the list of dangerous intellectuals that Hitler wanted killed after the invasion of Britain. Edward Teller always threw temper tantrums when the name Strangelove was mentioned in his presence. I wonder why?
Friends of mine who have lived under dictatorships have always appreciated 'fantasy' because it was the only way to express dissent.
Doubtless, allegory is a wonderful thing, but it does not change anything
Oh, why a dry, condescending soul you have. Have you not read Shelley's statement that poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world? Granted, a sonnet will not feed a starving child, but it will tell someone that it is wrong and that does make a difference in the end. That is what stories and art do.
And you think that indulging in and daring to enjoy and think about what you define as irrelevant is a moral failure causing the decline of western civillisation? I'm reminded of the most sanctimonious and authoritarian extremes of the left who shout, 'How dare you listen to Beethoven when there are puppies being mistreated in Finland! Stop right now or you are responsible for it continuing!'
Or, as Tolkein (of whom I am no great fan myself) put it, 'What sort of mind is most obsessed with and most hostile to the idea of escape? A jailer.'
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Oh yeah, and Peter Cook didn't see any point in doing satire, did he? He gave it all up and became an accountant.
Apologies to all accountants. I had a girlfriend who was an accountant who looked like Lucy Lawless (Xena/Number Three), was bisexual and liked bondage. She wasn't at all boring. She still isn't.
You probably didn't need to know that.
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Not only did National not see the crash coming, they still have NO idea what caused it.
That much-used term 'cognitive dissonance' is probably useful...
'We have thrown a dozen virgins into the volcano and the rains have not come, therefore we must throw two dozen, a hundred in next time!'
And you've got to love the delicious irony that the most sophisticated and nuanced exploration of religion in American television was cooked up by two avowed atheists...
Hey, wanna geek out over Babylon 5 ? Or the complex exploration of the problem of pain and the nature of forgiveness in the context of Jesuitical theology written by a Jew that is The Sparrow ? Yep, love the ironies...
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... and my insomnia and Asperger's conspire to make me obsessive when I should be... finishing writing a lecture or something:
They may not have been watching BSG in Washington DC, but it appears that they were in New York.
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I think the point of the matter is that people in DC were not watching Battlestar Galactica; they were watching Fox News. They were probably relieved that the liberals were watching sci-fi sagas and reading comic books (sorry, graphic novels) rather than doing anything that threatened authority. Doubtless, allegory is a wonderful thing, but it does not change anything.
Paul, Rusell linked to an excellent Vanity Fair article on Icelandic banking. Intelligent, in-depth, detailed, and all that other good stuff that we want from our reporting.
I like Vanity Fair - I've read a lot of good articles in there over the last few years of a quality that I haven't seen repeated anywhere else. But it pains me a lot that that half of Vanity Fair which pays for the decent reporting is given over to shallow hollywood and fashion reporting, and lifestyle accessories of the super-rich. You really do have to sieve hard through 200-odd pages to get to the good stuff.
All of which is a roundabout way of coming to two points:
Firstly, as has been pointed out before, PAS is something of an oasis of intelligent debate. If you have to put up with a few Star Trek references to get to the gold, then that's the price you're going to have to pay.
Secondly, the two things aren't mutually exclusive. I can enjoy BSG and be fairly clued up on the state of global politics. Or am I never allowed to relax from my eternally vigilent status as gatekeeper of freedom?
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Oh yeah, and Peter Cook didn't see any point in doing satire, did he? He gave it all up and became an accountant.
Cook, if you read the excellent but in the end depressing biography by Harry Thompson, didn't really see the point of anything . The occupational hazard of satirists - nihlism and depression - got to him.
They were probably relieved that the liberals were watching sci-fi sagas and reading comic books (sorry, graphic novels) rather than doing anything that threatened authority.
I know plenty of right wing readers of such publications (not one myself, Pratchett excepted)
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Craig, I think the point of the matter is that people in DC were not watching Battlestar Galactica; they were watching Fox News
Please explain how this viewing matter differs in fantastical content?
I know plenty of right wing readers of such publications (not one myself, Pratchett excepted)
Yep - they're the ones who think Frank Miller is a good writer, Rorschach is some kind of role model, and the Dark Knight was really about George Bush being right.
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This morning's take on the cycleway -- now a network!
Mr Key, who is also Minister of Tourism, yesterday remained loyal to the idea of some form of national cycleway to boost jobs and regional development while promoting New Zealand to international visitors.
He said officials were working on options, and he expected reports by the end of the week.
But he acknowledged that paved routes could be expensive and that the cycleway might take another shape than the 3000km of concrete pathway he envisaged after last month's Job Summit.
"I suspect there will be bits of it that are paved and bits of it that won't," he said.
Mr Key denied that an initial cost estimate of $50 million for a national cycleway could be ruled out, saying, "It depends on how you do it, and what you do."
Sweet Jesus.
Also, Geithner plan to get banks lending again is unveiled.
And it appears the policies of recent years haven't been sending New Zealand to the poorhouse after all. Quite the reverse:
New Zealand's economy is tipped by the International Monetary Fund to shrink by 2 per cent this year in the global crisis it has dubbed the Great Recession.
However, fund mission chief for Australia and New Zealand Ray Brooks told The Dominion Post yesterday that New Zealand was relatively better placed than other advanced countries, thanks to its low public debt, sound banks, flexible policies and mix of exports.
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Please explain how this viewing matter differs in fantastical content?
One has a moral core..
If I'd paid attention to Battlestar Galactica I might know what the hell you guys are on about
As an intermittent viewer, I can relate. Salon has a useful condensed explanation of the series as well as discussion of the final episode in other articles. Spoilers all, of course, and you'll need to get through an advert to the material (click on the tiny "Enter Salon" at your top right).
Can't vouch for the relative quality of their analysis given my non-fanboi status. I am given to understand that the whole story is Mormon its its origins, although the themes tackled are broader and more topical. And it has some saucy talent including Kracklite's ex-accountant.
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Some correctives to the Vanity Fair piece.
I did wonder ...
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I'm not one to rain on anyone's parade, but what is it with this BSG lovefest? Sure it may be a great show (though I've never watched it, so wouldn't have a clue), but are people maybe just reading too much into it?
I'm sure people used to say the same things about Star Trek. Some people probably still do (hopefully none of them are PAS readers)
I know I'll be shot to pieces for saying this. Which is why I have my elephants ready.
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but what is it with this BSG lovefest?
Hotties! <ducks>
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I'm not one to rain on anyone's parade, but what is it with this BSG lovefest? Sure it may be a great show (though I've never watched it, so wouldn't have a clue), but are people maybe just reading too much into it?
In a nutshell, yes. People will take what they need/want to take from it - it's not going to change the world or cause a revolution.
You should, however, immediately rush out to JB Hi-Fi on Queen St and buy the entire series. DO IT NOW!
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Whilst cycleways seem righteous, it does seem to me that they'd be more used if they were actually within population centers, rather than between them. I'm not sure what kind of people like riding around the country, but my guess is that they're hardcore, and don't need no pussy cycleway.
But decent urban cycleways won't be anywhere near as cheap per km.
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Some correctives to the Vanity Fair piece.
I did wonder ...
I believe my thought when it came to number four was "aren't you quite the little turd".
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I know plenty of right wing readers of such publications
Yeah, I was a pretty madly right-wing kid until I realised (about age 10) that Judge Dredd was actually satire, and that Mega-City One wasn't a good place to live.
Why BSG-worship: because it is really, really good. Someone loaned us the mini-series about two months ago; since then, we've been going a bit mad, and have chewed through three seasons so far. It's the West Wing in space; the writing, characters and situations are that good. The sci-fi element means that the writers can take some things that you would never, never be able to broadcast if you put them in a contemporary setting, but as soon as you slap in some shiny robots then it's OK. I don't think, for example, that you could have a drama set in the Real World (tm) that even played with the idea that suicide bombing might be a legitimate tactic against an overwhelmingly powerful invader. Plus, as has been mentioned, hotties.
Seriously, it's incredibly good. If you don't like sci-fi, just give it a quick try and see if you can get past the robots and spaceships.
Whilst cycleways seem righteous, it does seem to me that they'd be more used if they were actually within population centers, rather than between them
I think we need to consider why we're building a cycleway. Is it a sustainable transport thing? Or a tourism thing? Clue: which minister greenlit the project? So the ostensible purpose is to get those tourist dollars (and it's not a bad idea, at that), rather than to actually help incorporate cycling as part of the default set of transport options. Which is a pity: I'm well behind the idea of the cycleway (though I'm worried about how well it'll be done), but I'm concerned that it'll suck funding out of local councils' budgets for encouraging day-to-day cycling.
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I'm not one to rain on anyone's parade, but what is it with this BSG lovefest?
It made me think that alligators look cool because they resemble the eponymous vessel.
From a dramatic point of view, one of the things I like most about it is that it ended. Fans of the sort who want more of the same <i>ad infinitum</i> regularly howled about 'jumping the shark' moments, but it was good because it showed actions having consequences, good people making stupid decisions with the best motives, bad people doing good things, reprieves retracted and changes that were irreversible. Not only were there hotties and things blowing up, there were good actors and writers working on it.
As the piece I linked to above about the UN panel indicates, there was deliberate and deliberately multi-sided treatment via allegory of real world political and social matters. One of the stars, Edward James Olmos, has had a long career outside of acting in political activism - largely Latino rights - and is frequently forthright on the parallels and synergies between his political work and his acting in BSG.
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And it appears the policies of recent years haven't been sending New Zealand to the poorhouse after all. Quite the reverse:
So let's borrow 40 billion! Cycleways for all, or should that be for all the children to pay back :(
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but I'm concerned that it'll suck funding out of local councils' budgets for encouraging day-to-day cycling.
I'm more concerned that it will suck out of the national psyche on cycling. But then the national psyche on cycling sucks already. People would rather drop their kids off at school in an SUV than dare to let them develop a little independence.
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So let's borrow 40 billion! Cycleways for all, or should that be for all the children to pay back :(
Heh, for once they might actually be paying for something that they actually used.
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I don't think, for example, that you could have a drama set in the Real World (tm) that even played with the idea that suicide bombing might be a legitimate tactic against an overwhelmingly powerful invader.
Jericho, in its resurrected second season, did some excellent USA-as-Iraq allegory which addressed resistance against a questionably legitimate occupying force. I could have seen them going there if they'd been able to continue the show. OTOH, I suspect that the reason they went as far as they did was because they knew they were living on borrowed time.
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