[geeks] more on dune

[gsm at mendelson.com]

On Tue, Jun 01, 2010 at 10:53:10AM -0400, Andrew Jones wrote:

>Joost has a point.  You were watching a series that revolves around decadence
>and revenge, includes orgies of violence, and portrays terrifying space
>monsters. You conclude it was not suitable for children because of a small
>amount of sexual immodesty?

Exactly. Decadence and revenge are the themes of almost all dramatic programing.
Look at Star Wars, or if you think it modern, Richard III. Or even older,
most of the bible, and Roman and Greek plays of that era. 

Even the road runner and  other cartoons have it. Elmer Fud is a
vegetarian who hunts for sport.

We are in Israel, terrorism is a part of our life here. Last week the whole
country stopped what they were doing and went to their air raid/poison gas/
radiation shelters. 

Yesterday soldiers armed with paint-ball guns tried to arrest people
attempting to break a legal blockade, and were met with live fire (even
the first reports from Arab reporters on the BBC said that), beaten,
stabbed, thrown overboard, etc. The videos of this are all over the
media, they can't avoid it.

While everyone claimed they were peaceful and unarmed, it turned out they had 
firearms, and were nothing like it. If they were truly peaceful and unarmed
paint-ball guns would have been more than enough, and probably would not
have been used. 

They've been hearing about this, discussing it in class, discussing it
during recess and seeing it all over the place. 

So unfortunately, the violence is nothing new to them and I personally
have nothing against a little decadence. In fact I said I did not like
the portrayal of Baron Harkonnen because he wasn't decedent enough. 

In the Sci-Fi version, you would be hard pressed to think him homosexual,
bloodthirsty, or truly evil. I recently watched the "Man with the Golden Gun",
and Scaramongo (probably misspelled) was far more "evil" than the Baron.
He came out and said to Bond he enjoyed killing people.

Geoff.


-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
New word I coined 12/13/09, "Sub-Wikipedia" adj, describing knowledge or
understanding, as in he has a sub-wikipedia understanding of the situation. 
i.e possessing less facts or information than can be found in the Wikipedia.