I can't even deal with how much I hated that, the show finally marginalized her entirely and destroyed Chief for me all in one moment and its aftermath.
YES. THIS. EXACTLY.
I think I like that it's specifically us mainly because the whole show is so clearly a cypher for "us" anyway, that even if it was an AU Earth I'd still have all the problems I have about what they're saying about "us". Although, like you, I have no idea what that is. And I'm inclined to be grateful because I also believe I wouldn't like it and this way I can imagine it's something better than I fear.
The other reason I like that it's literally us is that, while it's not a mindbreaking idea for folks like us who have probably thought about this already and for quite some time, I think to a more mainstream audience it really might be a surprising and thought-provoking idea? Or perhaps just that since it's the only place they really let Cybritidy flourish this season, I'm kind of on board with their just making it as CRACKED OUT as possible?
This? Is why I think that it was actually a really depressing ending, not the hopeful note they may have intended. I dislike the notion of civilizing the noble savage, but having them disappear so completely just makes me sad.
I do understand that. On one level it is tragic. I'm also kind of okay with a tragic end for this show. It's about the death of two great races, and...are they resurrected?
I don't think that they just disappear completely. Firstly, on a shorter scale, I'm sure they do maintain a strong sense of their own community and societies. I doubt any of the Colonists who land live to see the disappearance of their everything they ever were.
On a longer scale every civilisation disappears. Every culture. Every language.
They might have failed to compress 150,000 years of evolution into a couple of decades of teaching the early humans how to speak and make more complicated tools, but their integration into the population of Earth (whether biologically or socially) is going to affect things. Will make a difference.
Things end, and fade, and it's sad and depressing, but it's also...what happens and it doesn't mean they disappeared without a trace.
It means they changed. They got colonised. In 150,000 years I don't expect human civilisation - if it exists at all - to be anything like ours. But I also don't think that means that, as a culture, we've failed. Or that our legacy is gone, just because they don't remember us.
I'm wary of reducing it to biology, but on that large a scale, it really is the only remaining link, and I think changing the entire evolution of a species is a pretty damn big legacy. Even if the stories of the individuals who affected it are more poignant, tragic and all about...fading?
Sorry for going on about it. It's just an idea I both love and am uncomfortable with at the same time. So I babble. ;)
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Date: 2009-03-22 01:08 pm (UTC)YES. THIS. EXACTLY.
I think I like that it's specifically us mainly because the whole show is so clearly a cypher for "us" anyway, that even if it was an AU Earth I'd still have all the problems I have about what they're saying about "us". Although, like you, I have no idea what that is. And I'm inclined to be grateful because I also believe I wouldn't like it and this way I can imagine it's something better than I fear.
The other reason I like that it's literally us is that, while it's not a mindbreaking idea for folks like us who have probably thought about this already and for quite some time, I think to a more mainstream audience it really might be a surprising and thought-provoking idea? Or perhaps just that since it's the only place they really let Cybritidy flourish this season, I'm kind of on board with their just making it as CRACKED OUT as possible?
This? Is why I think that it was actually a really depressing ending, not the hopeful note they may have intended. I dislike the notion of civilizing the noble savage, but having them disappear so completely just makes me sad.
I do understand that. On one level it is tragic. I'm also kind of okay with a tragic end for this show. It's about the death of two great races, and...are they resurrected?
I don't think that they just disappear completely. Firstly, on a shorter scale, I'm sure they do maintain a strong sense of their own community and societies. I doubt any of the Colonists who land live to see the disappearance of their everything they ever were.
On a longer scale every civilisation disappears. Every culture. Every language.
They might have failed to compress 150,000 years of evolution into a couple of decades of teaching the early humans how to speak and make more complicated tools, but their integration into the population of Earth (whether biologically or socially) is going to affect things. Will make a difference.
Things end, and fade, and it's sad and depressing, but it's also...what happens and it doesn't mean they disappeared without a trace.
It means they changed. They got colonised. In 150,000 years I don't expect human civilisation - if it exists at all - to be anything like ours. But I also don't think that means that, as a culture, we've failed. Or that our legacy is gone, just because they don't remember us.
I'm wary of reducing it to biology, but on that large a scale, it really is the only remaining link, and I think changing the entire evolution of a species is a pretty damn big legacy. Even if the stories of the individuals who affected it are more poignant, tragic and all about...fading?
Sorry for going on about it. It's just an idea I both love and am uncomfortable with at the same time. So I babble. ;)