A short list of dangerous texts
Feb. 23rd, 2005 11:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altarielA while back, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
communicator posted a link to China Mieville’s list of 50 fantasy and science fiction works that socialists should read. I don’t see why socialists should have all the fun, so I’ve made a short list of some SF and fantasy with political themes that have mattered to me, or that I think matter. This being my list, it will contain bits of telly and bits of fanfic.
Sultana’s Dream by Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (published 1905)
Just a very short vision of how things might be. (That first link will take you to the story, and it will take you no time to read.)
The Far Side of Evil by Sylvia Engdahl (published 1971)
Some of the ideas and concepts I acquired from this book as a 10 year old:
Please note that The Far Side of Evil is now widely and cheaply available in paperback, and familiarity with the text is required. There will be a short test.
Power by Ben Steed (transmitted 1981)
Uber-controversial Blake’s 7 story; or, When Cynicism Goes Really Bad. As a thought exercise, I’ve tried to invent arguments supporting the case that ‘Power’ isn’t misogynistic, but after perhaps a little too much contemplation I decided it is misogynistic. So why have I included it. Well, the ‘know your enemy’ thing for one, but also because it’s interesting as a fear response to feminism. Krishan Kumar, in his Bumper Book of Utopias (or, Utopia and Anti-Utopia in Modern Times, 1987), barely mentions feminist utopias. It’s like they don’t exist; in fact, he argues that by the 1970s, the (anti-)utopian genre is dead. Just a casual glance at this site suggests he might be missing something. But ‘Power’ has got the gist of what’s going on: all-female society supported by high-technology (biotech, devices enabling telekinetic powers, etc.). And it stamps down on it all with the proverbial jackboot; or, perhaps, strangles it with a leather-and-studs glove. The revolting images of the captured and hooded Seska were instrumental in triggering a proto-feminist consciousness in my 9-year-old head, so I suppose that’s something to be glad about.
The Happiness Patrol by Graeme Curry (transmitted 1988)
Dr Who story. The one with the giant Bertie Bassett monster, Sheila Hancock in an orange wig doing Mrs Thatcher, the pink TARDIS, and the Seventh Doctor’s line, “I can hear the sound of empires toppling...” What is great about ‘The Happiness Patrol’ is that you can imagine some grey-suited quango-bot passing a memo round the BBC listing ‘All That is Wrong with How We Do Drama’, and the Dr Who production team saying, “Screw you,” doing it anyway, and putting it out at primetime. You would never see anything like this on your tellybox now, and frankly that’s our loss.
Purple Haze by Executrix (published 2002 in ttba)
Blake’s 7 fanfic. When people ask me, “Why aren’t you writing your own stuff?”, and I stop flailing around in an incoherent frenzy, this is the story that I think best explains the point. Of course all fanfic reads better when you know the source, but I think you don’t need to know that much about B7 to get what matters from Purple Haze, beyond: “B7 is about totalitarianism and freedom fighters, in particular a freedom fighter called Blake.”
communicator posted a link to China Mieville’s list of 50 fantasy and science fiction works that socialists should read. I don’t see why socialists should have all the fun, so I’ve made a short list of some SF and fantasy with political themes that have mattered to me, or that I think matter. This being my list, it will contain bits of telly and bits of fanfic. Sultana’s Dream by Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (published 1905)
Just a very short vision of how things might be. (That first link will take you to the story, and it will take you no time to read.)
The Far Side of Evil by Sylvia Engdahl (published 1971)
Some of the ideas and concepts I acquired from this book as a 10 year old:
- That societies can pass through stages, and not all of them are progressive
- The ‘Prime Directive’ debate: whether it is better to intervene, or better to allow people to find their own way
- That belief in something (in this book, mainly, science) can be as powerful as the actual thing itself
- How totalitarianism works, and why it is a bad thing
- That people will hurt other people to find things out, by means of things like drugs and sensory deprivation
- That people will do brave things under desperate circumstances, at the cost of great pain, or their lives, or without the possibility of their actions ever being remembered
Please note that The Far Side of Evil is now widely and cheaply available in paperback, and familiarity with the text is required. There will be a short test.
Power by Ben Steed (transmitted 1981)
Uber-controversial Blake’s 7 story; or, When Cynicism Goes Really Bad. As a thought exercise, I’ve tried to invent arguments supporting the case that ‘Power’ isn’t misogynistic, but after perhaps a little too much contemplation I decided it is misogynistic. So why have I included it. Well, the ‘know your enemy’ thing for one, but also because it’s interesting as a fear response to feminism. Krishan Kumar, in his Bumper Book of Utopias (or, Utopia and Anti-Utopia in Modern Times, 1987), barely mentions feminist utopias. It’s like they don’t exist; in fact, he argues that by the 1970s, the (anti-)utopian genre is dead. Just a casual glance at this site suggests he might be missing something. But ‘Power’ has got the gist of what’s going on: all-female society supported by high-technology (biotech, devices enabling telekinetic powers, etc.). And it stamps down on it all with the proverbial jackboot; or, perhaps, strangles it with a leather-and-studs glove. The revolting images of the captured and hooded Seska were instrumental in triggering a proto-feminist consciousness in my 9-year-old head, so I suppose that’s something to be glad about.
The Happiness Patrol by Graeme Curry (transmitted 1988)
Dr Who story. The one with the giant Bertie Bassett monster, Sheila Hancock in an orange wig doing Mrs Thatcher, the pink TARDIS, and the Seventh Doctor’s line, “I can hear the sound of empires toppling...” What is great about ‘The Happiness Patrol’ is that you can imagine some grey-suited quango-bot passing a memo round the BBC listing ‘All That is Wrong with How We Do Drama’, and the Dr Who production team saying, “Screw you,” doing it anyway, and putting it out at primetime. You would never see anything like this on your tellybox now, and frankly that’s our loss.
Purple Haze by Executrix (published 2002 in ttba)
Blake’s 7 fanfic. When people ask me, “Why aren’t you writing your own stuff?”, and I stop flailing around in an incoherent frenzy, this is the story that I think best explains the point. Of course all fanfic reads better when you know the source, but I think you don’t need to know that much about B7 to get what matters from Purple Haze, beyond: “B7 is about totalitarianism and freedom fighters, in particular a freedom fighter called Blake.”
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no subject
Date: 2005-02-23 03:36 am (UTC)I'd stopped watchiing DW by the 7th Doctor, as I was at uni and had no TV. I'm pleased that I did.
The Kumar book is on my reading list this semester, perhaps I'd better go and have a look at it, as we're just now starting on feminist utopias. I think I should also read those Hossain and Engdahl books you've recommended *makes a beeline for the library catalogue*
no subject
Date: 2005-02-23 03:40 am (UTC)The Hossain is a really quick read, and I can't sing the praises of Sylvia Engdahl highly enough.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-23 04:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-23 09:29 am (UTC)strange psychadelic Weimar glory
Love it.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-23 12:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-23 01:23 pm (UTC)BTW, if I may be so bold, the purple-and-white blouse in your icon shows particularly marvellous taste on the part of the wearer.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-24 10:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-24 10:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-24 12:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-23 03:58 am (UTC)I think it is possible to argue that it's not misogynist, but only on a technicality. The authorial intent was almost certainly meant to be - Ben Steed is a man with male dominance issues, all episodes considered - but, whatever the true intent, he poses the scenario so ineptly that, whatever it's meant to be, it's not. It's just a bit of a muddle, really, and the only people who come out of it relatively well, or, you know, alive, are the ones who just don't give a toss about gender, or much of anything. And it's such a muddle that there's one significant line indicating that's the main point, and half an episode asserting male superiority, and half an episode alleging undue female victimization at the hands of the patriarchy, and god knows, really. It definitely reeks of it, though, doesn't it.
Sadly, I'm far too fluent in "Power", because I did once write a story - in my defense, for a ficathon assignment - retconning it. But I don't admit to it.Happiness Patrol is bloody brilliant, and now I want to watch it.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-23 11:34 am (UTC)Sadly, I'm far too fluent in "Power", because I did once write a story - in my defense, for a ficathon assignment - retconning it. But I don't admit to it.Can I find this online?
Happiness Patrol is bloody brilliant, and now I want to watch it.
Me too, and we stupidly sold our tape.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-23 11:37 am (UTC)Sadly, yes. Ask![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
astrogirl2 where it is; I don't remember, but she's trying to do something evil with it.no subject
Date: 2005-02-24 01:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-24 01:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-24 01:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-24 01:46 am (UTC)D'you get email notification of replies here?
no subject
Date: 2005-02-24 01:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-24 01:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-24 03:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-24 03:25 am (UTC)The bit that sort of works for me in retrospect was the (initially very accidental) redefinition of which sort of power it was that really took the upper hand in that episode. Different forms of brute force really didn't give either side much of an upper hand, either militarily or morally, really.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-23 04:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-23 09:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-24 03:08 am (UTC)'Are men allowed out of the harem?'
'Never.'
I gave the printout to my daughter after I'd read it.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-23 04:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-23 11:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-23 12:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-23 10:00 pm (UTC)And will it be available mail order to California?
When Adam Delved and Did Needlepoint
Date: 2005-02-23 07:07 am (UTC)In very partial defense of my stable-mate, however, it is a (poor) example of some of the representation issues that are being discussed now in connection with the Buffyverse. As you say, it's a madly cynical episode. If everybody is a jerk and loser, well, some of the jerks and losers are going to be male and some female. And I have to confess there's a moment of it I like--wondering if the keyboard Avon gets clocked with is the first one he's ever seen where interface takes place by voice and screwdriver.
Re: When Adam Delved and Did Needlepoint
Date: 2005-02-24 03:12 am (UTC)More a polar opposite!
What is going on in the Buffy universe? I've gathered that Joss said something contentious on the S5 Angel DVD commentaries, but haven't quite found out what. I have to say that the presentation of women in the last couple of seasons of both shows left me feeling a little bit queasy.
I Am A Slayer! Every Little Girl Is!
Date: 2005-02-24 07:55 am (UTC)I don't like BtVS S7 but not so much because the representation of women makes me queasy as that if you spend a lot of time establishing that there is only one Slayer at a time, creating an immense burden on that one small figure, I think it's a diabolical retcon to say, nope, Two X Chromosomes, Lotsa Staking.
Re: I Am A Slayer! Every Little Girl Is!
Date: 2005-02-24 08:17 am (UTC)But if you're right, it's still a big change from One Per Generation to One Per Block.
Re: I Am A Slayer! Every Little Girl Is!
Date: 2005-02-24 09:17 am (UTC)Re: I Am A Slayer! Every Little Girl Is!
Date: 2005-02-24 08:05 am (UTC)Oh, my hazy memory of that last episode was that it was just the Potentials of this world who acquired the Super Slayer Powers. Which I still don't think is that great a resolution.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-23 01:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-27 04:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-01 03:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-02 03:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-03 11:09 am (UTC)