Science Fiction Interpretations

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Subject: Science Fiction Interpretations

Posted by: brm50diboll
Date: Jan 02 17

I have debated with myself starting a Virtual Blog for months. I have so little free time nowadays that I may not be able to keep it up, but I think I'll at least try. This is intended to be wide-ranging, so it wouldn't fit in the Television, Movies, or Literature boards categories and I don't want to clog up General with just my observations but here I can rant if I choose and people can choose to ignore me or engage my flawed analysis if they wish.

469 replies. On page 15 of 24 pages. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

brm50diboll

I liked Lucy too, although the premise that we only use 10% of our brains is a commonly-believed canard. It is completely false. We use 100% of our brains. Most of our brains are associative cortex, so when that is electrically stimulated, nothing obvious seems to happen, but that doesn't mean nothing happens. We use different parts of our brains at different times. If we used 100% of our brain all at once, which does sometimes happen - well, that is called a grand mal seizure. Too much electrical activity. However, leaving aside my quibble over the premise, watching Scarlet Johansson develop increasingly stronger powers was very interesting.

A virtual blog isn't really social media. This isn't Facebook or Twitter. I do invite and enjoy discussion, but this is a *trivia site*. My primary reason for being here (and I'm just going to flat-out admit it) is to play trivia.

I do think it is a valid point that cyber communication has contributed to a coarsening of etiquette. But people behave rudely in person, as well. I always hated watching The Jerry Springer Show. I think some people get a kick out of seeing others who behave worse than they do, but I find public rudeness disgusting and will immediately turn off any show that features that. There are several causes of this, not just cyber communication, although that *is* a contributor. I think our inability as a society to enforce nonlegal sanctions such as ostracism that used to exist is the *biggest* cause for the explosion of rudeness. I disagree with the mantra "Don't judge me!". Go ahead and judge me. We need judgment. But if I disagree with you, expect me to use facts and logic in expressing that disagreement, not ad hominem attacks.

Civil discourse does *not* mean constructing "safe spaces" where people are insulated from ideas they disagree with. That is exact opposite of what a liberal education is supposed to be about. We need to hear ideas we disagree with, and we need to develop the skills to make our points civilly. Encouraging people to scream at other people in elevators and restaurants is reprehensible. There is plenty of public misbehavior around, and it is increasing, even when the cameras are not around.

I think pride was also a contributor to Tywin's hatred of Tyrion. Deep down, Tywin could not accept that a dwarf could possibly be a son of his. He tells Tyrion that "because he could not prove Tyrion was not his" he was forced to accept Tyrion as his son. As I said above, I find this argument completely irrational. But intelligent, competent people sometimes do have isolated blind spots of pure irrationality, and I think that's the case here. There is *no* logical reason to blame a baby for his mother's death in childbirth, but all the Lannisters, not just Tywin, did so. And there was zero evidence that Tyrion's mother had been unfaithful. I realize the "science" of GoT is not as advanced as ours, but even in our medieval times, it was known that dwarfism was a sporadic trait. We know in our society that dwarfism is usually the result of recessive alleles contributed from each parent, neither of whom was a dwarf. So the fact that Tyrion was a dwarf does not in any way suggest his mother was unfaithful, but Tywin just couldn't accept that he could father such a child, and his reasoning (in Freudian terms) could be considered pure projection.

We make a mistake of judging different cultures by our standards. Medieval lords were not loving, nurturing fathers. Child-raising was carried out primarily by servants. The interaction between a lord and his sons, to the extent that it occurred, was specifically designed to train the sons for their planned futures in the feudal society. First-born sons were trained to be heirs, and therefore needed to be trained in governance of the fief. Other sons were trained for specific alliances that the father had in mind for them, whether it be military training or some other specialized education the lord had planned. Lords almost never considered the desires of their sons in those matters. Everything was arranged for them. They were to submit to the will of their lord fathers. That was not just the case for Tywin Lannister, it was the way the entire society functioned. I don't blame Tywin for being a cold father. He was doing was every other lord was supposed to be doing, only better.

Reply #281. Nov 16 18, 11:26 AM

Skyflyerjen

Oh, Jaime was definitely on the “bad guy” list early on. It’s shocking how much of a softie he turned out to be, in a way.
That was well thought out about Tywin Lannister. He was a competent ruler. I agree completely about his attitude toward Tyrion; his hatred was horrible. I do think things would be completely different had Tywin not been killed. Or, going back, had been just a bit kinder to his youngest child. He definitely should have explored more into Joffrey’s death.
That makes sense, the show needing a better face for their antagonist. The good thing is, I don’t think Cersei has a chance in hell to end up on top. Hopefully, anyway.
Haha, if Westeros was ruled by hotness, Robert never would have been king. Funny. Dany has made mistakes but she’s gained experience on her way.
Arya on the throne? All hail Arya!!!

I find most books are better than movies. The Harry Potter movies were ugh mostly to me. Rare examples I could think of include Stardust and The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Reply #282. Nov 16 18, 3:52 PM

terraorca

Brian, the phrase that I like to use, is Dialectic Discussion.
To 'argue' using cogent points, with neither party losing their temper, or raising their voice.

Reply #283. Nov 16 18, 8:54 PM

brm50diboll

That is fine. I do make a distinction between raising one's voice and shouting, though. As a teacher, it is often necessary to raise one's voice, and that is also true for actors in stage performances (they like to use the phrase "project one's voice".) What happened on The Jerry Springer Show wasn't just shouting, though. It was screaming. The written equivalent of that, which I avoid, is to write in all caps, use excessive multiple exclamation points, and profanity or vulgarity. I do have a Facebook account and see that nonsense there everytime I check it. It is interesting to me that people who do that also have multiple gross misspellings of words, which is an indicator of ignorance. Everyone makes occasional spelling mistakes or typos, but cautious people care about that and try to minimize it.

Reply #284. Nov 16 18, 9:22 PM

terraorca

Back when he was a normal politician, Jerry Springer was the mayor of the city that I live near.

Reply #285. Nov 16 18, 11:44 PM

brm50diboll

A nice trivia question: Mayor of Cincinnati.

Reply #286. Nov 16 18, 11:56 PM

terraorca

Born in London, in an underground train station during WWII bombings of same.

Reply #287. Nov 17 18, 12:15 AM

terraorca

Back when I drank, alcohol, we would go to the same bar. We weren't friends, but I knew him and he knew me.

Reply #288. Nov 17 18, 12:17 AM

terraorca

Sorry, off the thread topic.

Reply #289. Nov 17 18, 12:19 AM

brm50diboll

I don't believe I ever knew anyone famous. I did see President George HW Bush once (from a distance). It was December 31, 1989 and he was visiting the Brooke Army Medical Center at Ft Sam Houston, TX (San Antonio), where casualties from the Panama Invasion (to get Manuel Noreiga) were evac'd to. There was so much Secret Service security I couldn't even get on the same floor as the President even though I was stationed there at the time. But as he was leaving, he got in a limo in the quad behind the hospital and we were all looking out the windows when he waved at everyone who was watching.

Reply #290. Nov 17 18, 12:28 AM

terraorca

Pete Rose sponsored a Touch Football Team that I played on. He used to take the entire team out for drinks and food after the games.
His bodyguard was a friend of mine, that's how I was introduced to Pete. He treated us like we were his equals.

Reply #291. Nov 17 18, 2:08 AM

MCMiller1987

Hi Brian , how is my oldest brother doing? We are about to chow on some Thansgiving grub!

Reply #292. Nov 18 18, 4:44 PM

brm50diboll

That's Thanksgiving, Carolyn. We're two feet away from each other. Happy Thanksgiving!

Reply #293. Nov 18 18, 4:45 PM

brm50diboll

Jacob Marley and the Maesters of Westeros

As we are into the Christmas season, I have been thinking about Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol and how it connects with a few other stray thoughts that rattle through my mind in the dark month of the year (December, for us Northern Hemisphere residents - as the Winter Solstice is tomorrow.) Jacob Marley, the first of four ghosts to visit Ebenezer Scrooge, had been Scrooge's partner until he had died seven years prior to the events of the book. Marley appeared to Scrooge bound in chains of his own forging, lockboxes and ledgers and all related to Marley's singular obsession in his life: the acquisition of money, which was the same obsession Scrooge had, only worse. Marley observed that Scrooge's chains had been as long as his when he had died seven years earlier, but that Scrooge had labored on his own chain since, and so it was much longer.

There is a concept in economics called opportunity cost, what you lose in potential gain when you elect to do something else with your time. But the concept is broader than just economics, as it applies to more than just money. Dickens, of course, was deeply critical of the failings of Victorian society (as he had come from the "wrong side" of that society in his youth) and so his criticism of the evil of avarice is very direct, but, in fact, every choice we make to do one thing represents a lost opportunity to do something else, and money isn't the only thing people can be obsessed over. Scrooge, in his time with the Ghost of Christmas Past, laments the loss of his one opportunity at love, a decision he made for financial reasons. But similar such choices can be made for entirely different reasons. It isn't really as stark as "worshipping false idols". Time can slip away from you and opportunities can be lost that can never be regained for even admirable, selfless reasons. And in the darkness of the nights, the more melancholy of us may reflect on those lost opportunities.

In George RR Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire, which has been converted into the HBO show Game of Thrones, he creates an alternate world similar in many ways to our own medieval period, but with a great deal of magic. The scholars (and physicians) of his works were known as maesters. Maesters studied at what is essentially the only University in Westeros, the Citadel, in Old Town in the Reach. Each discipline that they mastered was represented by a link in a chain they wore of a different metal, some 16 different identified metals representing different academic disciplines. Why chains? They represented a lifetime of service. Like other orders, the Night's Watch and the Kingsguard, the Maesters took oaths of celibacy, forswearing property and titles, and service. The chains *they forged* represented their service. Undoubtedly, the Maesters were modeled after medieval monks, who in the depths of the European Dark Ages were among the last defenders of ancient learning. Modern academics, of course, are nothing like medieval monks. But still there is something lost in devoting years of prime youth to the study of things many people would consider arcane and even useless.

The world is full of people so overtaken with the Dunning Kruger Effect that they are completely unaware of the value of real expertise. It isn't a matter of motivation or attitude, no, it's actually a matter of what you know. The most self confident people in the world are affluent American teenagers, who know next to nothing, and most importantly, do not know that they do not know things (a very useful thing to know, actually.) Mark Twain once said that when he was 14 he thought his father was the stupidest man on Earth, but when he was 21, he was amazed at how much the old man had learned in seven short years. Our educational system here in America may be failing at many things, but lack of self-esteem is definitely not one of them. We are #1 in the world at that. USA! USA! USA!

The maesters were assigned to castles in Westeros to serve the resident lords without becoming involved in their political struggles. Like many of their other vows, this was also often broken in practice. The lords might not have appreciated the maesters' expertise at times and frequently disregarded it, but having a resident maester was a status symbol for a castle in Westeros, so full-on anti-intellectual know-nothingism was not en vogue, unlike, say, Facebook or Twitter.

Years of devotion to studies corresponding to each individual link in the chain had a cost. Game of Thrones notes that Aemon Targaryen gave up the opportunity to become king to become a maester. Some people, perhaps out of introversion, perhaps out of disgust with hypocrisy, choose to pursue a quiet intellectual life rather than enter the public domain, especially with leadership. These are the chains they make for themselves.

If Charles Dickens had written about athletics, perhaps the chains Marley wore would have included tape, starters' guns, sneakers, and helmets. Ultimately everyone becomes bound in some way by the things they repeatedly choose to do with their time, for whatever reasons, good or bad.

Think about all the badges and minibadges in your profile sometime.

Clink, clank, clink, clank. Oooooooooooooooh!

Reply #294. Dec 21 18, 12:15 AM

terraorca

But hopefully, we learn some valuable things along the way, so that wisdom is not wasted on those with some gray in their hair.

Reply #295. Dec 21 18, 5:09 PM

terraorca

I read the first two of the Ice and Fire books, he tells a great story, but goodness, he's wordy.

Reply #296. Dec 21 18, 5:11 PM

brm50diboll

I read pieces of the first two books, skimming mostly. I'm actually only through season 5 of GoT, so have two more seasons to catch up on before the final season starts in April. I've heard in the next couple of seasons the writing really goes downhill. Oh, well. I'm in too far to quit now. The most obvious difference I've seen between the books and the show (besides having more characters and a more convoluted plot) is that each chapter tells the story from the point of view of one particular character so reading the books gives you a more in-depth view of the various central characters' reasoning and motivations.

Reply #297. Dec 21 18, 7:14 PM

Blackdresss

Brian, I found and read an article about GRRM and how he's being slowly phased out of GOT, and he's not too happy about it. I'll see if I can find it again and let you read it. He's SO mad, in fact, he's going to show them! He's going to FINISH THE DAMN BOOK HE PROMISED US OVER 10 YEARS AGO! I'll believe it when I see it.

Reply #298. Dec 26 18, 10:28 PM

brm50diboll

They got tired of GRRM's contribution to the show because he wanted to include too much material, which would've made the show run longer than eight seasons. The fans would probably be fine with that, but the show runners wanted to wrap it up because they have other plans, but they didn't want to be replaced by new showrunners. So they condensed down the plot as much as they felt they could get away with so they could end the series this year while still in control, then go on to something else with GoT in their resume. They also are bigger on CGI and not so much on character development as GRRM. But they've fallen into a lot of lazy tropes. I don't blame Martin at all for any of this. He's still listed as an executive producer even if they don't listen much to him, which means he still gets paid and gets a share of HBO's profits and gets to go to all the ComiCons and so forth to pontificate about GoT as if he were deeply involved in what will be going on in the last season. He enjoys the attention. Writing is more of a boring slog. But I do think he will finish Winds of Winter. He knows there is a loyal and distinct fandom for his books as opposed to the show (two groups which overlap, but are not the same) and he doesn't want to completely upset his book fans, especially as he agrees with them that the writing in the books is far superior to what is in the show, especially in the later seasons (or so I've heard - I actually haven't seen seasons 6 and 7 yet, but the TV version of the Dorne plotline in season 5 was pretty cartoonish to me.)

Reply #299. Dec 27 18, 12:39 AM

Blackdresss

He's already upset every last one of his "book fans" when he lied to all of us and left us hanging in the lurch. You haven't read them all, remember? The rest of us are 5,000+ pages into them, and he deserted us like so many rats. And my copies are like tiny little bibles, with paper so thin you can see through them. I'm getting a headache just thinking about reading those after a long, hard day of packing.

He gets to go to all the Comic Cons? Because when you're 398 years old, THAT'S the highlight of your day, week, month and year?

Brian, do you wear long-sleeve t-shirts under your short-sleeve t-shirts and say "BAZINGA!" a lot?

Reply #300. Dec 27 18, 2:31 AM

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