Bad Firefly Review at Amazon!
POSTED BY: rklenseth
UPDATED: Thursday, November 4, 2004 18:33
VIEWED: 25109
PAGE 9 of 9
Howdy, I am the author of this evil 
Amazon review! I found this thread while googling my name and got a serious kick out of your replies. I'm dumb as a post because I didn't warm to your favorite show, hmmm? I must have only watched one episode? Actually my boyfriend has the DVD set and I watched at least half the episodes with him. Some of the posts pointed out specific episodes which were indeed among those that rubbed me the wrong way.
Indeed I am a liberal, though one reared by Texas conservatives and transplanted to Wisconsin only recently. Some people speculated or outright asserted that I must have loopy political views. No, I don't think so, I see the teachings of Jesus as radically liberal (recall the word's connotations of generosity, freedom and tolerance), but most of us will agree they aren't loopy. It was worth writing the review to have stimulated your political discussion. Calling Firefly "right wing" was vague and while I knew what I was driving at it seems not to have "read" to those who didn't include right-leaning libertarians in that category--the kind of people who value civil liberties and individualism, are suspicious of government and especially the United Nations, love their guns, and believe deeply in caring for family but typically feel a weaker commitment to their community and social justice. This was what I saw in Mal and the Firefly gang, and to me Whedon was associating that particular style of modern politics (common in the South) with the Confederate mentality. I don't think there's any arguing about the Confederate holdout theme in the Firefly premise, which I got from credible sources, for instance here: http://www.scifidimensions.com/Sep02/firefly.htm
Much of my negative reaction to the show was a disagreement with these implicit politics (which probably jump out in much higher relief for me than for most), though you could also argue that the show explores these political/social attitudes in an interesting and sometimes critical way. Incidentally I don't mean to say at all that I deplore or shun people in real life with this political style, I try to respect them and of course they can be good people. But I have a different perspective and a partly different set of ideals. Another part of my negative reaction is, as I mentioned, to the violence--I'm a nonviolent person and to me it can be disturbing to see it as a sort of amoral dramatic dimension.
Do you still want to say rude things about me? Knock yerselves out! I may or may not remember to come back to check for replies.
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Well ... I have been trying to get people to watch firefly, and you know what? Not everyone like it.
Some don't because they don't understand it. Some because they don't agree with it. And thats mighty fine. everyone have their own opinions. Same like the war in Iraq. Too many people with too many answers to questions that was never asked.
And at the end of the day, the only one that matters is the one who wins at the end. :) ... that is what the world is now. And our GDH does the same thing. When he is in a rush, he solves his problems the fastest more effective way he knows, he takes the obstacle away. Which is what he did in the pilot episode by shooting the agent. He did the same thing nisca's man by kicking the guy into the engine. Its his way. And he gets things done.
And the lady that wrote that review just had her own opinion. If she dislike it, then she is welocme to dislike as much as she wants. She is also welcomed to tell others that she did not like it. That is what we all want isn't it? The freedom to express ourselves? That's the reason why there is war in Iraq rite?
Of course I did not like the words in which she used to express herself, but it is her rite. You can say that it is our rite to express our feelings too, and you will be correct. But let me ask you this, would this change anything at all? Would our "grievances" make her change her view? Will it bring firefly back? I can only sadly say no. And frankly, I would not have it any other way.
One of the major attraction to firefly (to me) is that it is not yet finish. And it will never trully be. That gives it more room to grow and then any other show, because it has yet to be written in stone. We can let our imaginations fill it up and what a beutiful world that will be.
If joss were to start writing novels on firely, I believe that he would be surprise on how much support he will be getting.
There are much better things to do than to argue about one persons view on firefly, why make them so important? Put ur efforts on the important things. Donuts for instance are important. :)
We let people form their own opinions on things. And faith will do the rest. Have faith in firefly, she might not look like much but she will take us to our dream.
Go watch Object in Space. It would calm you down.
:) ... keep flying.
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Hey ElizD, and welcome to fireflyfans! It's not every day we have the opportunity to discuss with a true and polite disliker of our favorite show - it's a pleasure. I do hope you'll come back to check out the responses which I doubt will be unpleasant. Anyway, onto the topic. When I read your review at amazon, I indeed thought you had catched only a small sampling of the show which must have given you a wrong impression, as I think the undertones are very liberal.
Joss Whedon is, as we all know here, very liberal himself - check out his support Kerry campaign: [url] http://www.highstakes2004.com/ and especially his personal comment on the importance of elections: [url] http://whedonesque.com/?comments=5133#38839. From his artistic productions, themes like female empowerment, tolerance and gay love may also give away that this man is not right wing. So it would be strange if the implicit politics in one of his series were.
I don't think the premiss "freedom fighters against evil empire" is enough to classify the show either way. And while I enjoy a good action movie, I'm against guns - ban them from reality, but not from a good movie! While I see and acknowledge your point about Mal having similarities to some people I disagree very strongly with when it comes to politics, remember that this is sort of a period drama. It's back from the time of the Westerns when the world was expanding. Back from when it made a whole lot more sense to carry a gun. If you look closely, I think you'll see that Mal (and the show) indeed cares a lot about social justice (for instance The Trainjob).
Ok, so I've tried to make my point that in fact Firefly does not have right wing leanings - feel free to point out evidence to the contrary and let's get a good discussion going while we wait for the election results 
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... then you think to yourself 'its just TV! We should really just relax!'
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Four out of five dentists reccomend calling Ebo a girl.
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Quote:
Originally posted by rklenseth:
And might I point out that the Confederates during the American Civil War were considered Liberal while the North was considered very Conservative.
This is a very interesting thread, but unfortunately I don't hae time to write an in-depth post. I do have time to point out that this person is completely off his nut. The Confederates were deeply committed conservatives while most of the Republicans and a good chunk of gthe Democrats during this period were liberal. Abe Lincoln himself was a bit of a social democrat.
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Quote:
Originally posted by rklenseth:
And might I point out that the Confederates during the American Civil War were considered Liberal while the North was considered very Conservative.
This is a very interesting thread, but unfortunately I don't have time to write an in-depth post. I do have time to point out that this person is completely off his nut. The Confederates were deeply committed conservatives while most of the Republicans and a good chunk of the northern Democrats during this period were liberal. Abe Lincoln himself was a bit of a social democrat.
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