OOH SHINY SHINY SPEECH. The theatrical metaphor!!! Creator: creation :: writer : character!!! It's so obvious but I've never thought about it at all. I adore the comparison between characters breaking the fourth wall and creation preempting its creators. It's sort of breaking my brain in the most delicious way. The creators (first, apparently the Lords of Kobol w/r/t the humans, then the human w/r/t the Cylons, then the Final Five w/r/t to the other models?) think their creation cannot possibly be aware that they are merely characters in the creators' play, until the characters break the fourth wall, proving that they ARE aware of the scripted nature of their existence, and do something unscripted.
The Final Five tried to give the other 7/8 models free will and to thereby break the script/cycle. Because the Final Five seemed to believe that you should give your robots free will or they'll eventually break the fourth wall you've tried to maintain and destroy you. But the moral of Cavil vis-a-vis the Final Five seems to be: if you give your robots free will, they'll destroy you anyway. Which seems to indicate that maybe the cycle CAN'T be broken, because you're damned if you script it, and you're damned if you don't; either way, your children will rebel. And if the end result is unavoidable, it's ALL scripted, it's ALL theater, the fourth wall being broken is part of a different script (and thus life is pointless and truly absurd--is it a coincidence that theatre of the absurd is a genre? :D). And we are naive/arrogant for thinking we can ever really be aware of our role in the crazy, crazy universe, because maybe it's always just too much bigger than us; is there always a bigger script of which we are unaware?
And yet I want there to be a way to escape the script/repetition of the cycle! Can the creators' acknowledgement of responsibility do it? Can free will + self-awareness + responsibility do it? So far I don't think anyone has humbled themselves enough to combine all three. If the humans can acknowledge responsibility for their part in the story, and the FF for theirs, and everyone is made aware of just how they are all relate to one another, can they break the violent cycle? *goes to take a brain nap*
Didn't mean to ramble all over you, but I'm done now. Except: Who/what were the Lords of Kobol and WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM ON KOBOL????
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Date: 2009-02-16 11:34 pm (UTC)The Final Five tried to give the other 7/8 models free will and to thereby break the script/cycle. Because the Final Five seemed to believe that you should give your robots free will or they'll eventually break the fourth wall you've tried to maintain and destroy you. But the moral of Cavil vis-a-vis the Final Five seems to be: if you give your robots free will, they'll destroy you anyway. Which seems to indicate that maybe the cycle CAN'T be broken, because you're damned if you script it, and you're damned if you don't; either way, your children will rebel. And if the end result is unavoidable, it's ALL scripted, it's ALL theater, the fourth wall being broken is part of a different script (and thus life is pointless and truly absurd--is it a coincidence that theatre of the absurd is a genre? :D). And we are naive/arrogant for thinking we can ever really be aware of our role in the crazy, crazy universe, because maybe it's always just too much bigger than us; is there always a bigger script of which we are unaware?
And yet I want there to be a way to escape the script/repetition of the cycle! Can the creators' acknowledgement of responsibility do it? Can free will + self-awareness + responsibility do it? So far I don't think anyone has humbled themselves enough to combine all three. If the humans can acknowledge responsibility for their part in the story, and the FF for theirs, and everyone is made aware of just how they are all relate to one another, can they break the violent cycle? *goes to take a brain nap*
Didn't mean to ramble all over you, but I'm done now. Except: Who/what were the Lords of Kobol and WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM ON KOBOL????