David, Prometheus, and the future of our android humanity

[zhai]

I came late to the work of Ridley Scott. I saw Bladerunner in college, but fell asleep during it (heresy, I know). I love the work of Philip K. Dick, and my overall love of science fiction has always been strong and has only grown over time. I classified Scott's work primarily as horror, which isn't inaccurate, but I was unaware of how magnificent

Comments

[nihilistic_kid]

Really? I hated David. I found him to be a terrible and homophobic cliche.

[zhai]

Interesting. I know you hated the movie overall, and if you didn't like David that's an excellent reason why (just considering how many people I've heard say that they disliked the movie but at least there was David/Michael Fassbender).

I worried about posting this somewhat because it's been two weeks since we saw it -- so I could have just forgotten. Do you mean that the character was homophobic, or that the way his character was drawn was homophobic? To me he radiated a darker Peter O'Toole/Lawrence, as if that character had an even bigger reason to be passive aggressively homicidal toward virtually everyone they encountered.

[nihilistic_kid]

He's drawn as a gay cliche, including his fascination with Lawrence/O'Toole.

[zhai]

Reading more about this in other posts now, including this other really interesting discussion of David, which I agree withI completely missed the gay stereotype, in part I think because I didn't realize it was required for a fastidious excellent person to be gay, and in part because the men I have known who have been like David -- all engineers, incidentally -- have been straight. Brilliant quiet dreamers with a simmering cynicism beneath a gentle exterior

[onalark]

My feelings on the movie in a nutshell.

http://scifi.icanhascheezburger.com/2012/06/14/sci-fi-fantasy-prometheus-in-a-nutshell/

[zhai]

Hahaha. Yes. You've read the m15m of it? One of my favorites, up there with her treatment of the Phantom of the Opera movie.

Though, re David, his insistence on touching everything I think was again reflective of him seriously not giving a fuck about the survival of any of the humans on board. He was convinced that 1) he was superior and invulnerable, and 2) the Engineers were actually talking to him, not the scientists.

[onalark]

Oh so, you know, people were flipping out over him touching things, but I had the same thought: he's convinced he's superior, and that he can't be hurt by what they do. The humans in the movie are really the meat of a shit sandwich: on one side the Engineers, who know they're superior, and on the other a manipulative android who thinks he is.

My problem with the movie wasn't him. It was all the other lazy writing and plot conveniences that made me want to find Lindelof and give him a stern talking-to. That .gif just struck me as hilarious, and since you focused on David, it felt like a good time to just leave this here. ;)

[onalark]

Also, that m15m is comedy gold.

[brennye]

Interesting take on the film. We saw it a few weeks ago and it was definitely a headfuck. Great Sci-Fi, thank you Ridley. But unlike yourself I grew up on Alien and Aliens [we actually preferred the second one. more comedy] so it was easy for me to fall into the world of it

[zhai]

Yes, agree with all this. :) I need to watch Bicentennial Man again.

[calico_reaction]

Oooh, how wonderful and thoughtful! Thanks for sharing this!

BTW: I visited your website a few weeks ago and I still can't subscribe via email. It makes me sad. The box is there and everything, but it won't accept me. :-/

[zhai]

Thank you! Glad you liked it!

Hmm, when did you check? I fixed it "a few weeks ago" (around the end of May, I think), and tested it -- could you try again and let me know if it works now? It was a feedburner error. :(

[calico_reaction]

It works! Woot!

[zhai]

Woohoo! Thanks for testing it out. :)

[t_rex]

Hello! It's been forever since I've been on LJ or read your journal. I've been missing LJ a lot, though, so I think I'll give a shot at trying to catch up.

It looks like it's been 9 or 10 months since you updated here, so I hope you eventually see this.

I found out a work friend of mine loves parrots, and has two African Greys. So, I thought of you, of course. I'm going to send your journal URL to her. I hope you don't mind.

And I hope you are doing very, very well!!!

Take care,
T

[zhai]

Hey T. :) Yeah, I have been mostly off of livejournal also, though I do get emails from the comments, so I saw this. :) I keep thinking about "coming back" to livejournal but then can never quite figure out how.

Do not mind at all for posts to be sent -- I think I even have a 'vasya' tag that would show her only the african grey stuff if she wants. Or the 'parrots' tag. :)

I hope you're doing well also! Are you on facebook by any chance? Not that the interactions there are typically terribly meaningful, but it is a way of keeping track of people. :)