Randomness

[Asso]

Delicious!

[Alelou]

I'm posting this link about people who got swindled by Madoff waiting outside the courthouse this morning because it's simply one of the best short journalistic pieces I've ever read. It's just very good writing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/nyreg ... ss&emc=rss

[Linda]

I skimmed the article and will print to read later. But one thing caught my eye: a retired man moving in with his 84 year old father. That says a lot about the current financial down turn, because I thought things were bad when a 34 year old wanted to move back in with her 61 year old mother. Sigh, and it looks like things might get worse.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

For the discerning Trek fan:

Star Trek Fragrances

[Asso]

I prefer T'Pol No.5 Eau De Parfum Spray.

[Aquarius]

For the discerning Trek fan:

Star Trek Fragrances

I don't care. I think it's freakin' AWESOME!!

[JadziaKathryn]

Wow. That's just... wow.

Meanwhile, I spotted something that I would like: a Star Trek Scene It? game. However, I would have to scare up someone to play with...

[dark_rain]

Yay! Just finished porting Indigo over to the BASS audio engine from its TMediaPlayer Alpha. BASS is a pain in the ass to implement but my god it works well!

[Aquarius]

Holy crap, it's really, really quiet around here today.

[Alelou]

I took the weekend off TS and I think that's been a very good thing, especially with gorgeous weather here.

I'd post another chapter, but there's little point to doing that until the current chapter is restored. I see Captives and Briar Patch are still missing, too. I'm sure it's being worked on by John and Mike, so I think I'll just steer clear until conditions are nominal again.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Interesting article I stumbled upon: How Science Fiction Found Religion

While it's nice that the author applauds ENT, I think he has missed the point of DS9, if he even watched that series much. If there's any 24th century Trek that's brought up religion and was different from the others, it's DS9. And since he writes about religion in SF, I think he should've mentioned Babylon 5 as well.

[Alelou]

In fantasy and in all epics you usually have your traditional apotheosis of the hero, who always has a special gift. The classic elements are familiar to anyone:

A humble birth
A special skill or power that goes unrecognized until some wise teacher takes the hero by hand
A period of training -- usually frustrating to our hero
A humbling mistake
Renewed seriousness of purpose
Self-sacrifice (usually including a solitary, celibate life)
Ultimate victory

That this reflects Christian themes is probably less to do with any religious motive than with the coincidence of how Jesus's story has come down to us, prettied up by the early church to fit the mold of the hero right down to the miraculous birth in a stable. There's a reason the apocrypha is only apocrypha (and arguably large chunks of the gospels ought to be in the same disputed category as they were added in later by different authors). There were plenty of tales of such 'heroes' in common lore back in Jesus' day, and long before. Apparently some church leaders felt their man would be more attractive if he fit that same messianic hero mold. They were doing early branding -- well, that and protecting their own power interests.

(I say all this as a Christian -- to me it's a little depressing how the ridiculous magical folktale elements take on so much importance. Sometimes I wonder if it's all a diabolical plot to make sure Jesus' more radical messages got lost in all the noise.)

Meanwhile, in science fiction, like Star Trek, you simply have a scientific ideas extrapolated in a way that allows you to implicitly comment on contemporary concerns. The heroes may fit the classic mold or they may not, but there are no truly magical powers or that's really verging into fantasy. It's just two different genres. Though obviously there's sometimes an awful lot of crossing over of elements into the other.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Wasn't Archer supposed to be this hero figure, pivotal to the founding of the Federation (or giving a speech at said event anyway)? At least that was what Daniels believed.

[Alelou]

Yeah, but that was just politically pivotal. I thought they actually handled that pretty well, contrasting the reality of an imperfect Archer with the reputation he carried into history. A less extreme example of what they did with Cochrane. I like that about Star Trek.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Still, I'd argue that you can have ordinary heroes (i.e. people without super powers or being one of fate's "chosen ones") playing the same role as the mythical heroes in stories that doesn't necessarily have to have mystic or fantastic elements. I think that's fairly common in almost every genre.

Another, more obvious, Trek example would be Sisko on DS9.