Poe and more BSG
Yesterday was the 200th anniversary of Poe's birth. I was twelve when I first read The Tell-Tale Heart, and it blew me away. Left me breathless. It wasn't the first scary story I read, but the first one from the point of view of a killer/madman, and also the first short story that impressed the hell out of me. (As a child, I had gone from fairy tales straight to novels in my personal reading, and the short stories we had read in school up to that point struck me as very dull.) I visited the local library the next day and went for all things Edgar Allan Poe. It was quite the experience.
Sometimes, you lose your taste for things that delighted you in your adolescence, but mine for Poe never left me. Especially not once, as an adult, I started to aquire audio versions. Poe, whether we're talking short stories, poetry or essays, is wonderful to be read out loud. I have recordings of Christopher Lee doing it, and Orson Welles, and some not so well known actors, and listening to them, I feel as swept away, scared and delighted as when I first found him. When I travelled around in the US in 2002, my sole reason for visiting Baltimore was so I could visit Poe's grave (and the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum). When Kim Newman used Poe as a character in his clever "Anno Dracula" sequel, it thrilled me. I originally watched both the Universal movies and the Roger Corman movies because of the Poe titles (before appreciating them in their cheesy, scenery-eating glory for themselves; they don't have much to do with the Poe short stories except for the title, but that doesn't stop me from loving the hell out of the Lugosi/Karloff spectacle The Black Cat, for example). In short, I am a fan, and so I was happy another writer I love, Neil Gaiman, remembered the Poe anniversary and linked a great essay of his on the subject.
***
Two more thoughts relating to the recent Battlestar Galactica episode:
You know, sometimes my sympathy for characters simply depends on the way they're written. Lee Adama is a case in point - I like him very much from from the miniseries until Home II in the second season, have no sympathy when the poor guy made it through not one but two horrible romantic entanglement storylines from mid season 2 till late season 3, and like him again starting with Maelstrom when the show remembers that Lee/Romance is a dud while Lee/Friendship and Lee/Politics is interesting. Then there are characters I like even in badly written episodes. *eyes Gaius Baltar, Six and Laura Roslin*. And then there are characters like Bill Adama, whom I started out liking, and who actually hasn't had bad storylines but whom I still have gradually lost all sympathy for and now can't regain. The most I can manage is to feel occasionally sorry for him, and even that is rapidly disappearing. Now I could cite reasons, from his increasing tendency to see anything that goes against personal loyalty to himself as a grieveous insult (the first time this really irritated me was in Unfinished Business, in his behaviour, past and present, towards Tyrol because of the Chief's decision to settle on New Caprica) to his abandoning any kind of pretense of a democratic principle (flatly telling Zarek he won't acknowledge him as President in Sine Qua Non) to the growing way he has to make everyone's tragedy about himself (Kara seemingly dead post Maelstrom? Tigh being a Cylon? Dee killing herself? It's all because life has it in for Bill Adama). BUT. He also did and does a lot of positive things, and in theory, I could see how the crushing responsibility transforms him, and not for the better. Besides, I'm very fond of Gaius Baltar, and if there is a character who from the start of the show onwards has a tendency to see the universe revolving around himself and everything being about him, it's Gaius B. While Baltar has very occasionally done some positive things instead of screwing things up further, he never did so much day to day good as Bill Adama. So why is it that I started out the show being amused by Baltar without liking him and came to like him very much while I started out liking and admiring Adama and am now without any respect and any sympathy for the admiral? It can't just because Baltar isn't supposed to be the hero of the show, whereas Adama is; so is Lee, and with Lee my sympathy came back as soon as the decent writing for him did. One possible answer might be that if Baltar behaves selfishly, I know the narrative intends me to see him that way, whereas while I'm sure the show wants to present Adama as flawed, I'm not so sure they want me to see him as that flawed. Or it might be that Baltar's tendency to see the universe revolving around himself is expressed in scenes like the one where he and Roslin argue about how to talk to the Hybrid and Laura ignores him, which is funny, while Adama's version of this involves trying to commit suicide via best friend, never mind what that would do either to the friend or the fleet, which is galling (and involves some spectacular overacting).
Speaking of Tigh: given that we've just established Ellen is the final fifth Cylon, there is the question of how she'll return. Now, since the identities of all five were unknown to the seven (except for D'Anna), there can't have been another body waiting for her on some resurrection ship before these were destroyed anyway. Besides, all we've seen and learned so far points to the five using another method to resurrect themselves from the get-go (i.e. 2000 years ago). Now, given that Tigh, as the show itself pointed out, aged for decades, I would postulate that this involve natural growth. Which would mean Ellen literally gets reborn, not as an adult woman, but as a child. And who do we know is pregnant with a child whose very existence is somewhat mysterious? A child that came into being AFTER Ellen Tigh's death? Caprica Six. Mind you, this is messed up even by BSG standards, so I'm not sure they'll go there, but how about the irony if Ellen gets reborn as Tigh's daughter by Caprica?
Sometimes, you lose your taste for things that delighted you in your adolescence, but mine for Poe never left me. Especially not once, as an adult, I started to aquire audio versions. Poe, whether we're talking short stories, poetry or essays, is wonderful to be read out loud. I have recordings of Christopher Lee doing it, and Orson Welles, and some not so well known actors, and listening to them, I feel as swept away, scared and delighted as when I first found him. When I travelled around in the US in 2002, my sole reason for visiting Baltimore was so I could visit Poe's grave (and the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum). When Kim Newman used Poe as a character in his clever "Anno Dracula" sequel, it thrilled me. I originally watched both the Universal movies and the Roger Corman movies because of the Poe titles (before appreciating them in their cheesy, scenery-eating glory for themselves; they don't have much to do with the Poe short stories except for the title, but that doesn't stop me from loving the hell out of the Lugosi/Karloff spectacle The Black Cat, for example). In short, I am a fan, and so I was happy another writer I love, Neil Gaiman, remembered the Poe anniversary and linked a great essay of his on the subject.
***
Two more thoughts relating to the recent Battlestar Galactica episode:
You know, sometimes my sympathy for characters simply depends on the way they're written. Lee Adama is a case in point - I like him very much from from the miniseries until Home II in the second season, have no sympathy when the poor guy made it through not one but two horrible romantic entanglement storylines from mid season 2 till late season 3, and like him again starting with Maelstrom when the show remembers that Lee/Romance is a dud while Lee/Friendship and Lee/Politics is interesting. Then there are characters I like even in badly written episodes. *eyes Gaius Baltar, Six and Laura Roslin*. And then there are characters like Bill Adama, whom I started out liking, and who actually hasn't had bad storylines but whom I still have gradually lost all sympathy for and now can't regain. The most I can manage is to feel occasionally sorry for him, and even that is rapidly disappearing. Now I could cite reasons, from his increasing tendency to see anything that goes against personal loyalty to himself as a grieveous insult (the first time this really irritated me was in Unfinished Business, in his behaviour, past and present, towards Tyrol because of the Chief's decision to settle on New Caprica) to his abandoning any kind of pretense of a democratic principle (flatly telling Zarek he won't acknowledge him as President in Sine Qua Non) to the growing way he has to make everyone's tragedy about himself (Kara seemingly dead post Maelstrom? Tigh being a Cylon? Dee killing herself? It's all because life has it in for Bill Adama). BUT. He also did and does a lot of positive things, and in theory, I could see how the crushing responsibility transforms him, and not for the better. Besides, I'm very fond of Gaius Baltar, and if there is a character who from the start of the show onwards has a tendency to see the universe revolving around himself and everything being about him, it's Gaius B. While Baltar has very occasionally done some positive things instead of screwing things up further, he never did so much day to day good as Bill Adama. So why is it that I started out the show being amused by Baltar without liking him and came to like him very much while I started out liking and admiring Adama and am now without any respect and any sympathy for the admiral? It can't just because Baltar isn't supposed to be the hero of the show, whereas Adama is; so is Lee, and with Lee my sympathy came back as soon as the decent writing for him did. One possible answer might be that if Baltar behaves selfishly, I know the narrative intends me to see him that way, whereas while I'm sure the show wants to present Adama as flawed, I'm not so sure they want me to see him as that flawed. Or it might be that Baltar's tendency to see the universe revolving around himself is expressed in scenes like the one where he and Roslin argue about how to talk to the Hybrid and Laura ignores him, which is funny, while Adama's version of this involves trying to commit suicide via best friend, never mind what that would do either to the friend or the fleet, which is galling (and involves some spectacular overacting).
Speaking of Tigh: given that we've just established Ellen is the final fifth Cylon, there is the question of how she'll return. Now, since the identities of all five were unknown to the seven (except for D'Anna), there can't have been another body waiting for her on some resurrection ship before these were destroyed anyway. Besides, all we've seen and learned so far points to the five using another method to resurrect themselves from the get-go (i.e. 2000 years ago). Now, given that Tigh, as the show itself pointed out, aged for decades, I would postulate that this involve natural growth. Which would mean Ellen literally gets reborn, not as an adult woman, but as a child. And who do we know is pregnant with a child whose very existence is somewhat mysterious? A child that came into being AFTER Ellen Tigh's death? Caprica Six. Mind you, this is messed up even by BSG standards, so I'm not sure they'll go there, but how about the irony if Ellen gets reborn as Tigh's daughter by Caprica?