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May 30, 2007
hall of mirrors
Wherein I write about being written about. From Strange Horizons Reviews: Mistakes and All: Defending Battlestar Galactica, written by Jeremy Adam Smith:
And if Battlestar Galactica is, as many insist, an extended commentary on the war on terror--a war that might never end, fought in a moral and political negative zone--then who are "we" supposed to be? Battlestar Galactica, culture critic Gary Dauphin writes, flirts "with a whole bunch of heretical notions . . . most of them related to the possibility that some or another 'we' (it's just a tv [sic] show, right? nothing to do with 'us') might be on the wrong side of history." In the third season, when the human resistance puts on ski masks and sends suicide bombers into crowds, Dauphin writes, Battlestar Galactica "quit[s] with the coy stuff," andthe up-tempo scoring charts a rising arc of anxieties: Are we the cylons or the humans? Am I [Gaius] Baltar or [Laura] Roslyn [sic]? Was the show always about the war? Is it against the law to root for terrorists on TV?
When ex-President Roslyn [sic] says, "Our children need to know that some people fought back while others collaborated," half the audience will hear some kind of founding fathers bullshit, and half will hear a Hamas or Hizzbollah leader rallying the proverbial irregular troops.
Jeremy is a friend of a friend. The all-powerful network does not just live, it works!
Posted by ebogjonson in battlestar galactica, me me me, on May 30, 2007 11:02 AM
Comments
Did you like how I call you a "culture critic"? i.e., professional TV watcher.
Posted by: Jeremy Adam Smith at May 30, 2007 12:16 PM
What I like about the show is, yes, of course there's some rather pointed commentary there, but it's not a one-to-one correspondence. We're -both- the humans and the Cylons; the humans are -both- the Americans and the besieged Iraqis; the point is, -we can all be any of these.- The murkiness is entirely appropriate.
Also, sadly, there is no one in our current government who even approaches the leadership capability of either Adama or Laura Roslyn, flaws and all.
Posted by: belledame222 at June 12, 2007 12:00 PM
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