Foundation
Mar. 6th, 2009 09:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altarielI've spent the past couple of days in the library reading through back issues of Foundation, looking for articles on and reviews of Bujold. (One article, a couple of reviews, some nice leads.) But I wanted to post about the single article I found about Blake's 7, which made me very happy. Titled "Spock, Avon, and the Decline of Optimism" [Foundation 25: 43-45], it had clearly been written as the fourth season was being transmitted, and it regretted the shift of SF TV and general - and B7 in particular - away from the optimistic humanism of Trek and into pessimistic nihilism:
I think I'd probably take issue with the idea that anything about Blake was "carefully designed" (AND YET STILL I LOVE MY MAD OLD SHOW), but what I chiefly thought on reading this was, "Blimey, you're really not going to like the final episode..."
And, to my thoroughgoing delight, in the very next issue [26: 79-80], there was a letter from the author of the article in which she was heartbroken about the ending: that was not what delighted me, but rather the fact that the letter was written in the mode of squee that I found tremendously touching in the middle of a quite serious journal, and which caused me to raise my hand and greet her as "Friend". ("[I]sn't Paul Darrow gorgeous?" she wrote. Yes, sister. Yes.)
I'm just about to give a set of my B7 videos to someone who has never seen it, knows nothing about it, and - particularly - doesn't know how it ends. Can't wait to see what happens.
On Foundation: there was so much material on Le Guin that I had to file these under 'another time' (BUT IF NOT NOW THEN WHEN?); however, I think my favourite was the review of Four Ways to Forgiveness which fretted that it read like a valediction and that Le Guin might be planning to retire. Don't worry, she has The Aeneid to rewrite first.
"Consciously or not, the creators of Blake are not only reflecting, but reinforcing the sense of lost hope. Ultimately, all they give us to identify with is a senseof alienation that we can easily find in the objective world. After the dream, the nightmare - carefully designed to win viewers and successful too. Why exactly do so many viewers like it?"
I think I'd probably take issue with the idea that anything about Blake was "carefully designed" (AND YET STILL I LOVE MY MAD OLD SHOW), but what I chiefly thought on reading this was, "Blimey, you're really not going to like the final episode..."
And, to my thoroughgoing delight, in the very next issue [26: 79-80], there was a letter from the author of the article in which she was heartbroken about the ending: that was not what delighted me, but rather the fact that the letter was written in the mode of squee that I found tremendously touching in the middle of a quite serious journal, and which caused me to raise my hand and greet her as "Friend". ("[I]sn't Paul Darrow gorgeous?" she wrote. Yes, sister. Yes.)
I'm just about to give a set of my B7 videos to someone who has never seen it, knows nothing about it, and - particularly - doesn't know how it ends. Can't wait to see what happens.
On Foundation: there was so much material on Le Guin that I had to file these under 'another time' (BUT IF NOT NOW THEN WHEN?); however, I think my favourite was the review of Four Ways to Forgiveness which fretted that it read like a valediction and that Le Guin might be planning to retire. Don't worry, she has The Aeneid to rewrite first.
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-19 12:44 pm (UTC)I checked out The Aeneid at the same time I got Lavinia, being a bit obsessive about completeness. I stared at it for several days before reluctantly admitting that at this time of my life I would never be able to push myself to read it and enjoy it. Fortunately le Guin is adept at pulling out the references required to advance her story, and the translation of the The Aeneid had a very nice summary in the introduction. I never thought I'd be reduced to "Cliff's Notes", but perhaps that's part of motherhood...
I admit, every time I see a locked post from you, I think, "Maybe it's a new Denethor-lives! chapter!!" :)
I hope all went well with the spit-and-polish on your overdue short story!
no subject
Date: 2009-04-20 05:12 pm (UTC)I admit, every time I see a locked post from you, I think, "Maybe it's a new Denethor-lives! chapter!!" :)
LOL! Well, I've been rereading LotR the past couple of weeks, and I just rewatched the films for the first time in ages, so perhaps something will come soon... I have a feeling that at some point I'll need to take a few days' holiday just to finish it. But I've been saying that for a couple of years now.