ENCOURAGING QUOTE
"A certain amount of civilisation depends on intelligent smattering" (Frank Kermode). Huzzah, say I.
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We are watching Season 2 of Babylon 5. I first saw it around seven years ago, when the whole Clark/Psi Corps/Nightwatch story brought Nazi Germany to mind, but now...sheesh. You don't see anything but Bush, and the Office for Homeland Security or whatever it's called. JMS called this one exactly right, and how we wish he hadn't.
posted by The Silver Eel @ 12:14 am
2 Comments:
True - last time Babylon 5 was repeated on cable a couple of years back I found it spooky how many parallels to current events I could read into. Always one of the signs of well-written material, that is can be constantly re-interpreted and read to suit changing times and societies. Dracula can be seen as a hidden method of expressing repressed Victorian sexuality or in the 90s it was seen partly as a metaphor for AIDs. V For Vendetta is born of the Thatcher era and yet as the movie shows (and the book still does too) it applies so much to the world of the war on terror and the reduction of liberties to 'keep us safe'. The best stories all have this factor; it is why certain myths are eternal.
Yes, the rise of President Clark in Babylon 5 reminds me of both Bush and Blair; though it's a pity the political incisiveness tailed off later in the series (especially in Series 5).
Why isn't anyone making any new stuff like this? Though the film of V for Vendetta was very apposite and timely.
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