Monday various

  • Did President Obama ruin Battlestar Galactica? [via]

    This smart scifi allegory about US politics may lose its edge now. For example, the new anti-cylon racism plot already feels like a rehash of stale liberal siege mentality – and stale BSG plots. Zarek and Gaeta’s mutiny plot feels like something written for the Bush Era, a cautionary tale of what happens when xenophobia creeps into national policy. But President Obama has turned these kinds of cautionary tales into the stuff of campaign speeches. BSG no longer feels like a healthy dose of social criticism. Instead it’s in lockstep with the party line espoused by one of the world’s most powerful leaders.

    While I think the problems with the show run a lot deeper than that — at least as far back as the decision to turn everything into a Cylon guessing game — there is some truth to this idea. The times (to co-opt another Dylan tune), they are a’changing. That’s a risk with popular culture that rides the zeitgeist: eventually the tide turns and the zeitgeist changes. It’s hard not to look like you’ve overstayed your welcome once that happens, hard not to look like the remnant of an era everybody else is trying to forget. Is it possible, then, that Battlestar only seemed like a great show because it reflected the times we were living in?

    I wonder, will the colonies of the upcoming Caprica prequel be more Obama-like? I’m not sure I care enough to find out.

  • Primitive whales gave birth on land: “They certainly weren’t walking….They were more like sea lions, which can move more than you would think from their morphology.” [via]
  • Mary Robinette Kowal on Middle Earth’s Civil Rights Movement. [via]
  • Seriously, someone needs to get Maureen F. McHugh to write a book about food.
  • And finally, your WTF moment of the day: Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is going to be on Dancing with the Stars.

One thought on “Monday various

Comments are closed.